Chief data officers highlight data integrity woes

Inrupt, the company co-founded by Tim Berners-Lee, has published a report looking at how, in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), chief data officers (CDOs) are under more pressure to improve and protect data integrity.

The inventor of the web is the chief technology officer (CTO) of Inrupt, and has developed a protocol for data sharing called Solid, which, if widely adopted, could go some way to tackle the integrity and security of personal data. According to Berners-Lee, the Solid protocol extends the web to include identity management, access control and universal standards for data. Berners-Lee said these capabilities decouple data from applications so that data is organised around individuals.

Inrupt’s From blocks to breakthroughs report notes that CDOs continue to focus on the implementation of data lakes or warehouses, develop data pipelines and foster data literacy across the organisation. But the implications of these efforts are broader and the stakes are higher in the age of AI. Since AI systems depend on vast volumes of data that dictate their performance and realise their potential, the report highlights how CDOs are under more pressure to improve and protect data integrity.

Inrupt’s report features interviews with a number of CDOs. Discussing how AI has changed his job, Carlo Nebuloni, CDO at AXA UK & Ireland, said: “The CDO role has changed with the advent of AI. It now encompasses more responsibility when it comes to our teams and unions, as well as our customer privacy and data protection, but it will continue to oversee analytics and have a strong focus on value generation, delivered in a responsible and ethical manner.”

While Nebuloni looks at innovations and technologies with an open mind, he said he remains cautious around their implications and impacts on privacy, governance and risk management.

The CDO role has changed with the advent of AI. It now encompasses more responsibility when it comes to our teams and unions, as well as our customer privacy and data protection

Another CDO quoted in the report is Amitabh Seli, head of data and CDO for Danone UK, who urged data leaders to consider public sentiment and concerns over personal data. “Like any relationship, trust is at the centre of any organisation-to-user relationship, and that must be the top priority for every data leader,” he said.

Inrupt believes there needs to be an interoperable data sharing standard, whereby people can share data with organisations such as government departments and the large corporations they need to deal with using a personal data wallet.

The company has recently begun showing its new Data Wallet platform, which it claims offers user-controlled sharing and management of multi-purpose data with fine-grained access and consent management. The platform offers consistent data access for approved apps and partners, and supports data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA).

Speaking at the 18th annual CDOIQ conference in August, security guru Bruce Schneier, who is Inrupt’s chief of security architecture, said: “Data is a toxic asset. It’s dangerous to have.” The presentation looked at an alternative approach to managing people’s data, where organisations could securely access customer data without being responsible for its storage and protection.