Kirsten Daru on privacy council
From Building Cross-Functional Privacy & Risk Councils: Kirsten Daru at The 2024 DataGrail Summit · · DataGrail
“I needed to make the privacy council exciting and engaging for stakeholders, so I redefined it as an exclusive team of cross-functional leaders charged with making strategic decisions to unleash the power and value of data and AI while maintaining trust and minimizing risk.”
On , Kirsten Daru, General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer at NETGEAR INC, spoke about privacy council during Building Cross-Functional Privacy & Risk Councils: Kirsten Daru at The 2024 DataGrail Summit on DataGrail.
About Kirsten Daru
Kirsten Daru, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at Netgear, spoke at the 2024 DataGrail Summit about building cross-functional privacy and risk councils. Daru described her experience as the first privacy counsel at Electronic Arts in 2008 and later as a general counsel, where she realized that privacy and governance required a broader approach. She advocated for creating a council of cross-functional leaders to make strategic decisions about data and AI, aiming to "unleash the power and value of data and AI while maintaining trust and minimizing risk." Daru emphasized that such councils should use a principles-first framework, be engaging for stakeholders, and include open forums to drive alignment and surface risks. Daru stated that privacy and AI are among the most challenging legal disciplines because they involve ethics, integrity, morality, and trust. She noted that a successful privacy council requires a definition and governance framework, the right people, and the right focus. Daru also highlighted the importance of embracing dissent, as it ensures a program serves the company's best interests and adapts to evolving law, technology, and consumer expectations. She concluded that governance today requires a mindset shift toward proactive change and that a simple framework allowing leaders to contribute meaningfully is key to success.