With more than 14 years invested in understanding data privacy, enhancing protections, and maintaining compliance with comprehensive global privacy standards, we decided now would be a great time to share some of the insights we’ve gained along the way. So, we published a white paper titled, “Accounting for Enterprise Cloud Technologies in U.S. Privacy Legislation,” which explains why we believe there’s an urgent and critical need for federal privacy legislation. It also offers guidance on how we—in the U.S.—can map toward achieving comprehensive data privacy protection for all, in the very near future.
Our hope is that the vision we’ve articulated in-depth—which we released publicly today—will inspire and inform those who are navigating the complexities of developing a federal law that balances emerging technologies and economic growth with the safeguards needed to ensure data privacy protections.
A couple of key themes highlighted within the recently published paper include:
- Technology is not monolithic. Businesses—like Workday—that access other companies’ data in order to provide services to customers (perhaps for business planning or analytics purposes, for example) handle that data very differently than those that directly control—and often monetize–consumer data. Given these substantial differences, it’s important to tailor laws accordingly. By protecting consumers with a reliable and robust privacy framework that’s flexible enough to capture differences among rapidly evolving technologies such as enterprise cloud services, Congress can set the stage for the next wave of technological innovation in data-powered services.
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Aligning with global standards will enable innovation. When the U.S. government moves forward with the introduction of federal privacy legislation, it will be important to align with existing laws that are already guiding data use around the globe, such as GDPR. It’s also critical that privacy law in the U.S. be based on OECD Fair Information Practices, which have been historically backed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). By aligning with existing frameworks, we’ll enable cross-border data flows and adequate privacy protections for all, without squelching innovation or creating unnecessary inefficiencies. This alignment will also help to ensure continued growth for American businesses that are already operating globally.
We feel it’s vitally important to keep privacy in-focus, whether that means publishing our guidance for the future of national privacy legislation or taking action through other global initiatives to drive progress. Stay tuned for updates on this timely topic!