SXSW

As we previously reported, Covington was selected from thousands of applicants to host a Privacy by Design bootcamp and workshop during last week’s South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive festival, which featured five days of compelling presentations and panels from industry leaders in emerging technology.  SXSW designs workshops in particular to provide in-depth, hands-on education taught by innovative leaders.  To close out our coverage of SXSW, below is a workshop recap for those who couldn’t make it to Austin this year.

OVERVIEW

With the premise that businesses are eager to build privacy considerations into all phases of their activities in this new era of “big data,” our Privacy By Design Bootcamp provided a step-by-step guide to develop and integrate Privacy by Design (“PbD”) into any organization.  The workshop was well-attended, with audience members representing a diversity of sectors, including tech, financial, health, data, security, and academia, allowing for informative discussion spanning several industries.  The workshop started with the history of PbD and then presented examples of real-world PbD, including basic elements of an effective program.  We also walked through specific steps to initiate a successful PbD program, including implementing policies and procedures and examining the data lifecycle.  The outline below addresses some key topics from our Privacy by Design workshop.  If you’re interested in learning more, please contact PbD Bootcamp leaders Libbie Canter and Meena Harris.
Continue Reading Recap of Covington’s Privacy By Design Workshop

Although Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) may have received the most attention for his attendance at South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive, many other members of Congress were represented this year.  Continuing our coverage of the conference, this past weekend we attended a panel on “The Future of Privacy,” featuring congressional representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), and Blake Farenthold (R-TX).  All three representatives support legislation to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), and the panelists focused their remarks on the importance of extending warrant protections to electronic communications regardless of how long such communications are stored.

The panel began on a somewhat whimsical note with the panelists presenting photographs of themselves from the 1980s.  To drive home the point, Congressman Issa explained a great deal has changed since 1986 when ECPA was first enacted.  The panelists generally focused on the need to protect all electronic mail and other electronic communications no differently than paper records are protected.  Congressman Issa also noted that ECPA reform has an economic impact in light of the increased use of cloud services.
Continue Reading Covington at #SXSW 2015: Members of Congress Discuss Future of Privacy

South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive kicked off last week, and Covington was there once again to cover privacy.  One panel of interest that we attended, entitled “Data (in)Security: MIT Scientists Tackle Privacy,” featured MIT professors Danny Weitzner, Ronald Rivest, and Sam Madden discussing their current research
Continue Reading Covington at #SXSW 2015: MIT Professors “Tackle Privacy”

The 22nd annual South by Southwest (“SXSW”) conference begins this Friday, March 13, and once again, Covington will be there to cover privacy during the Interactive segment.  But that’s not all!  This year, Covington is proud to  have been selected from several thousand others to host a workshop on
Continue Reading Covington to Lead Workshop at SXSW 2015 On Privacy by Design

With the ongoing public dialogue concerning the intersection of technological innovation, national security, and privacy that followed Edward Snowden’s revelations of classified information last year, it is no surprise that privacy and security were top themes at SXSW Interactive this year.  The following summarizes key points made about privacy throughout

Continue Reading Key Privacy Takeaways from #SXSW

Last weekend at South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive, a panel promoted the notion that it is in fact possible to harmonize innovation with kids’ privacy in the app space, but that doing so involves “a lot of work.”  In particular, the panel suggested that it takes a conscious desire on the part of app developers to create brands and interfaces that build in transparency, with the specific purpose of inspiring parent trust.  The panel featured Lorraine Akemann, Co-Founder of Moms with Apps; Elana Zeide, Privacy Research Fellow at New York University’s Information Law Institute; and moderator Sara Kloek, Director of Outreach at the Association for Competitive Technology.  It was one of the few privacy events at SXSW Interactive focused on children.Continue Reading Covington at #SXSW: Can Innovation and Kids’ Privacy Coexist?

South by Southwest (“SXSW”) Interactive kicked off last week, and Covington was there to cover privacy and big data’s big buzz, a topic which dominated much of the conference.  Among the events that took place last Friday were “Big Data Inverted: The Best Candy from Strangers?” and “Privacy Under the Covers: The Naked Truth.”  The big-data panel included Chris Colborn, R/GA Global Chief Experience Officer; Dinkar Jain, Google Product Manager; and Maria Bezaitis, Principal Engineer at Intel.  The privacy event was a “Core Conversation” that featured MeMe Jacobs Rasmussen, Adobe’s Chief Privacy Officer, VP, and Associate General Counsel; and Shaina Boone, SVP of Marketing Science at Critical Mass.

Big Data Inverted started with the premise that, as big data transforms relationships and information sharing, “people are beginning to unintentionally ‘barricade’ themselves from new experiences.”  While much of the discussion focused on how businesses can structure their models to leverage big data so that it is useful and relevant, better connected, and more available, privacy and consumer trust necessarily came up throughout the discussion.  In particular, many focused on the two sides of the big data coin:  potential and privacy.  Businesses stand to benefit if they can tame and harness big data, but not if they ignore privacy concerns inherent in amassing huge quantities of sensitive information.  Many are suggesting, however, that businesses can profit from privacy too  that is, because privacy has become so important to consumers, it can be used competitively.Continue Reading Covington at #SXSW: If “Big Data Is the New Oil” Then “Privacy Is the New Green”