Shortly before the submission deadline of the Dutch Privacy Awards, we look back with winners on the period after winning the Award. Today we look back with the Municipality of Rotterdam who developed the VE Monitor together with Roseman Labs. We talked about it with Geneitha Francisco (product owner/project leader) and Ramsey Garnaoui (senior privacy officer).
Winning the Privacy Award has brought a lot to the privacy team. The internal exposure has put them on the map in a positive way, which means they are now more likely to be invited to the table when designing a project. As a result, "privacy by design" has been brought much closer to work practices in a very natural way.
"Privacy is no longer the pink elephant in the room"
From outside, the Municipality of Rotterdam is now being approached by several municipalities that are working on the same or a similar project. They are asked to spar and think along.
The inception process was very instructive and valuable. Partly due to the questions of the Awards jury, the team of the Municipality of Rotterdam gained better insight into how processes could be tightened and which aspects should have priority.
"It helped sharpen the proposition and improve the structure of the plan."
Their advice to potential candidates for the Privacy Awards is really quite simple: your product or service does not have to be 100% perfect or "finished." Even an entry in the design stage has a chance, as long as it meets the eligibility requirements and is expressed with determination and passion for privacy protection.
"Don't wait any longer and sign up, even if you're only in the design phase."
As icing on the cake, they enjoyed the National Privacy Conference because they were inspired and met new people there.
For more information about the Dutch Privacy Awards, the participation criteria and an overview of all nominees and winners since 2018, visit PrivacyAwards | Privacy First. The deadline for entries is Oct. 21!
