Sabina Jausovec-Salinas, Rackspace US in-house Advertising and Privacy Council, explains Rackspace’s role in the privacy ecosystem and how that ecosystem will evolve in the next few years.
What is your organization’s role in the data privacy ecosystem?
Rackspace helps businesses tap the power of hosting and cloud computing without the complexity and cost of managing it on their own.
As a cloud computing and service company, Rackspace values the trust our customers place in our services.
Our role in the privacy ecosystem is to provide our customers with multi-cloud deployment options (public, private and hybrid cloud, and dedicated hosting) and to offer various security solutions and services to allow our customers to configure and deploy controls that can address their security and privacy compliance challenges.
Rackspace services are provided in a manner that gives our customers flexibility over how they configure, secure and deploy their hosted solution based on their unique requirements.
What key goals/issues is your organization focused on tackling?
Everything we have built at Rackspace has had service as its bedrock, so our primary goal is providing support and services that help our customers achieve their business goals.
We serve customers in more than 120 countries and are committed to helping our customers protect the security and privacy of information stored or transferred when using our services.
In addition to providing multi-cloud deployment options, we also offer Rackspace Managed Security services for improved cybersecurity.
Rackspace Managed Security services have been crafted to address the core challenges businesses face in keeping their cloud environments secure and compliant.
These services enable our customers to proactively address threats to information security and implement monitoring and security controls to protect their data.
How have your organization’s goals and focus changed over the years to address evolving technologies or challenges?
Dangerous and sophisticated attacks are a daily challenge for security and privacy teams everywhere. This is the new normal.
Rackspace is continuously improving its product and service portfolio to serve its customers’ workloads where they fit best and to address the new realities of evolving technologies and challenges that come with it, such as security threats and cyber-attacks.
Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise, easy-to-use tools, and Fanatical Support® for leading technologies including AWS, VMware, Microsoft, OpenStack and others, be it in Rackspace, customers’ or third-party data centers.
Rackspace provides solutions and services that help our customers in their own privacy compliance efforts.
Rackspace Managed Security services include Cyber Security Operations Center services to help our customer effectively manage business risk by detecting and responding to security threats.
This service adopts a proactive approach to detecting anomalous activity on customers’ networks and allowing our customers to respond quickly and effectively to malicious activity when it is detected.
How does the privacy ecosystem need to evolve over the next 3-5 years to be fit for purpose?
In today’s digital economy, connectivity and the flow of information are becoming global. With the rapid development of information technology, modern ideas about data privacy have changed.
Digital technologies, like cloud computing and the Internet of Things, now have a direct impact on how we collect, access, use and protect information.
Additionally, cross-border data flows are critical to the success of companies, as well as individual consumers who benefit from services that are delivered globally.
This globalization of business and social connectivity has caused the privacy landscape to grow in scope and complexity, and it’s brought about new challenges for regulators, companies and privacy professionals.
Companies must understand and continuously adapt to new technologies and individual country-specific privacy laws.
Companies, regulators and privacy professionals will therefore need to work closer together to establish interoperable privacy frameworks to enable businesses to grow on a global level, while ensuring privacy rights of individuals are protected.
Tell us about your role at Rackspace.
As an in-house advertising and privacy counsel, I launched the Rackspace privacy program and manage multiple facets of the program.
This includes:
- developing and implementing privacy policies, procedures and practices,
- providing subject matter expertise to other members of the legal team,
- training employees on privacy related matters,
- supporting Rackspace’s customer and supplier contract negotiations to address privacy implications,
- managing Safe Harbor/Privacy Shield and APEC CBPRs assessments and certifications,
- and providing guidance to the business on other privacy and data protection related matters.
How did you start working in the data privacy field and why do you enjoy it?
I started working in the privacy field when I first joined Rackspace in the UK in 2008. Privacy issues can be fascinating and multifaceted.
For companies with a global presence, managing privacy compliance has become increasingly complex and challenging. And this is the reason why I enjoy working in the privacy field.
The way we think about privacy today is not only important for us as individuals. It is also important for businesses that collect and use personal information.
In today’s world, privacy professionals have a huge responsibility and an opportunity to influence the way personal data is handled and the way privacy rights are respected.
We can help drive product and service development with privacy in mind.
What do you wish more [people, business, etc.] knew about privacy?
There is a notion that storing personal data in the cloud will diminish its privacy. This myth is mainly due to a lack of understanding of the cloud.
How you utilize the cloud matters when it comes to data privacy and data security. When it comes to the use of cloud services, one size does not fit all.
The best solution is often a multi-cloud approach – different clouds for different applications, workloads, and data.
Adequate assessment and planning can help businesses make smart cloud decisions and select a reputable cloud provider and the right cloud deployment model.
This can enable better data privacy, security and control in the cloud.
