Data privacy governance
It might mean more work in the early stages before truly immersing yourself in the data economy, but establishing proper governance can support data privacy compliance – meaning you can rest easy knowing your sensitive materials are well protected.
How the Privacy Act plays into governance
When it comes to data privacy governance, you have to look beyond the typical definition of what ‘governance’ involves. Indeed, you need to look further than just what ‘data privacy’ means in its most basic sense – that is, companies usually have their own guidelines around how to store and secure sensitive data.
This is because data privacy governance needs to factor in additional regulations – policies that go far beyond simplistic privacy rules created by an organization. In Australia, the Privacy Act plays into data governance by outlining how information must be handled by both enterprises and individuals. Those policies are legally binding for all businesses within Australia and can be punishable by prosecution and subsequent fines if breached.
On the other side of the world, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) acts in a very similar way by overseeing – and outlining a number of policies about – how data privacy must be protected. And despite what may appear to be an EU-specific policy on the surface, the regulations don’t just oversee companies within the European Union. Instead, its regulations must be followed by any business that have a connection (e.g. clients) to the EU.
Data privacy laws
Solid data privacy governance, such as what’s provided by Data Republic’s platform for data sharing, is built on solid data privacy laws. And while it might seem like Chief Data Officers are constantly jumping through hoops trying to abide by multiple regulations (such as an Australian company with German clients having to be across both the Privacy Act and GDPR), these laws are designed to protect the organization as much as the individual or company through which the data was obtained.
In order to ensure your entire business understands the implications of data privacy laws – and the steps that must be taken to maintain their integrity – it’s recommended that both legal and data experts work together to build out a comprehensive ‘data playbook’ that explains in layman’s terms how data can and can’t be handled. Consider it your privacy management framework.
Privacy management framework
A privacy management framework is essentially an operational guide that offers practical steps and tips about remaining compliant with relevant privacy laws and regulations around the world (e.g. the GDPR and Privacy Act).
In it, you’ll want to ensure the standardized framework details elements like an accountability framework, compliance with the relevant data protection principles, as well as any management systems and key individuals.
The most important factor in ongoing data privacy governance is to keep all parties informed and aware of their responsibilities when collecting, storing, sharing and analyzing sensitive data.