Thankful

Here in the US, it's Thanksgiving time.

Yesterday I was privately thankful with some of my extended family, so, in the spirit of both thankfulness & privacy, I shall be thankful here as well.

Sometimes the value of personal data begins as one type of asset and transforms into another over time.

Here, an example that happens to be a true story:

Jeanette. This is a piece of personal information. This individual is probably a woman.

Jeanette lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is a little more exotic to the Western world & the personal information seems intriguing but not all that unusual in an increasingly globalized world.

Jeanette is a mother of several small children. A whole new element that gives us more to relate to her.

Jeanette once tripped over a tree root and hurt her foot. Medical information.

The soldiers that were pursuing Jeanette when she tripped over that root gang raped Jeanette in front of her children, chopped off her hands with a machete & left her for dead. Unspeakable horrible personally identifiabe data that left me shaking when I first heard her story.

BUT this is NOT a story about how thankful I am not to be in that desperate situation because there is more personally identifiable information that adds the appropriate context on which to begin our hermeneutic journey to evaluate the value of Jeanette's personally identifiable information as an asset to her & to us.

Jeanette did not die. Jeanette refused to die. Jeanette stood. Jeanette comforted her children & got to safety. She enrolled in Women for Women (womenforwomen.org) to get a micro-loan & seed money for a business that took no more than a few clicks of a few buttons for a privacy geek across the planet but took extraordinary courage, resolve and hopefulness for Jeanette.

Jeanette cares for her kids-- with no hands. Jeanette runs a business just like any entrepreneur. I can't pity or patronize this woman. She is too strong for that. I can only hope to be as strong as Jeanette to face challenges that are so very much smaller.

Jeanette stood. Her personal data is one of my most valuable treasures and I share it with you today.

A once benign piece of personally identifiable information, put into context and seasoned over time can transform itself into something entirely different. In the enterprise context, every individual about whom we store data is connected to us in some way-- weaker in the beginning and stronger with every transaction. Value that data; protect that data; govern that data as if it were one of your most valuable assets. It may be.

I wish for you and yours all the peace that comes from thankfulness in who we are today & hope for who we will be tomorrow. As I learned from Jeanette, sometimes all we have to do to begin the rest of our lives is to stand up and begin.

Just a Happy Thanksgiving thought...

(BTW Women for Women is a terrific group. Please check them out at womenforwomen.org-- their mission is to transform the lives of women who are in places & circumstances that will either create nations full of victims or survivors who excel in their community & on a global scale. It's a bold & daring mission. I have taken far more than I have given to this group.)

Posted at 07:24PM Nov 23, 2007 by Michelle Finneran Dennedy in General  |  Comments[1]