The Inherent Problem with Data

No one should be surprised about the recent news that Facebook gave some companies special access to user data, allowing them access even after the company had made policy changes restricting it for others. This is the inherent problem with giving control over your data to any technology provider.

Data is incredibly valuable. Cracking the code on this before everyone else is what made Facebook so successful. But the tides are shifting – businesses and consumers are growing increasingly concerned about who owns and controls their own data, and will start to demand services that deliver ownership back into their hands.

For SaaS companies in particular, it is important to start building products so that the clients themselves own the data and not the other way around. There are many ways to do this including choosing services that employ true end-to-end security and provide full on-premise control of encryption keys – this ensures that only those with the keys can access the protected data, even if it is traveling over third-party channels. While critics say that functionality may be lost when the choice is made to focus on security, we have found that smart design can provide full security while maintaining full functionality.

If you are in business, and you don’t know who has access to your company’s data, the time is now to perform the due diligence. This recent news isn’t the first or last time that these issues will be exposed, and we all should be prepared. My advice: act now.