Interview with Gail Magnuson
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Gail Magnuson
Nymity
Research Alliances Director
February 2010
Subject: The Role of Nymity's Research Alliances Director
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Nymity: Please introduce yourself.
Magnuson: As of February 2nd I joined the growing Nymity staff to serve as Research Alliances Director. Using my extensive background in global data protection and privacy as the first Chief Privacy Officer of Bank of America and Manpower and as a data protection and privacy consultant at IBM, Fiderus and EDS, I plan to use my contacts and enthusiasm for compliance to create a strong Research Contributor Program for our customers and to broaden connections among the privacy community in general.
Nymity: Why did you join Nymity?
Magnuson: I joined Nymity to help connect privacy officers with the knowledge they need to effectively implement data protection and privacy compliance programs, locally or globally.
Nymity has the team and the methodology to consistently document the laws and regulations, identify the risks and controls, and report on case law and timely issues. With Nymity’s recent expansion to incorporate Europe. and soon Asia Pacific, into PrivaWorks, its best known research tool, this makes Nymity a global source of data protection and privacy knowledge.
Nymity now stands alone as having the best tool for privacy compliance, PrivaWorks, in the market place, which is why I joined the team.
Nymity: What is your role?
Magnuson: My role is outreach. I am charged with looking externally to get a steady stream of additional content to supplement that provided by our large and expanding research team.
Nymity’s large research team is made up of privacy lawyers and former chief privacy officers and managers all dedicated to producing privacy compliance guidance for our customers using Nymity’s proprietary methodology. My role is to support the research team.
Nymity: If Nymity has a large research team, why do you need Research Contributors?
Magnuson: Research Contributors deliver a wide perspective of opinions to our customers. They: - explain local culture, history, court system and regulatory processes;
- annotate or translate non-English laws, regulations, codes and case law;
- share sample or template policies, procedures and contracts;
- highlight issues, events, recent regulatory actions or court cases from a local perspective;
- provide valuable opinions on topics from the Contributors’ various points of view;
- offer an early warning system for issues of growing concern
Nymity: Can Nymitys’ customers be Contributors?
Magnuson: Yes, in fact many Nymity customers have been contributing for some time. Customers are often the source of valuable content that they are willing to share in a variety of ways. We look forward to our customers continuing to contribute today and also in the future.
Nymity: What content are you looking for?
Magnuson: I am looking for global content in the form of papers, briefs, interviews, webinars and Nymity produced videos about: - data protection legislation and regulations
- annotations where the legislation and regulations are not written in English
- comparisons of law/regulations from one jurisdiction to another, such as marketing opt-in/out, whistle blowing procedures or data protection authority registrations & permits
- overlapping or related legislation or regulations, such as labour or export laws
- conflicting laws/regulations within a jurisdiction or between jurisdictions
- codes, assessments and audit programs, such as AICPA/CICA, ISO 27,000, NIST and so on
- case law, court cases and fines
- rising issues, such as data protection laws and cloud computing or flash cookies or social networking
Nymity: Who are you looking to work with in the Research Contributor Program?
Magnuson: I am looking for a broad group of data protection and privacy Research Contributors. They would include privacy experts, attorneys and solicitors, chief privacy officers and managers, regulators and government officials, advocates, academics, think tanks and others who have the content our customers are looking for. Naturally, Research Contributors will be acknowledged as the authors of their contributions.
Nymity: What are the advantages of Contributors working with Nymity?
Magnuson: Nymity has a strong methodology and knowledge base that is proven for the US and Canada that has proven very successful for our clients. It contains the knowledge necessary to not only build a policy, but a program, complete with an ability to assess risks and implement controls to manage those risks.
For customers of all types, PrivaWorks takes the mystery out of what it takes to be compliant with data protection and privacy laws.
As we expand globally this year, with our large internal staff of expert data protection and privacy attorneys and with the assistance of our Research Contributors we become THE source for data protection and privacy compliance around the world.
As a Research Contributor there are special benefits that I would be happy to discuss individually with those interested.
Nymity: In closing, how can individuals contact you?
Magnuson: I can be contacted at +1.704.232.5648 or at Gail.Magnuson@Nymity.com. I look forward to hearing from you.