The best resources for keeping up with the latest in data

In just a few days, there was a Tik Tok, Instagram and Youtube data breach affecting 235 million users, and Sam Smith's, a famous brewery, decided not to take part in track and trace: citing GDPR as the reason. In short, there’s a lot to keep up with in the world of personal data.

So if you’re a data protection officer (DPO), academic, lawyer, regulator or just interested in data privacy, here are some of the best sources of information you can use to stay up to date!

Podcasts:

A great way to make an arguably ‘dry’ topic interesting and easy to understand, podcasts are a great way to keep up with all new developments in the field. They're real time savers, too.

Here are our favourites:

• GDPR weekly show: a weekly update on what's new in the world of GDPR. An informative podcast, including ‘how to’ slots and details of new GDPR related solutions, and some special guests. Each episode covers mostly UK-based topics but includes some items of interest worldwide.
• GDPR now!: a bimonthly update aimed at business leaders and privacy professionals. Each episode is devoted to one specific theme and features a guest (data protection expert) to discuss the latest news, developments and trends.
• The GDPR Guy: around 10-15 mins long, these podcast episodes explain headline topics related to GDPR 2-3 times a year. Great for beginners or for a short explanation of important new big topics from scratch, with more useful resources on their website if you want it.
• Life with GDPR: once or twice a month discussing news and developments related to GDPR, such as court judgements and big fines, ending the episode with what the implications are and how this news impacts your business.

Websites for data privacy news:

• International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP): many international updates including Canada, Asia-Pacific, UK and US. Publish very 3-4 times a day.
• European Data Protection Supervisor: posting regularly, 4-5 times a month or more, with EDPS opinion on news and updates on new EDPS strategies to tackle identified problems.
• Privacy International: news and analysis, journalistic, interesting thought pieces.
• TheICO: as well as a great source of data protection information, you can also sign up to their e-newsletter to receive updates at least once a month about developments in data protection and Freedom of Information. It’s short and easy to read.

Take control of your data today

Websites for legal news and analysis:

These legal websites report on data privacy news too, but they often add some legal analysis and case summaries to help organisations understand how this news might impact their business or clients. Lawyers can see how data privacy law is being interpreted by judges and see what new arguments are being used in court.

• The Law Society Gazette: if you search ‘data protection’ on the site you can select to see options such as related news headlines, feature articles or legal reports, depending on what you’re interested in.
• The Lawyer: again, if you search ‘data protection’ on the site related news headlines will pop up. They'e really great for explaining and summarising news and often focus on what this means for businesses.
• Law 360: search ‘data protection’ for related news and analysis, and it’s easy to read.
• Bird & Bird: the ‘news & events’ section can be narrowed down to just ‘privacy and data protection’ issues, here you'll also find a breakdown of legal news of the subject. Quite technical/better read by those familiar with the law already.
• Global Privacy and Security Compliance: this blog covers privacy legal challenges and guidance from around the world.

Books:

If you’re looking to delve deeper into an interesting topic about data protection, such as the gender data bias or Edward Snowden’s whistleblower story, here are some of our favourite non-fiction books too!

• Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez (we’ve written a blog based on this book!): A Sunday Times bestseller, this book reveals the data bias that exists ‘in a world designed for men’; from the standard shelf height set to a height that best suits men, to women being prescribed medication that’s wrong for their body due to skewed medical research.
• Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: A New York Times bestseller, this is a witty and informative book about what our internet searches and vast amounts of readily available personal data reveals about us and our world.
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff: this book walks us through the rise of modern technology companies and explains a new form of economic oppression- ‘surveillance capitalism’. Unlike industrial capitalism, which profits from exploiting natural resources and labour, surveillance capitalism profits from the collection, analysis and use of behavioural data.
• Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’neil: A New York Times bestseller, this book reveals how the algorithms that increasingly impact our everyday lives, like where we go to school or how much we pay for health insurance, are opaque, unregulated and ultimately reinforce discrimination.
• No Place to Hide by Edward Snowden: many of you will be familiar with the famous CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden who revealed astonishing evidence of government spying in 2013. This non-fiction book recounts the story of how investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald travelled to Hong Kong to meet Snowden, and examines the broader implications of this surveillance.

Textbooks:

• Data Protection: A Practical Guide to UK and EU Law by Peter Carey)
• Data Protection Law & Practice 1st Supplement by Rosemary Jay
• GDPR for Dummies, or, The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A Practical Guide by Paul Voigt
• The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by Preston Bukaty

Acts, Regulations and Guidance:

You can keep up with new data protection Acts and Regulations as well as any other resources provided by these recognised data protection bodies and organisation.

• EDPS and ICO: we mentioned them before as a way of keeping up with news, but the ICO and EDPS also provide brilliant data privacy guidance for both individuals and businesses.
• European Data Protection Board: EDPB is an independent European body established by the GDPR, it’s made up of the representatives of the national data protection authorities of the EU/EEA countries. You can find data protection news as well as GDPR guidance documents for regulators, controllers and processors and information about your rights for individuals.
• European Commision: in the ‘data protection’ section you can view all the relevant laws in the EU related to data privacy and your fundamental rights.
• EU GDPR Institute: you can read their GDPR blog, resources for GDPR training and awareness as well as apply to have your organisation’s privacy processes GDPR certified.
• Interpol Data Protection: rules and the background of taking into account privacy when exchanging criminal justice information.

Use your GDPR rights today

Academic Journals and Research:

For academics, these newsletters, journals and research centres provide an insight into expert opinions about new data protection issues. For businesses, Ponemon Institute is useful for their annual research on the economics behind implementing data protection in organisations.

• International Data Privacy Law (Oxford Academic): a great source of academic publications about data privacy from around the world.
• Journal of Data Protection and Privacy (Henry Stewart Publications): a peer-reviewed forum for the publication of academic research, case studies, analysis and insights on the key laws, regulations, court and administrative decisions in data protection in over 165 countries.
• Ponemon Institute: this institute conducts independent research about the responsible use of personal data within business and government. Some of their reports are ‘Costs of data breach’, ‘Economics and effectiveness of security operation centers’, and ‘How to prepare for a data breach’.
• Privacy First (NGO): you can keep up with data privacy news, court cases, and reports. This is a great website if you want to narrow your search to specific areas e.g. CCTV, medical privacy or law & politics.
• Brussels Privacy Hub (NGO): acting as a European research centre for data privacy, you can see their news, education, training, publications and projects.

Events:

These are some websites that either host seminars or training courses themselves or where you can go to see all the upcoming data protection events including webinars, summits and conferences.

• Brussels Privacy Hub:for list of upcoming events
• Computers, Privacy and Data Protection: annual 3 day conference devoted to privacy and data protection
• IAPP: for list of their own upcoming webinars
• The Lawyer: for list of upcoming events
• Bird & Bird: for list of upcoming events

Final thoughts

We hope you'll find some great insights and sources from our list, although please do let us know if we've left any out!

Our personal favourites for each sector are: GDPR weekly show (podcast), IAPP (world-wide news), The Law Society Gazette (legal news and analysis), Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez (books), Data Protection: A Practical Guide to UK and EU Law by Peter Carey (textbooks), EDPS and ICO (acts, regulations and guidance), International Data Privacy Law (journals and research) and Brussels Privacy Hub (events).

But, all the sources we’ve listed in this article are brilliant and your favourite may depend on what in particular you’re looking for, so we recommend giving all of them a quick look just in case!