Navigating Data Privacy and Law with Juliana Spofford
In this episode of Debugged, host Medha Gupta sits down with Juliana Spofford, Chief Privacy Officer and General Counsel at Aidentified, to explore the evolving landscape of data privacy. With over 30 years of legal experience in data services, Juliana shares how she stumbled into the world of privacy law, the growing importance of data security across industries, and the global impact of regulations like the EU's GDPR. She also discusses why the U.S. still lacks a federal privacy law and how students—whether aspiring lawyers or engineers—can build careers in data privacy. Tune in for expert insights on one of tech’s most pressing issues!
In this episode, host Medha Gupta has the pleasure of chatting with Juliana Spofford! Juliana is the Chief Privacy Officer and General Counsel for Aidentified, a data and relationship prospecting service. She has over 30 years of experience in the industry providing legal advice to various data services and law companies!
Juliana got into the world of privacy by coincidence, when she agreed to work as a lawyer at a data services company. Over time, her work portfolio started to include more startups, as privacy and security became more of a focus for companies of any size. She also mentioned how privacy is increasingly becoming important across industries and countries as the rate at which technology changes rapidly increases.
Then, when asked for a specific international body that has done a really good job when it comes to data privacy and ethics, in her opinion, she began to discuss the EU and its implementation of GDPR well before required. She notes how its implementation was especially notable and interesting to her, because the United States did (and still does not) have a federal privacy law. She later shared her opinion on why a federal privacy law might be beneficial.
Finally, for the remainder of the episode, she gave advice to students interested in a career revolving around data privacy—whether it be a lawyer, or even engineers who implement data privacy laws into software! Tune in to this week’s episode of Debugged to hear more of Juliana’s fascinating career insights, and advice for you.