80/20 Thinking

80/20 Thinking Limited is a UK based thought-leadership, management consultancy and training company created to address the widespread and increasing need for corporate and consumer education in the fields of Privacy, Data Protection, Information and Identity Security and Corporate Social Responsibility. It is named after the Pareto principle of cause and effect (also knows as the 80/20 rule). It is a wholly independent company, owned and managed by its principle directors.

80/20 Thinking is a consulting business founded and run by Managing Director Simon Davies, who is also a director of Privacy International, one of the leading privacy advocacy bodies.

People

The company was incorporated in the UK on the 25th January 2008 and was created by Simon Davies, Thomas. H.D ee and Dr. Gus Hosein. Simon Davies and Gus Hosein, in addition to their work with Privacy International and 80/20 Thinking are both fellows of the London School of Economics.

In addition to its directors, 80/20 Thinking (occasionally abbreviated to "80/20") has gathered the support of a prestigious advisory board, including Sir Howard Davies, Director of the L.S.E, Jerry Fishenden – National Technology Advisor for Microsoft, The rt. Hon The Earl of Northesk, The Countess of Mar, and prominent business leaders such as Ray Stanton, Head of Business & Continuity for British Telecom, Prof Wendy Hall CBE – Southampton University.

The company has aligned itself with “strategic partners” such as leading law firm Covington & Burling , Public Affairs and P.R firm Burson-Marsteller, Academic Partner the London School of Economics and others.

Notable clients

Among the company's clients are:

• Facebook
• Ebay
• Aol
• Vodafone
• Microsoft
• Ebay
• Phorm
• BT

In addition to working and advising these companies (and others) on and individual basis, the company has also consolidated its efforts in the form of a newly announced project – the W.G.C.C - the Working Group for Consumer Consent. This project aims to unite regulator requirements with industry ambitions following the well documented “article 29” ruling concerning Personally Identifiable Information. (See Article 29).

The Financial Times profiled the company at its inception, giving an overview of its work and that of its Director as part of a wider piece covering Privacy.

Consulting activities

The company offers a range of services including the P.I.A offering – a Privacy Risk Assessment, designed to assess and advise companies on their privacy and consumer data policies, advise on strategic and corporate management structure and change, and generally promote and enhance the internal view and importance of Privacy.

80/20 also offers training in the privacy space, both via its academic partner, the L.S.E and bespoke in-house training programs for companies.

The third service offering of the firm is to source, evaluate, train and position, privacy qualified and conscientious individuals into such roles as CPO (Chief Privacy Officer) Privacy Policy Director, Head of Data Protection and other such positions within the realms of Privacy, Information Security and Data Protection.

United Nations

80/20 Thinking is currently undertaking work with the UNHCR. According to a statement on the company website:

"The 80/20 team has commenced an international privacy audit of the registration systems operating in UNHCR refugee centres, focusing on fingerprinting technologies, The evaluation will commence in Malaysia and will then take place in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. 80/20 will be the external evaluators for the UN internal assessment and will produce a Privacy Impact Assessment for UNHCR."

Ethics and public service

80/20 Thinking declares itself to be an ethical and charitable operation – this is demonstrated by the fact that 50% of its overall profits will be annually donated to charity. The website announces Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as its charitable partner. On its website, APC announced the partnership as of April 2008. The aim of the partnership is to support initiatives in developing countries that are working towards strengthening democratic processes and civil liberties.

The partnership will offer a form of independent income that can be used to further APC’s internet rights agenda.

In addition to its client focused auditing processes and training, the company has engaged with regulators (such as the Information Commissioners Office), Industry and consumers to create think-tank groups, policy discussion round-tables and interactive workshops in a bid to improve and consolidate industry awareness of the topical and emerging issues around Privacy within Enterprise and Government.

Controversy

From the start, 80/20 Thinking was subject to well publicised controversy in relation to its involvement with online marketing firm Phorm. Phorm commissioned 80/20 Thinking to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment (P.I.A) prior to its UK public launch. The controversy related in particular to the involvement of Davies and Hosein as perception was widespread that Privacy International was endorsing Phorm. Davies later released a statement confirming that this was solely an 80/20 Thinking Project and that Privacy International was not in the business of conducting P.I.A's for private ventures much less promoting their services.

This was extensively covered in online and offline media, perhaps most noticeably in the article written by Charles Arthur of The Guardian.

Davies said:

"The record needs to be set out in full regarding the "conflict of interest" claim relating to 80/20 Thinking and Privacy International. I have no objection to public discussion about the matter, as long as the facts are laid out in full, rather than relying on a twisted, abbreviated account. Will people please read our report to Phorm. Read it in its brief entirety, once you'll do, you'll realise that there are no conflicts whatever. In that report we argue that the system should be opt-in, that there are unresolved questions, that the matter of legal compliance is irrelevant to the issue of intrusion."

On Tuesday April 15th - 80/20 Thinking facilitated a "Town Hall" debate with open participation from public and media, at which Phorm CEO Kent Ertugral assured the audience of the strong commitment to Privacy within the Phorm process and technology. The event overview can be found on the 80/20 Thinking website.

The Phorm - 80/20 Thinking relationship endured and led to a number of both media and industry discussions, the outcome being that the P.I.A was a useful and positive engagement and a significant step towards improving dialogue and relations between the company and consumers. 80/20 Thinking continues to be retained by Phorm to provide Privacy advice and training.

External links

• 80/20 Thinking's Website
• London School of Economics