Taking place this Wednesday, April 2, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Asia Privacy Forum 2014 will bring together privacy professionals from throughout the region for a day of expert speakers, intensive education, and exclusive networking opportunities in Singapore. AvePoint is the proud Executive Sponsor of this year’s event. If you’re there, be sure to see us to connect with our experts, get your collaboration questions answered, and learn about our latest data privacy compliance solutions.
At 4pm, AvePoint Senior Vice President of Risk Management and Compliance Dana Simberkoff will lead a session entitled “Technology for the Privacy Pro”. We asked her a few questions in order to find out more about what she has in store for the session as well as her insights on the privacy community in Asia. You can read the interview below:
What are some of the challenges Asian organizations are facing around data privacy today?
Dana Simberkoff: With privacy breaches and security threats making the nightly news around the world, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to most enterprise organizations that personal information and the sensitive data that their companies hold is extremely valuable currency. Under the Asia-Pacific (APAC) privacy frameworks, it’s important for organizations to not only protect sensitive and private data, but also to be able to prove that they have processes and programs in place to enforce and demonstrate adequate protections.
Why is it important that IT and privacy teams be able to work together to solve these challenges?
DS: Traditionally there has been a perception (fair or not) that privacy is where “IT goes to die” and that Security “leads with no.” Whether deserved or not, this is not an effective way to build a collaborative team. Instead, it’s important for security and privacy officers as well as general counsel to take the steps we’ve discussed above to become “partners” with their IT and business colleagues internally to gain key executive sponsorship and cooperation with their lines of business.
What is your session at the IAPP Privacy Forum about?
DS: My session at the summit is a joint presentation Ms. Valerie Tan – Director Internet Policy, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Operations Pte. Ltd. – with practical suggestions for privacy. Together we will be talking about the importance for Compliance officers, focused on privacy, security, and regulatory compliance to create a cooperative and interactive framework with their counterparts in IT and the business. By implementing a standardized and repeatable process with your colleagues in IT and the business to come to you as a project “begins” rather than when it is waiting for your sign off to go “live” you will be able to help provide advice, guidance, and review at every step of the process. We will explain how you can use automation to allow your colleagues to request a privacy impact assessment of the systems they are planning to build and deploy so that you can provide them with a reasonable estimate and timeline. Your involvement early on will save them from having to make last minute design changes or decisions with the clock to launch ticking.
What is one takeaway you want attendees of your presentation to leave with?
DS: Our session will also introduce a new technology resource just recently introduced by AvePoint and IAPP: AvePoint Privacy Impact Assessment (APIA). APIA will provide full support for the checklist guidance provided by the Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission. We hope it will be well received as a free resource for the privacy community in Asia.
Aside from your presentation, what is one thing you look forward to most at this year’s event?
DS: I look forward to the opportunity to network with our colleagues in the privacy space in Singapore and around the world. These types of professional gatherings provide a great opportunity for compliance teams to learn from each other, discuss best practices, and share effective global strategies to help further our mutual goals. I am also looking forward to the sensational hospitality of Singapore, which is a lovely city and has very nice weather for me, coming from snow covered New Hampshire in the North East of the United States!
We hope to see you in Singapore this week! For more information on the event, be sure to visit the IAPP website.
