Data Privacy Detective | Episode 21

Most coverage about GDPR is about titanic battles of tech giants whose business models are based on monetizing customer data. My spyglass turns to a different subject: How did SMEs in the United States deal with GDPR? The clear majority of them do not sell personal data of Europeans, but instead collect and use it for ordinary business purposes, such as marketing goods and services, employing personnel, collecting payment and other processing that has nothing to do with surreptitious use of such personal information beyond the obvious.

If you have ideas for more interviews or stories, please email info@thedataprivacydetective.com.

Show Notes

How did U.S. businesses deal with the launch of GDPR? And what’s its immediate impact on how U.S. businesses address personal information they have? The Data Privacy Detective turns the magnifying glass to this question, focusing on small and mid-sized (SME) U.S. businesses that hold personal data of Europeans. Most coverage about GDPR is about titanic battles of tech giants whose business models are based on monetizing customer data. My spyglass turns to a different subject: How did SMEs in the United States deal with GDPR? The clear majority of them do not sell personal data of Europeans, but instead collect and use it for ordinary business purposes, such as marketing goods and services, employing personnel, collecting payment and other processing that has nothing to do with surreptitious use of such personal information beyond the obvious. If you have ideas for more interviews or stories, please email info@thedataprivacydetective.com.

What is Data Privacy Detective?

The internet in its blooming evolution makes personal data big business – for government, the private sector and denizens of the dark alike. The Data Privacy Detective explores how governments balance the interests of personal privacy with competing needs for public security, public health and other communal goods. It scans the globe for champions, villains, protectors and invaders of personal privacy and for the tools and technology used by individuals, business and government in the great competition between personal privacy and societal good order.

We’ll discuss how to guard our privacy by safeguarding the personal data we want to protect. We’ll aim to limit the access others can gain to your sensitive personal data while enjoying the convenience and power of smartphones, Facebook, Google, EBay, PayPal and thousands of devices and sites. We’ll explore how sinister forces seek to penetrate defenses to access data you don’t want them to have. We’ll discover how companies providing us services and devices collect, use and try to exploit or safeguard our personal data.

And we’ll keep up to date on how governments regulate personal data, including how they themselves create, use and disclose it in an effort to advance public goals in ways that vary dramatically from country to country. For the public good and personal privacy can be at odds. On one hand, governments try to deter terrorist incidents, theft, fraud and other criminal activity by accessing personal data, by collecting and analyzing health data to prevent and control disease and in other ways most people readily accept. On the other hand, many governments view personal privacy as a fundamental human right, with government as guardian of each citizen’s right to privacy. How authorities regulate data privacy is an ongoing balance of public and individual interests. We’ll report statutes, regulations, international agreements and court decisions that determine the balance in favor of one or more of the competing interests. And we’ll explore innovative efforts to transcend government control through blockchain and other technology.

If you have ideas for interviews or stories, please email info@thedataprivacydetective.com.