It is still less than two years since Snowflake floated on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $3.4billion – one of the largest flotations by a software company in corporate history. The rapid growth of the American cloud-based data warehousing company has helped create a large tailwind of business opportunities across the industry.

Legislators and governments globally are starting to wake up to the implications of the digital revolution on individuals’ rights. This is exacerbated by the fact that choice is limited, as a small group of companies dominate the consumer space.

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) is a new role for many organisations and there is a danger that it will become a revolving door – a victim of political battles.

The Chief Data Officer (CDO) is the leader of a new back office function (alongside HR, Finance, Facilities, IT, Legal, etc.).

Chief Data Officer (CDO) roles are becoming increasingly popular, perhaps driven by a combination of the need for organisations to become more data-driven and regulatory pressures, such as GDPR.

<p>On the day the GDPR regulations came into force the UK regulator, Elizabeth Denham, told the BBC that enforcement would focus upon companies that &#8220;deliberately, persistently and negligently misuse data and that&#8217;s going to be the focus, that&#8217;s what people expect us to do&#8221;. In the same interview she implicitly recognised that things were not going to be perfect on day one.</p>

It does not matter whether you are running the country or running a business, one of the key challenges facing any organisation is to bridge the gap between policy and execution. Policy makers can sit in an ivory tower crafting well-thought through ideas into detailed policy, but it counts for nothing unless it can be executed meaningfully on the ground.

It is one thing to write a set of Data Protection policies and procedures.  It is another to get your staff to follow them.  The key to effective GDPR compliance is making sure people understand what it means to them day to day in their own jobs.

Privacy notices on websites are nothing new. In 2010 Facebook managed a level of notoriety when its Privacy policy was found to be longer than the US constitution. This is exactly the type of thing that GDPR sets out to tackle so I thought it might be worth looking at what it means to your privacy policy.

In an age of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence profiling using personal data is inevitable. Profiling is automated decision making based upon the data you hold about an individual. The accessibility of the data and ease of processing mean that more and more organisations will start using profiling.

The increasing prevalence of information/data governance structures within organisations is breeding a new function.  The role of the Business Data Steward is frequently being defined by an information governance methodology but it needn’t be so.  Even low key data governance or master data management (MDM) initiatives require the same Stewardship tasks and accountabilities to be performed.

Data Stewards help resolve the perennial question who “owns” the data.  Discussions about ownership are probably unhelpful because they imply the ultimate form of responsibility and accountability for data.  One party or another is trying to exert influence or avoid accountability.

The role of the Data Steward is complex and interacts with many different parts of the organisation and ties together many important aspects of data management. In many ways the Data Steward is at the sharp end of Data Governance, where policy meets action.