Who knew that failed data governance would be the thing to turn the privacy world on its ear?
When the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal broke . . . and then got worse, consumers and politicians alike finally seemed to understand that the data economy had gotten away from us all. As a result, 2018 has forever changed the landscape of privacy, ushering in a wave of new consumer rights and new responsibilities for data collectors, controllers, and processors.

At Forrester’s Privacy & Security Forums this fall, an amazing lineup of speakers will paint a picture of this new era of privacy and provide you the tools to navigate it with confidence. I’m personally excited to be presenting two new pieces of research:

  • Personal Digital Twins: The key to managing risk and building trust in the future. Algorithms are all around us, mediating what we see and what we buy. But these algorithms are all optimized for business objectives, not human objectives. It’s time for an algorithm of you — a personal algorithm (or personal digital twin) that consumers own and is optimized for their preferences and objectives. Could your firm innovate on this idea and bring a personal digital twin product to market? In my plenary session, I’ll talk about where the opportunity lies and why this concept will mitigate risk for all companies.
  • The Consumer Privacy Segmentation, rebooted for 2018. We first built the segmentation back in 2016, with four segments — the Skeptical Protectionists, Nervous Nellies, Data-Savvy Digitals, and Reckless Rebels. But as we were refreshing the model this year, we found some paradoxes in the data that told us we were missing something. Lo and behold, our data scientists identified a new fifth segment — the Conspicuous Consumerists — that acts quite differently from the other four. In this session, I’ll introduce you to all five segments and explain how organizations should engage each one.

I really hope you’ll join us at one of our two Forums to learn how your firm can thrive in this post-GDPR, privacy-aware world. We’ll be in Washington, D.C. on September 25–26 and in London on October 9–10!