After two decades of data management being a wild west, consumer mistrust, government action, and competition for customers are bringing in a new era. Firms that generate any value from personal data will need to change the way they acquire it, share it, protect it, and profit from it. They should follow three basic rules: 1) consistently cultivate trust with customers, explaining in common-sense terms how their data is being used and what’s in it for them; 2) focus on extracting insight, not personal identifiable information; and 3) CIOs and CDOs should work together to facilitate the flow of insights, with a common objective of acquiring maximum insight from consented data for the customer’s benefit.

If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.

The problem with social media isn’t just what users post — it’s what the platforms decide to do with that content. Far from being neutral, social media companies are constantly making decisions about which content to amplify, elevate, and suggest to other users. Given their business model, which promotes scale above all, they’ve often actively amplified extreme, divisive content — including dangerous conspiracy theories and misinformation. It’s time for regulators to step in.

One of the challenges in developing AI applications is obtaining the vast amount of data that’s required. Making matters worse, regulations and privacy issues pose obstacles to firms’ sharing their data. A possible solution is for firms to form a “data trust.” that serves as a fiduciary for the data providers and governs their data’s proper use. Willis Towers Watson recently piloted a data trust together with several of its clients. This article shared what they learned about how to create such a trust.

We are obviously at the beginning of what will likely be a long, contentious, and vital debate over how to manage personal health information in the digital age... patients have an undeniable right to privacy and control over their personal health data.