An interview with Julie Kremp on data privacy and protection

We continue to highlight the importance of data privacy in mobile advertising in this interview with our newest team member, Julie Kremp. In this post we focus on the topic of data privacy and protection.

Julie recently joined Remerge as our privacy and data protection specialist and is responsible for keeping our internal privacy compliance on track. She creates and manages mandatory documentation, monitors changes in regulations, and provides guidelines to reduce and mitigate risks that might exist or appear for Remerge and its clients.

In this interview, we explore Julie's journey within the data privacy world, how it led her to Remerge and the adventures she's had along the way. Julie also shares her thoughts on iOS 14.5, the purpose of a data specialist, and her thoughts on the future of tech.

I believe privacy found me before I discovered it, in a peculiar way. I was working in a large health insurance corporation in 2013, where I negotiated clinical research and technology contracts. At the time, the company was developing some health initiatives to improve the quality of their services. I was soon involved with HIPAA, a US health information privacy regulation, and noticed the amount of personal information that was being processed. That’s when I started to study privacy and compliance.

In 2017 I joined Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), a Brazilian think tank in the educational sector. I was in charge of funding projects related to Horizon 2020, where privacy was already a hot topic. GDPR was just around the corner and the LGPD was being developed in Brazil. As the field of research also deals with large amounts of personal data, I learned both regulations from scratch. I enjoyed learning them and I felt motivated to continue down this path.

With the desire to become more specialized in privacy, I moved to Frankfurt in 2019 and joined an e-commerce start-up to develop their GDPR legal framework and build their legal team. It was an amazing chance to develop not only my legal and compliance skills, but also data protection, privacy, and management skills.

Moving to Germany was also a challenge. When I started working in Germany, I was responsible for many topics on top of privacy, but I took the chance to learn as much as I could from every situation. Since Brazil and Germany are both from civil law backgrounds, there are a few general things in common. Some legal issues are also almost the same in every company when it comes to management.

In terms of privacy, most international standards are aligned with the GDPR; the challenges in data privacy are more related to the speed of changes and international data transfers, after the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield invalidation last year.

Since moving to Germany, it was my true wish to focus on privacy and data protection. So when I came across this role opportunity at Remerge, I was instantly attracted to it.

Also, as a tech lover, Remerge appeared to be a really fascinating company. I was very interested in learning more about adtech along with Remerge’s business strategy and corporate culture. After a few interviews, I received answers that encouraged me to believe I was a good cultural match for the company.

I expect to have a global and comprehensive understanding of Remerge's operations and departments, empowering me to act proactively and preventively, to anticipate risks and contribute to the dissemination of a data-protection and privacy culture across the company.

Without a doubt, the changes brought on by Apple’s iOS 14.5 are now regarded as a major milestone in mobile advertising, and any company that does not adapt quickly to these changes (and others that are already on the way) will be left behind.

From the standpoint of privacy, this is a positive measure as it raises public awareness of the issues around privacy. It created some value around privacy-compliant services and products.

However, I am concerned about Apple's competitive behaviour. The German Advertising Federation (ZAW) “noted that these measures effectively allow Apple to exclude all competitors from processing commercially relevant data in the Apple ecosystem”, thereby taking advantage of its power and violating antitrust law.

Without a privacy expert, the chances of non-compliance rise. The privacy specialist is the key bonding element responsible for ensuring that personal information is handled and protected appropriately. However, for a privacy program to be successful, the specialist must rely on other business operational areas.

Things can get problematic for companies that don't have an internal dedicated data privacy specialist because privacy professionals have unique perspectives on the different regulations in place and are accountable for extremely significant measures to safeguard the company's safety.

It is vital to foster internal communication and collaboration between all teams and the internal privacy professionals in order to maintain compliance. Having a privacy specialist shows that the organization values privacy as a significant asset that builds trust and adds value to the company's services.

Privacy professionals are on the cutting edge of shaping the data-saturated world we're rushing to create. This profession has already had a significant impact on our lives and society, and it will continue to grow in importance in the coming years.

The importance of investing in technology to enhance collaboration, data protection, training and organization cannot be overstated. I am delighted that Remerge is on the right track and to be part of it.