Last week, the first of many sweeping data privacy laws went into effect in Europe: The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. If you’ve ever traveled abroad or given your email address to a company that does business in Europe, you’re likely to be peripherally familiar with the legislation that has far-reaching implications globally and regulates what types of identifying data that companies can keep about you. Without going in to detail, (a reasonable read on the subject is found at https://tinyurl.com/ycw8ec3z among others,) people must explicitly renew and opt-in to continue to receive emails from corporations and services. Companies have spent hundreds and thousands of hours pulling together new policies about how they store and keep data about customers/subscribers.
Individuals under GDPR can also ask to “Be Forgotten” – to which corporations must remove ALL DATA EVER STORED ABOUT AN INDIVIDUAL (including previous names, email addresses, and other data.) GDPR will change how the world at large views and saves personal data, and, that’s a good thing.
This falls on the heels of the latest issues with Facebook and Data Privacy Breaches where Mark Zuckerberg faced the US Congress, and later revised their privacy practices (which, hopefully will cause other social media sites to also change.)
With the rise of identity theft and other wrongdoing based on negligent (and sometimes fraudulent) handling of personal data, these new requirements are good provisions. Corporations and their officers should be safeguarding the data they collect at our expense or face financial penalties for non-compliance. It’s going to be interesting to watch in the coming months as lawsuits start to amass… just speculating.
Sidenote: On a related topic, the regulations don’t help to allay the fear about what ‘Big Brother’ (government and corporations) do with the video and audio they collect on me (and everyone else) as we go about our everyday lives.
Am I the only one who finds it a little too intrusive when Google asks me “Have you recently been to Starbucks on xxx St ?” and then asks me to rate the experience to help out other visitors? (Note to self: turn off the Location setting on my cell phone.)
is keeping in touch out of vogue – can we reconnect?
Personally, I think it is disconcerting to see how disconnected we truly are today — despite the seemingly increased digital connectivity of social (and other) media.
Over the past 30 years as a consultant and speaker, I’ve met tens of thousands of people whose email addresses are scattered across various pieces of hardware (some long obsolete!) I have so many fond memories of people I’ve met and places I’ve traveled; the stories and snippets of life we’ve shared (part of what makes conferences and consulting so worthwhile!)
I wonder about the people I’ve met and lost touch with (maybe even you!) and regardless of whether we shared a moment or a month, there was a connection. I recall warm handshakes at the end of a presentation, smiles and shared conversations over coffee and dinners, solving problems with strangers (with corporate challenges,) and, of course, the goodbyes at the end of a class or a contract. (Yes, I love my work!)
Every email address in my databases equals at least one human being with whom I’ve crossed paths with, and most likely lost touch. I wonder about your news and your kids and your experiences since we last met (or correspondence or chatted) – and, if you’re interested, I’d love to reconnect.
I’ll go first (to give an update): I’m still actively presenting new ideas about measurement, agile, and leadership at conferences, still consulting and teaching workshops on function points (the square foot measure of software size) in new environments (especially agile!), as well as developing new courses to enrich corporate health through leadership, project management and metrics. I’m passionate about cultural diversity (Hofstede and Trompenaars), the Heart of Agile (thank you Allistair Cockburn!), EI (emotional intelligence) and transforming our workplaces/workforces to be inclusive of people, technology, and fresh ideas.
I’m still the same energetic, optimistic, curious female engineer and consultant you met somewhere on some occasion, and as with every consultant, I’m always open to new / renewed client engagements where I can help you to streamline your operations (with great leadership and Project Management initiatives) and add measurement to demonstrate your department’s value! (I hope you’re okay with this shameless plug, I am taking on new clients at this time. Call or email me…)
Forget me….
On the opposite side, the Forget Me concept is interesting… considering the high percentage of flawed and incorrect data stored about all of us. (Case in point – have you ever done a vanity search of your name in Google and found your name associated with the current address of exes and family members at locations where you’ve never lived? Or done a public records search where identity results show records of invalid and incorrect data? Data are gathered from disparate and diverse public and private databases – with little data validation.) I wonder how corporations will actually be able to guarantee data removal when so much of the stored information is flawed.
Compounding the situation are purposely errant data (mis-entered by applicants who mistype their email address or falsify identifying information to avoid later spam, when registering on a site) – I’m curious how companies will be able to make sure that all data are removed on request. “Forget me” – what an interesting concept in a world that wants to be appropriately connected.
It’s probably time for a full EMAIL dataBASE refresh
I read a perspective piece in this past Sunday’s Tampa Bay Times newspaper “One man is updating his own privacy policy” by Konstantin Kakaes – it was an interesting article that opened with
“Dear everybody who has sent me an email since April 23, 2004, the day I got a Gmail account…”
The three column, half page piece addressed every type of email communication (from family to friends to generic spam to subscriptions to group lists,) 13 different groups in all, and outlined how he plans (tongue-in-cheek) to use the various pieces of data he’s retained on his various laptop incarnations and storage devices. An interesting approach to cleaning out (or at least contacting) everyone in his email database.
P.s., watch this space for news about an exciting Powerful Presentations and Corporate Engagement workshop (I’m developing it now) – set to launch in the autumn of 2018. Interested in knowing more (we’re targeting Sept in Napa Valley, CA!) – drop me a quick note!
Blogging is the ultimate “broken telephone” so, if you’ve read this far, do me a favor and shoot me a quick email (dekkers@qualityplustech.com) or drop a comment and let me know that you’re out there…
p.s. Is anyone there? Did this post resonate with you? Was it too long/just right/boring/fun? LMK (Let me know…)