Privacy by Design
Turn the GDPR obstacles to possibilities
2020/02/28
How can a software development partner reach perfection in order to help and provide the customer with the data protection that they would never think of.
Turn the GDPR obstacles to possibilities with Privacy by Design.
For the readers – Who are you and why are you here?
My name is Michelle Poelman and I’m from the Netherlands. There, I finished my master in IT law. It was a dream of mine to go study abroad and I found another interesting master in Växjö. I’m currently enjoying living in Sweden, whilst studying Information Systems. Now, I’m writing my master thesis about Privacy by Design at Softwerk AB!
How did you get interested of data protection?
I worked for a company that developed legal tech while studying my bachelors and became fascinated in the topic. I saw the importance of innovation and the need for good consultation in real time during the development process. Also, I gained insight in how online marketing works, and how much of you as a person can be found on the internet. Since then, VPN’s, cookie-blockers, etc. became more important to me and I became interested in the GDPR.
Why would you say that this topic is so important?
We live in a data driven society where almost everything depends on an online connection. This makes our daily lives much easier, but also comes with a cost that not everyone is aware or even cares about; giving up our personal data to multinational technology companies, governments and other organizations that can access personal insights about individuals. To prevent the misuse of it, safeguards need to be created to protect personal data. At the same time, there should be no neglect for other important goals like innovation, national security, freedom of speech, etc. A right balance must be found!
What is the goal of your research?
Privacy by design are the measures taken by companies at the start of designing new systems. When taking these into account from the start, more privacy friendly information systems will be created. This is important to protect the privacy of individuals, but also for the company itself to comply with certain legal obligations. Privacy by design is an important topic to investigate. Not only since the GDPR obligated us but also as we live in a data driven society where almost everything is dependent to an online connection.
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Michelle will be doing her research at Softwerk during the spring term and we are looking forward to the result. Especially since this topic is vital in today’s software development. How can a software development partner reach perfection in order to help and provide the customer with the data protection that they would never think of. With the modern technology and the data driven society that we have today - how can Softwerk take that extra responsibility to find the right balance?
We at Softwerk and Michelle would like to acquire a complete picture about this topic and taking it further by sending out a survey to understand your views on privacy. The survey is in English, consists only of 7 closed questions and is anonymous. We are excited to see your answers and will share the results for further interesting discussions. The survey is in the link below:
