The Privacy Advisor Podcast

Jan. 15, Washington State Legislature's Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee held its first public hearing on a reintroduced version of the Washington Privacy Act. Those who've been following developments on the state's privacy legislation will recall that last year, despite gaining some significant momentum, the bill failed. The new version of the bill has gained praise from many privacy advocates, and lawmakers in Washington have said the bill has significant bi-partisan support. But Jevan Hutson and Jennifer Lee, who both testified at Wednesday's hearing, have concerns that the bill fails to protect consumers in a number of ways. In this episode of the podcast, Hutson and Lee discuss what happened at the hearing and why they're not convinced this bill represents comprehensive privacy reform. Full Story

Anyone who's been in the privacy game for a minute will likely tell you 2019 was one of the most exciting — and stressful — years on the books. Regulatory and enforcement action, the mad dash to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act and continuing efforts to operationalize GDPR-compliant programs were just a fraction of the news privacy professionals had to track this year in order to do their jobs well. The good news? That made for plenty of fodder for The Privacy Advisor Podcast. In this last episode of the 2019 season, five of the year's best-rated guests, according to you, talk about the pitfalls of 2019 and — more importantly — the essential developments they're tracking as 2020 approaches.

Last week, on the keynote stage at the IAPP's Data Protection Congress, data protection authorities from three different countries took the stage to address a sold-out crowd of privacy professionals eager to hear straight from the proverbial horses mouths' what to expect from the leaders charged with enforcing Europe's sweeping data privacy law. When are the fines finally coming? Is the GDPR even working at all? And what kinds of emerging technologies and data uses scare the regulators most given the risk of misuse? In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, the Future of Privacy Forum's Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, who moderated the on-stage discussion, talks to host Angelique Carson about what the regulators had to say. 

In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Angelique Carson chcats with Robert Robbert van Eijk, who's recently joined the Future of Privacy Forum as its managing director for Europe. Prior to serving in this position, Eijk worked at the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) for nearly 10 years and has since become an authority in the field of online privacy and data protection. He represented the Dutch DPA in international meetings and as a technical expert in court, and he also represented the European Data Protection Authorities in negotiations of the World Wide Web Consortium on Do Not Track. Van Eijk discusses the future of online advertising and what it’s like working within the walls of a data protection authority.

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 chats with Brussels-based Politico journalist Laura Kayali on the ePrivacy Regulation, covering the Max Schrems hearing and emerging EU trends in facial recognition. 

There are so many privacy headlines in the U.S. right now that it almost seems to overshadow developments in the EU. While the privacy profession was, for years, seemingly laser-focused on the General Data Protection Regulation -- deservedly -- the California Consumer Protection Act set a firestorm in 2017 and then later in 2018 when it was passed. But that doesn't mean things are quiet in the EU. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Angelique Carson chats with FieldFisher's Phil Lee, CIPP/E, about everything from the future of cross-border data transfers to that yet-to-be-passed ePrivacy Regulation. 

At the IAPP's Privacy. Security. Risk. conference, it would be hard to argue that the California Consumer Privacy Act wasn't the general topic of conversation everywhere from the keynote stage to breakout sessions to happy hour. From a dressing room offstage at The Cosmopolitan Hotel's Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, sat down with Tanya Forsheit of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz to talk about the latest. Forsheit counsels all sorts of companies, big and small and in-between, to help them comply with CCPA. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Forsheit talks about industry's perspective on the latest CCPA amendments, the most difficult part of compliance to date and what she thinks about the bombshell Alastair Mactaggart dropped during this week's conference that he's introducing a CCPA 2.0. 

A surefire way to take the social temperature of a time period is to sample its art. For those who’ve been working in privacy for some time, it’s perhaps slightly surreal to now see aspects of the profession reflected in popular culture. In October, “The Right to Be Forgotten,” by playwright Sharyn Rothstein, will debut at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. It follows the story of a 17-year-old boy seeking to have his past misdeeds forgotten online and the obstacles he faces in doing that. Host Angelique Carson recently got a preview of the play and afterward interviewed director Seema Sueko in this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast.

Friday, Sept 6, was the final day for any amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act to be introduced, per California Assembly rules. Lawmakers have since voted on those amendments and we now know what the final version of the CCPA looks like, subject to the signature of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Mary Stone Ross, who worked alongside Alastair Mactaggart to craft what we now know as the CCPA, discusses the last amendments to be introduced to the law before the California legislature adjourns today, Sept. 13. 

This week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced its settlement with Google and its subsidiary YouTube as a historic moment and a "game changer" for enforcement under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Google will pay $170 million and YouTube must implement various changes to the way it manages content creators on its site and the way they treat content geared toward children. It's the largest COPPA settlement ever obtained, but there's been criticism, including from FTC commissioners themselves. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Linnette Attai discusses COPPA enforcement to date and whether this settlement is in fact, as the FTC has touted, a "game changer."