While the relentless current of privacy news this year might have felt difficult to keep up with at times, it certainly made for great water-cooler fodder. In 2019, The Privacy Advisor Podcast's community of listeners grew exponentially, no doubt thanks to the increasing complexity of what it means to be a privacy professional in a time of massive change. In this year-end roundup, we recap the top 10 podcasts of the year according to number of listens. Catch the ones you missed!
100th episode special edition
Almost four years ago, journalist Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, was directed by her boss to start something called a podcast that could help serve the IAPP membership, allowing them in-depth insights from their peers on how to thrive in the privacy profession and detailed looks at some of the industry's most important news. Since then, The Privacy Advisor Podcast has grown by the thousands in downloads and listeners. To celebrate, in this fun-loving, 100th-episode special anniversary edition, Jay Edelson, a plaintiff's attorney and founder of law firm Edelson, gave listeners some insight to the woman behind the microphone, grilling Carson on how she approaches interviews on the podcast, the massive shift in the privacy landscape since she started reporting in the space, and why she's so darn out-of-the-loop on pop culture.
What's the status of that federal privacy bill?
It's clear at this point that the momentum has shifted in favor of a federal privacy bill in the U.S. The questions are: What will that bill look like, who will sponsor something both the tech community and advocates can live with, and will it actually happen this year? In this episode, Joseph Jerome, CIPP/US, formerly of the Center for Democracy and Technology (at the time of this recording) but now at Common Sense Media, discussed the difficulties inherent in trying to pass a bill that pleases everybody — or at least one that the disparate and myriad stakeholders can live with.
The CCPA in its final form
In September, the final amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act were introduced, lawmakers voted, and we finally knew what the final version of the CCPA would like like. In this episode, Mary Stone Ross, who worked alongside Alastair Mactaggart to craft what we now know as the CCPA, discussed the last amendments to be introduced to the law before the California Legislature adjourned.
Dispatch from London on Brexit
Those of us following the saga that is Brexit remain anxious over how the problem will be resolved. At the time this podcast was recorded, and still today, there's no deal as to how the U.K. will exit the EU. For privacy professionals, it's an important issue, because if the U.K. does leave and a "hard Brexit" is agreed upon, the U.K. will no longer enjoy the free flow of data with the EU and others. In this episode of the podcast, Hogan Lovells' Eduardo Ustaran, CIPP/E, had some insights on what his clients are doing in the face of uncertainty.
GDPR year one was unprecedented
In this special edition episode, two of the people completely immersed in EU General Data Protection Regulation compliance discussed the last year of their lives. Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon described the first year the GDPR was enforced as “a washing machine stuck on the spin cycle; it’s been an incredible year of change for us as a data protection authority.” And Hogan Lovells’ Eduardo Ustaran, CIPP/E, called the year “unprecedented.” The two talked about the ongoing struggles as companies and regulators sort things out and opined as to whether individuals are genuinely better off as a result of the regulation.
A recap on Congress’ hearings
On Capitol Hill earlier this year, Congress held back-to-back hearings on a potential U.S. privacy bill. The aim was to gain insights from expert witnesses on what such a bill should contain. At the first hearing, at the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, industry and advocates debated how prescriptive a federal law should be. At the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing, lawmakers asked witnesses whether a U.S. law should model itself on the EU General Data Protection Regulation or perhaps the California Consumer Privacy Act. While industry didn't like that idea, witnesses did agree that the CCPA should be the floor upon which a federal law is built. In this episode, Joe Jerome, CIPP/US, and host Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, recapped the highlights from the hearings.
Debrief on ePrivacy Regulation
It wasn't long ago that the number of journalists covering the privacy and data protection beat was very small. Most mainstream newspapers didn't have a journalist dedicated to what were once considered very niche topics. Now, every major newspaper has one or more journalists dedicated to the onslaught of daily news made by tech companies' missteps or the policymakers reacting to them. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, chatted with Brussels-based Politico journalist Laura Kayali on the ePrivacy Regulation, covering the Max Schrems hearing and emerging EU trends in facial recognition.
Santa Clara County’s CPO on building a privacy program from the ground up
In this episode, Michael Shapiro, CIPP/G, CIPP/US, chief privacy officer of Santa Clara County, talked about whether he thinks this is the year for a federal privacy bill, nudged perhaps by the California Consumer Privacy Act. He also discussed building a privacy program from the ground up for an entire county, one that comprises so many different government entities (hospitals, police departments, social services) and with them so many laws and regulations with which to comply. Then, there's the tension between, as a public servant, spending your time on compliance efforts and delegating some time to data use for the public good.
NZ Privacy Commissioner calls for post-terrorism reforms
In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner John Edwards discussed the privacy landscape in New Zealand and ongoing updates to the country's privacy law of 1993. The regulator is unique in that he does not have fining powers, but he said that's working just fine and explained why. Edwards also discussed what he calls necessary reforms to the way social media platforms respond to modern-day terrorist attacks. Specifically, he's frustrated with Facebook's response to the recent attacks on two of the country's mosques, after the terrorist livestreamed the act and the company took nearly 30 minutes to remove it. "If you have a technology that has the ability to broadcast to the entire world, people in their most vulnerable and terrified and afraid and frail ... then that is, of course, a privacy issue," Edwards said.
A look at privacy in Mexico and Brazil
While it's true privacy and data protection laws are undergoing shifts in many parts of the world, this is especially true for Latin America, where there is no shortage of legislative action. Brazil approved its general data protection law last year, and it will come into effect in early 2020. Just as the U.S. is seeing with the California Consumer Privacy Act, Brazil's law is now being amended in all kinds of ways ahead of implementation. Amendments to the LGPD, the acronym used for its formal name in Portuguese, will also establish a new and independent national data protection authority, and those approvals are expected to reach the country's Senate within weeks. This episode featured IAPP Managing Director for Latin America Rosa Franco Velázquez, CIPP/US, based in Mexico and Dino Santa Rosa of Brazil, who discussed the legal landscape in both Mexico and Brazil and what that means for the privacy profession in each jurisdiction.
Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash
