On April 3, 2024, Law.com quoted David Patariu while he attended the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Governance Privacy Summit in Washington, DC.
According to the article, the first day of the IAPP summit focused on the integration of data privacy governance strategies. Regulators and privacy professionals discussed the key data governance and privacy trends on their minds in the age of powerful technologies like generative artificial intelligence and biometric screening.
Asked what was on everyone’s minds in terms of privacy and data strategy, Patariu said data scraping should be at the top of everyone’s lists when it comes to their organizations’ privacy frameworks.
“This is a really hard problem for companies,” Patariu said. “It’s like you have somebody that you invited to the wedding, and suddenly they’re standing there and they’re eating all the wedding cake, and you’re like ‘What are they doing? they’re not supposed to do that.’”
But the problem for companies is that data scrapers look the same as all the other wedding guests, Patariu continued, so it’s hard to tell what they are there for and—until the scraping begins—what they might do.
He said there are techniques to crack down on data scrapers that involve attorneys and good communication between a company’s cybersecurity and IT departments. Together those teams can gauge behaviors scrapers might exhibit, like sending “hundreds of friend requests” in a day on a social media app, for example.
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