VIDEO | Consumer Clarity Is a Must When it Comes to Data — Osano Founding CEO

(US and Canada) Arlo Gilbert, Founding CEO of Osano, speaks with Della Shea, Country CDO Ambassador for Canada and Global Editorial Board Member of CDO Magazine, in a video interview, about providing clarity to companies and customers about data protection, privacy and consent, and making informed privacy decisions.

At the outset, Gilbert remarks that an upswing in customer inquiries regarding GDPR compliance motivated him and his colleague to start their own business. Consequently, Osano was launched to help companies be better versions of themselves and have a positive impact. His knowledge of data transfer and the problems associated with it enabled him to identify the need and he ultimately decided on this venture to align commercial outcomes with societal goals.

Gilbert states that when he started his previous companies, data used to be stored on servers in a data center that they either owned or leased, and was not shared. However, now, there has been a considerable shift to the cloud, and companies are taking advantage of third-party solutions for analytics and marketing attribution. This has caused unintentional data sharing due to the derived data from the original data, he adds.

In addition, Gilbert suggests companies be aware of the number of third parties they are using as this could be much higher than they realize. He refers to a Cisco study that found the average CIO was only guessing 40–50 third parties in use, yet the accurate number was 800-900. This produces a big problem as all of these tools will contain data about individuals, and sharing this data is irreversible, leading to what Osano calls the 'sneeze problem.'

To counteract these problems, he put forward 'kindergarten rules' to maintain data privacy. The rules are:

1. Always ask for permission before using another person's data
2. Be honest about where the data is stored
3. Give it back to them as soon as they request

Moving forward, Gilbert states that most companies have three massive challenges that Osano helps them solve:

• The proliferation of data
• Different silos of the organization operate independently
• A substantial increase in customers' rights and requests to exercise them

He maintains that Osano is a multi-product platform and provides tools to meet customers' needs at various stages of their data-privacy journey. It helps companies with consent management, permission layers for apps, sharing habits with video providers, and collecting data at a point-of-sale system.

Furthermore, Gilbert favors providing clarity for consumers when it is about their data. He acknowledges that there must be a necessary balance between providing free services and tracking users to advertise to them. However, it is difficult for the general population to fully understand the technical and business aspects of such a process.

Accordingly, Gilbert proposes the idea of labeling to make it easier for consumers to decide how their data is used, citing the U.S. fight for food labeling as an example. He reckons that it is a challenge to make it easy for customers to understand their data privacy without needing to be technology experts.

Highlighting privacy, he illustrates that regarding privacy, people typically agree on protecting certain rights. However, when faced with personal choices, they do not always do what is good for society. For example, everyone may agree that news should be free, but then they use ad-blockers, he shares.

In conclusion, Gilbert draws attention to the tension between protecting privacy and the need to monetize data. He notes that there needs to be a balance between understanding specific data usage and advocating for the free flow of information.

CDO Magazine appreciates Arlo Gilbert for sharing his invaluable insights with our global community.