{"id":14391,"date":"2024-03-11T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T13:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/?p=14391"},"modified":"2024-03-12T14:45:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T13:45:43","slug":"dpo-in-the-spotlight-barbara-schoonjans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/dpo-in-the-spotlight-barbara-schoonjans\/","title":{"rendered":"DPO in the spotlight: Barbara Schoonjans"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this article we want to spotlight a data protection officer based on 10 questions they were asked by DPI.<\/h4>\n

Barbara Schoonjans , Data Protection Officer\u00a0 at Baloise , is this months DPO.<\/h4>\n

How did you end up in the role of DPO?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara:<\/strong>\u00a0 This happened gradually. Before I became DPO at Baloise, I worked at legal insurance company Euromex, subsidiary of Baloise. I was a legal specialist there and when the compliance function was launched in 2005, I took charge of the privacy domain. In 2012 I became a full-time compliance officer before moving over to Baloise to become a full-time DPO in 2018 when the GDPR came into force. So have almost 20 years of active privacy regulatory experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Which part of the tasks of a DPO do you prefer?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>I like the variety between providing advice in long-term projects but also do like responding quickly to incidents. I also like to provide education and training, knowledge transfer and awareness of the matter. GDPR may seem boring to some but I try to convey it in a practical way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Which event in the privacy landscape has affected you the most to date?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>Now anyway the rapid evolution of technology like artificial intelligence and tools like chatgpt where a lot is possible for improving and speeding up processes. But it also brings many dangers and privacy risks such as “deepfakes” where fake profiles try to steal data.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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How would you describe the role of DPO in your company?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>Permanently advising and also thinking along to arrive at solutions that are GDPR compliant. Being proactive and not merely a check the box in a governance process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What do you think is the biggest challenge for a DPO?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>DPO is a position where you will be involved in many processes, company-wide and across departments. You have to advise, perform assessments, handle complaints, report, … it is therefore important to know the company in which you work well and permanently maintain your network within the company.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Which technological evolution do you think has the most impact on data protection (positive\/negative)?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara:<\/strong>\u00a0 Artificial intelligence for the sake of speed and impact.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What are your experiences in the contact between the DPO and the data subject\/supervisor?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>Contacts with the data subject are unfortunately usually the result of a non-GDPR conflict especially complaints in an underlying file.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is your golden tip for getting data protection and information security higher on management’s agenda?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>Ensuring that you are well known to management and proactively thinking about solutions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is your Swiss army knife as a DPO?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara: <\/strong>Being reachable, giving understandable advice, not delaying, making sure you are also an added value. But also being very clear when certain things are not possible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And more than 30 years of experience in the industry, so you know well how an insurer works, helps.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0How do you keep up with new trends in GDPR technology and legislation?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara:<\/strong> Internally through monthly meetings with my fellow DPOs within the group Baloise .<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And externally through Stay Tuned but I also follow many professionals on Linkedin, newsletters, participate in networking events and speak with fellow DPOs, specialized lawyers,….<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this article we want to spotlight a data protection officer based on 10 questions they were asked by DPI. Barbara Schoonjans , Data Protection Officer\u00a0 at Baloise , is this months DPO. How did you end up in the role of DPO?\u00a0 Barbara:\u00a0 This happened gradually. Before I became DPO at Baloise, I worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":14395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[611,625],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14392,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391\/revisions\/14392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dp-institute.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}