Have ‘The Privacy Talk’ with your business partners

As a parent of teenagers, I’m used to having tough, sometimes even awkward, conversations about topics that are complex but important. Most parents will likely agree with me when I say those types of conversations never get easier, but over time, you tend to develop a roadmap of how to approach the subject, how to make sure you’re being clear, and how to answer hard questions.

And like many parents, I quickly learned that my children have just as much to teach me as I can teach them. I’ve learned that tough conversations build trust. I’ve applied this lesson about trust-building conversations to an extremely important aspect of my role as the chief legal officer at Foursquare: Conducting “The Privacy Talk.”

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        The discussion should convey an understanding of how the legislative and regulatory environment are going to affect product offerings, including what’s being done to get ahead of that change.                 </blockquote>
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What exactly is ‘The Privacy Talk’?

It’s the conversation that goes beyond the written, publicly-posted privacy policy, and dives deep into a customer, vendor, supplier or partner’s approach to ethics. This conversation seeks to convey and align the expectations that two companies must have at the beginning of a new engagement. RFIs may ask a lot of questions about privacy compliance, information security, and data ethics. But it’s no match for asking your prospective partner to hop on a Zoom to walk you through their broader approach. Unless you hear it first-hand, it can be hard to discern whether a partner is thinking strategically about privacy, if they are truly committed to data ethics, and how compliance is woven into their organization’s culture.