12 things we have learned in 12 months

The first Privacy Issues Newsletter was sent to a small group of friends and colleagues in June 2019. In the 12 months that followed, Privacy Issues team has been on a roller coaster with several enormous learning loops.

Here is what we have learned:

1. It takes a village to make a newsletter. More than 200 people will receive this newsletter today and many more will discover it through our social media channels. Without feedback, engagement and active response from our community, it would have been impossible for us to continue what we are doing. Many of you regularly send us messages filled with inspiration and encouragement. Recently we started to share select recommendations with our community on Twitter and Telegram. If we had to choose only one thing as the highlight of the last year it would be you — our community.

2. Learning never stops. We started this newsletter with the goal of sharing what we learn about data protection and privacy in our daily professional and personal lives. Our topics ranged from the basics of GDPR to court decisions and from AI to COVID. One year and twenty-one issues later, we know enough about the subject to realise that this is just the beginning.

3. Collaboration accelerates knowledge. In January, we decided to diversify the format of our newsletter by introducing Special Editions. Our first collaborative newsletter was a deep dive into image and video data anonymisation with Celantur. This positive and fruitful collaboration led us to seek out more partners to work with. Stay tuned for more Special Editions in the coming months.

4. Experiments lead to growth. Trying new things can be scary, but it’s also been fun and has helped us grow. We are experimenting with new social media platforms and newsletter formats. We’ve participated in Twitter chats and started posting our content on Medium. We also want to expand our presence on LinkedIn and Facebook. Let’s see where our experiments lead us. We want to have fun and grow.

5. Keeping an open mind leads to unexpected discoveries. One of our most recent discoveries was Twitter chats which have become a way to connect with like-minded professionals and experts, exchange opinions and find new perspectives. We’ve particularly enjoyed taking part in #IDGTECHtalk. We want to foster the exchange of opinions in the privacy field and are planning our own #TwitterChat with a leading expert in AdTech and MarTech. More details will follow in due course.

6. Remote works (for us). The members of our team are based in different locations and the majority of our meetings take place online. We are connected to each other via a group chat on Telegram through which we collaboratively, and sometimes simultaneously, work on the newsletter. To make this sustainable, we have developed efficient and flexible workflows. Trello and Google Drive have been indispensable tools for us. We also have regular team video calls to review recent work and discuss plans for the future. And this has worked well for us.

7. Trust is a birthplace of responsibility. During our team brainstorming sessions we come up with multiple cool ideas that we want to implement immediately. To manage the workload and balance it with other life and professional activities, each of us proactively takes responsibility for a task and works on making it happen. We trust and rely on each other for assistance and support, but we also set commitments and deadlines. Mutual trust creates mutual accountability to manage and finalise the ideas each of us has chosen.

8. Set a deadline for things that matter. From the beginning, our team agreed that it was important for us to send out the newsletter regularly. This simple notion sometimes created a lot of stress for us, because life happens unexpectedly and plans change. Having a commitment to a deadline helped us stick to the schedule of two issues per month.

9. It’s all about practice and improvement. Sometimes, we are intimidated by the pressure of consistently delivering timely, high-quality, interesting content. We have often been worried about the responsibility of publicizing our thoughts and opinions. But with every issue, we learn something new and become more confident in our work. We learn more about the privacy space, what you (our readers) are interested in and what it takes to produce a good newsletter. We’re gradually learning to let go of our urge for perfection. We have realized that sometimes the best thing we can do is just to do what we can in the moment, and then do better next time.

10. Crisis is a litmus test. From the beginning, our team faced the challenge of having a limited amount of time to dedicate to Privacy Issues due to other personal and professional commitments. The pandemic accentuated this issue and made us worry about the uncertainty of the future. But this crisis also revealed that our team members have common values, share a proactive mindset and are extremely empathetic for each other. The last four months have put the strength of our team to the test… and we’ve passed with flying colours.

11. Progress happens in tiny steps. Our community is growing and our team is developing its unique voice, we are constantly exposed to new ideas and interesting projects. We did not think that we would come this far when it all started. Truth be told, we did not plan this far ahead. However, with each small step forward, we glimpse farther into what is hiding behind the horizon. Our next steps include several exciting collaborations for the newsletter’s Special Editions, testing Twitter chats as a new format and organising a workshop for our community. We will announce them properly in due time.

12. Making predictions is fun. Just like with our first issue, we want to continue with the tradition of making a prognosis. There is no need to look into a crystal ball to see that in one year, privacy will only increase in relevance. The future is unpredictable, but staying optimistic and wishing for the best is in our team’s DNA. We also think that making predictions is necessary, because in the future when we look back at them, we will learn a lot about the present.

Here are our three predictions:

• Prediction #1: Privacy will move closer to the top of business agendas. Many people will continue working, studying and communicating remotely. We expect that employers and online service providers will need to demonstrate their respect and commitment to privacy and keeping personal data safe.
• Prediction #2: The need to address privacy and data protection constructively will lead to disruption in the tech sector. We will see a lot of innovation in the privacy and security tech space that will also be backed up with adequate funding.
• Prediction #3: Privacy and data protection will dominate the business agendas of leading tech companies around the world. The extent of privacy awareness will lead businesses, innovators, activists and regulators to work together for finding sustainable solutions to protect personal privacy.

Regular newsletters as well as the posts in the #Privacy_Issues publication, unless specified otherwise, are a product of joint creative energy of the team behind the Privacy Issues project.

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