Millennial Privacy – A Paradox?

Each year, International Privacy Day reminds us how important it is to question where sensitive data resides, who has access to it, and how to best value and protect private information. As large enterprises hire the next generation of social media savvy employees, it is also a good time to question whether these millennials understand the value of data. Do they know what information should stay private vs. what can be shared?

Working with a generation that readily connects, collaborates and shares information online, companies are faced with educating employees on balancing the need to share with the need to protect. In an era of digital business, company brand and customer loyalty and retention depend on it.

Private data can be anything from personal employee information, customer addresses and payment details, legal contracts, design schematics, intellectual property, and trade secrets. Today this information is everywhere, from the biggest servers to an individual smartphone. Effectively managing risks around data security and privacy on premise, in the cloud or over mobile devices is critical.

On Thursday January 28, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University and three-term Ontario Privacy Commissioner, will be joined by data security executives from Netskope, TITUS, MaRS Discovery District—and others—to presenting at the “Cloud Data and Security: A Private Affair that Works!” event taking place in Toronto, Canada. Attendees at this event will learn about the impact data privacy has on both business as well as individual employees.

Data privacy is an important issue around the world. Recently, the European Union Commission, European Parliament, and Council of Ministers of the European Union agreed on the shared text of the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Forrester Research has a great report that outlines why firms need to take privacy seriously, now more than ever.

Information can now be monetized quickly, increasing its value. International Privacy Day gives us the opportunity to stop and ask: do you know what information you have, where it is, how valuable it is, and who has access to it? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Sandra Catana leads TITUS’ marketing, and communications organization as Vice President, Marketing. Sandra supports and expands the company’s capabilities in lead generation, branding and awareness, customer communications, social media and events worldwide.

Sandra has played a role in steering TITUS’ innovative ventures in information security for close to a decade. Sandra holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and brings to the position over 20 years of experience in the high tech industry, including senior strategic communications and marketing positions at Safenet and Corel.