I recently attended and spoke at the inaugural Piccaso Data Privacy awards celebrating the contribution of businessers and organisations innovating in data privacy .
Piccaso is an acronym (Privacy, InfoSec, Culture, Change , Awareness, Societal Organisation) for an organisation which aims to harness “the knowledge and experience of experts both from the privacy, data protection, and information security domains to inspire, challenge, and educate our community to elevate the practice of privacy and data protection maturity within their firms and sectors.”
This is what I said.
I’m delighted to have been asked to make a few remarks at this evening’s terrific inaugural Piccasso event… and it’s a privilege to follow the avatar of John Edwards the Information Commissioner, especially his sales pitch for the ICO! It is a great example of his positive approach to regulation which we know needs to be principled, proportionate and communicative.
Continuing the wise approach of his predecessor, Elizabeth Denham who I am delighted to see is one of our judges.
We of course have new data protection legislation coming down the track which may or may not prove positive, which we are going to have to grapple with inside and outside Parliament fairly soon
I hope that whatever changes are made to the GDPR its broad approach will continue, and any changes to the GDPR structure and oversight of the regulator, mean we not only remain data adequate for EU purposes but keep public trust in the use and sharing of their data in the UK!
And the need for public trust in the use and sharing of our data and the preservation of individual privacy is crucial if we are to get the full benefit of the adoption of new technologies such as AI and Machine learning. We have seen how when trust fails, such as with the poorly handled GP data saga last year, when over three million NHS patients opted out of sharing their health data.
This is a unique and very special event gathering together the full width of community, public and private and third sector, who really get this and each of whom is supporting privacy compliant innovation, by developing privacy enabling solutions, ensuring organisations use their data in a privacy by design and trusted way, and enabling individuals to exercise their privacy rights.
The 15 award categories tonight and those people and organisations nominated give a real sense of the breadth of the skills and talent present – all of you focussed on making our organisations, economy and society a trusted and safe place to live and operate.
Tonight’s event is a celebration of your incredible contributions, which are all too often overlooked and under-appreciated.
Given that a culture of privacy protection is not always the rule, I want us to commend and celebrate the good work that is being done by so many in this room tonight – including those engaged in thought leadership, testing and setting boundaries and devising creative policy approaches which address new developments such as blockchain, Web 3.0 and the Metaverse.
You all know, live with and understand the importance of data protection and privacy, and your leadership is helping to enable a safer future, and one where innovation is encouraged.
So whether you win or not tonight, thank you – and congratulations for playing a really important role in a privacy protecting future!
