Keeping Up with Privacy-Compliance News: Three Main Options, Rated
As privacy regulations continue to multiply, people who must keep their organizations privacy-compliant need to organize a wave of related news. Here's a look at your three main options: free Web sites, newsletters and news feeds; fee-based periodicals; and fee-based databases.
Mon, April 27, 2009
Computerworld — A top affliction of privacy professionals is the growing complexity of privacy laws. The number of jurisdictions regulating data privacy and the number of other laws in which privacy provisions are tucked has increased with no letup since 2000. Like the Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels, the tiniest jurisdictions are now lassoing their privacy ropes around the mightiest of corporations.
Where does this leave those who are charged with keeping their organizations privacy-compliant? Desperately looking for a way to organize news about all of these developments.
I recently surveyed the landscape of possible solutions to this problem. What did I find? Three different approaches: free Web sites, newsletters and news feeds; fee-based periodicals; and fee-based databases, such as Nymity's PrivaWorks, Cecile Park Publishing's DataGuidance and law firm Morrison and Foerster LLP's Summit Privacy.
What were the pros and cons of each approach?
Free sources
Privacy leaders with no budget will want to exploit what's free, including these options:
- Morrison & Foerster's Privacy Library, probably the most comprehensive and current free online listing of privacy laws in 95 countries.
- Law firm Baker & McKenzie's annual Global Privacy Handbook, which is distributed to clients and friends.
- Computerworld's own Security Newsletter, which offers a regular look at news about the technical threats to personal data.
- The International Association of Privacy Professionals' Daily Dashboard, Canada Dashboard Digest and monthly Inside 1to1: Privacy. These are the best available free news feeds on privacy.
I've been a Daily Dashboard junkie for years, and keep an online collection of links to hundreds of articles featured in the Dashboard.
When it comes to analysis of developments in privacy law, many law and consulting firms also offer free newsletters. Table 1 offers a full list, including instructions on how to sign up.
The advantage of these sources is that they're free. If you have the time to peruse them, they can keep you current on the most important debates and risks. But these sources aren't designed to provide answers to narrow questions or comparisons across jurisdictions of regulations or risks on a particular topic.
Fee-based periodicals
Subscription-based services like the following can greatly leverage a privacy officer's small budget, and they dive deeper into key privacy topics than free sources do:
- The Washington-based BNA Privacy & Security Law Report is a daily and weekly feed of articles written by experts in the field and delivered via print and Web. The articles focus on the U.S., but also cover Canada, Latin America, the EU and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries. (US$1,900 per year)
- London-based Privacy Laws & Business delivers two quarterly PDF journals of in-depth articles focused on the U.K. and non-U.K. markets. ($880 per year for both)
- The IAPP offers a Privacy Tracker service, a combination of weekly e-mails, monthly print newsletters, and monthly calls focusing on U.S. state and federal legislative developments. ($725 per year)
- The Crofton, British Columbia-based Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues provides ISPI Clips, perhaps the most comprehensive daily privacy news digest. When you sign up, about a dozen e-mails land in your in-box each day, with healthy coverage of Canada and APEC news. ($99 per year)
