Exceptional privacy leadership in the age of AI
Mirena Taskova is an senior expert in data governance, privacy, cybersecurity & AI. She is a Chief Privacy Officer at Aura, and a semifinalist in the 2024 Data Privacy Hero Awards.
In this spotlight, Mirena provides some valuable insights about the importance of leadership, the need for adaptability and the ongoing benefit of knowledge acquisition.
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The modern privacy team needs to understand more than just privacy regulations – you need to understand the global privacy environment, existing privacy technologies, privacy’s relationship with security, how data flows across technology, and the real implications of AI governance. Mirena recommends subscribing to privacy newsletters, working with privacy tech, and attending industry events to stay informed.
Once you have a good grasp on the global context, it’s time to understand your own company’s relationship with privacy, security, and AI.
For example, Mirena recommends leveraging DataGrail Live Data Map to understand your current data flows. Since many vendors introduce new AI capabilities or storage of sensitive data long after purchase, evaluation of your dataflows must be continuous and ongoing in order to truly capture your risk.
DataGrail Live Data Map provides a comprehensive view of system risk and active mitigation in real-time. With this information, you can more strategically direct your time and attention.
Change is inevitable. The most recent significant challenge to privacy work is in AI, but it wasn’t the first and won’t be the last. Mirena encourages fellow privacy leaders to address potential new risks like this quickly, before they become a problem.
Once informed of your current risk exposure you can work ahead to set the strategy by setting data governance and AI governance policies. A policy will align your company on the core principles of their innovation.
To work so quickly, your organization must be able to act efficiently. Privacy and security tasks can’t be lengthy and complicated; following the expectations set forth by your policy must be simple and quick to ensure long-term adoption.
Consequently, it’s important to invest in minimizing friction around good privacy practices. Aura has integrated its Data Subject Request Management process with core systems, resulting in faster request turnaround times for data subjects.
As a Chief Privacy Officer, Mirena is responsible for implementing comprehensive data privacy strategy by balancing privacy requirements with business objectives. For the day-to-day implementation of her work to be successful, Mirena invests in building privacy passion and expertise across teams.
Aura provides digital protection and online safety solutions. Privacy is naturally of great importance across teams. Mirena empowered the Customer Service team to optimize data subject request management. This team already understands customer needs, and by developing their privacy skill, the team can provide a more comprehensive service experience to customers and integrate requests into their operations, while still giving Mirena access to reporting and oversight.
In Mirena’s vision of privacy leadership, you begin by understand risk and your organization’s exposure. Next, you develop appropriate policies to handle emerging technical challenges, and you build ideal conditions to meet that risk. Finally, you expand the responsibility for privacy across the organization, keeping each team educated and informed.
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