Software Ethics

Data, GDPR & Privacy: Doing It "Right" Without Losing It All

What’s the focus of the work you do today?

I am a VP of products at SparkPost and I head up the product team. Product at SparkPost falls under the technology organization, and we partner with other teams such as engineering, compliance, and customer success. My role as head of product is to look at the SparkPost service as a whole, not just the features and functions that we deliver. Some parts of the service we focus on are the customer experience and ensuring we are protecting ourselves as well as our customers and their customers.

What’s an example of a step in the journey you’ll be sharing?

One thing we’ll do is level set GDPR and privacy regulations for those that may have some awareness. It's important that we have a baseline understanding in the room because everyone has varying opinions on what is PII and what we should keep and not keep. Another step was digging into our data and investigating how we’re using it. You always have to think about where the data is going and how it’s being used and rehashed and encoded. You really have to determine what's important to you, what's important and brings value to your own consumers and even their customers. It’s a constant journey, and I think that's part of the story. But that doesn't mean that we can't do useful and innovative things. There's a lot that we want to do with data. There's a lot we think will add value to our customers.