Company Data Protection - Friend or Foe?

Anna Wennakoski, , LL.M. Scholar

"There are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be. Even that is merging into one category: those that have been hacked and will be again --." Quite a pessimistic view, one might think. Yet, even if one would refuse to undersign any such though-provoking statement as the ultimate truth, one can not totally by-pass it either. Moreover, it could even be posited that some companies might not even acknowledge that they have been victim of a data breach. For, today, in the midst of the information society we live in, the legal requirements set to data protection should – and can no longer ignored. Phenomena such as globalization, digitalization, outsourcing, fast pace employee mobility, with digital equipment, not to mention various mobile application that collect and track our living habits as well as “Bring Your Own Device” (“BYOD”) –policies, are becoming omnipresent in our daily life. Further, it has been posited that the mankind has probably never produced as much information as does today. At times, the sheer volume of data seems exhausting, not the least from an in-house counsel’s workload perspective. Nonetheless, companies typically have a need to exploit and utilize various data in their respective business and perhaps to further commercialize it too. A start-up business can even be based entirely on a business concept around (personal) data.

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Finland Data Protection Data Protection July 2015 Vol. 8, No. 32, Summer 2015

Anna Wennakoski

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Anna   Aurora   Wennäkoski   (LL.M.   and   M.Sc.)   is   an   internationally-­oriented   lawyer,  speialized in intellectual property rights (IPRs),  information  law  and  data  protection.   Her   master's thesis on IPRs was   selected   winner   of   the   American   Resource   Center   research   award.   Within   her   day-­to-­day   work   as   a   legal   counsel,   Ms.   Wennäkoski   has   worked   for   several   years   in   stock   listed   companies   at   the   vanguard   of   Scandinavian   business   and   in   France,   and   among   various   IPR   and   data   protection   matters.   Currently,   Ms.  Wennäkoski  is  preparing  post-­graduate  studies  in  New  York,  US.

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Finland Data Protection Data Protection July 2015 Vol. 8, No. 32, Summer 2015