Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

In an article entitled The Rise of Accountability from Policy to Practice and Into the Cloud published by the International Association of Privacy Professinals, Bojana Bellamy, President of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams (the “Centre”), outlines the rapid global uptake of “accountability” as a cornerstone of effective data protection and points to the recent ISO 27018 data privacy cloud standard as one of the latest examples.

According to Bellamy, accountable organizations are now routinely expected to implement corporate privacy programs that (1) deliver effective privacy compliance and protections and (2) can be demonstrated internally to corporate boards and externally to business partners and regulators.

She places the new ISO cloud standard in a long line of other accountability schemes, noting that the ISO standard “is a significant development both for cloud computing and accountability.” It is an example of practical accountability in a new context and the key roles played by external verification and certification to generate both corporate and consumer trust.

Bellamy also emphasizes that to the extent accountability schemes are based on mutually agreed or commonly accepted privacy standards, they enable “interoperability” and bridge-building between jurisdictional and legal divides.