Guernsey politician, PR expert, businessman, musician, writer and keen runner Steve Falla is perpetually in motion.

As vice-president of the Economic Development Committee (at the time of recording, Feb 2024) he’s better placed than most to understand the financial challenges facing both government and Guernsey residents amid soaring living costs and increased demands on infrastructure.

In this Project Bijou podcast, Deputy Falla sits down for a discussion with Bailiwick Data Protection Commissioner Brent Homan to discuss his call for ‘boldness’, the impact digital connectivity has had on data privacy, and the critical importance of elevated data protection practices to support a vibrant and globally competitive financial services sector.

Project Bijou is the Office of the Data Protection Authority’s social initiative, which aims to harness the power of shared experiences and stories to promote ethical data use and engage people on a cultural level.

Storytelling is one of the most effective ways of sharing knowledge and can be a powerful tool to inspire change. Project Bijou is the Office of the Data Protection Authority’s social initiative, which aims to harness the power of shared experiences and stories to promote ethical data use and engage people on a cultural level.

In this Project Bijou podcast, Guernsey Data Protection Commissioner Brent Homan sits down with his counterpart, Jersey’s Information Commissioner Paul Vane, to discuss the shared opportunities and challenges of overseeing data protection and privacy legislation within smaller jurisdictions which are also global financial centres.

They talk about how regulatory co-operation can help overcome technological challenges, promote compliance and amplify their ability to protect privacy rights in the Channel Islands.

Alun Williams is the Be Active Education Lead at Guernsey’s Health Improvement Commission, a charity dedicated to empowering, enabling and encouraging healthy living in Guernsey and Alderney.

In this Project Bijou guest podcast, Alun discusses working with the ODPA on a fitness tracker aimed at getting Bailiwick children moving and his long, distinguished career serving the Bailiwick.

For this year's Bijou Lecture join Dr Vicki Nash for an exploration of online safety issues for children.

In this year’s lecture she shares her insights with the ODPA’s Data Protection Commissioner Brent Homan.

They start off by discussing how keeping children safe in the digital era means striking a delicate balance between our parental urge to protect them and the importance of empowering them.

They move on to explore the need for parents and children to openly share their experiences and knowledge with each other, and how education leaders play a critical role in empowering young people to be safer online.

Moving to the role of regulation, they explore the implications of the Online Safety Act which was passed into UK law in October 2023.

Finally, they take an imaginary trip to the year 2054, to imagine how today’s children will look back, as adults, on the actions (and inactions) of today’s tech giants, parents, and policymakers.

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⭐ What is the Bijou Lecture series?

The ODPA launched its annual Bijou Lecture in 2022, as part of its outreach arm ‘Project Bijou’ which aims to encourage the sharing of stories, knowledge and experiences related to ethical data use, in a way that benefits everyone.

You can access all lectures at: www.odpa.gg/project-bijou/the-bijou-lecture

* WARNING: This podcast includes references to rape and sexual assault and the murder of Brianna Ghey. Details of support / advice are available here if you are affected by this: https://www.odpa.gg/help-and-advice/mental-health-support/*

As most parents or carers will tell you, screen time is an ongoing battle. How much is too much? What are they looking at? Will they miss out on opportunities or friendships if you don't let young people have a smartphone?

As the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s first ever digital safety development officer, Laura Simpson has at least some of the answers. She is passionate about educating and empowering children and young people to make safer choices when navigating the online world.

Employed by Guernsey Police and based in the high-tech crime unit, Laura is only too familiar with the harms that can arise when people's personal information is shared inappropriately. Laura tells Katherine Levy about her role, how it intersects with personal data and what we can all do to help educate children and young people about digital literacy.

In the first data protection tea break of 2024 we meet the Bailiwick’s new Data Protection Commissioner Brent Homan.

Previously the Deputy Commissioner of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in Canada Brent has led a number of high profile investigations into areas such as facial recognition, location tracking and behavioural advertising to name just a few. He has also been involved in a number of global privacy initiatives.

Kirsty Bougourd chats to Brent about his plans to build on the existing work of the Office of the Data Protection Authority through a 3 pillars strategy of balance, trust and partnership.

He talks about what the regulated community can expect from the ODPA and his plans to continue to engage and support the islands’ population. Brent discusses the global aspect of work relating to data protection and how living in smaller jurisdictions can magnify the risks.

They also discuss continuing to develop activities and resources to support young people and to educate parents and their children about how new technology uses their data and can both enhance their lives but also potentially cause harm.

In particular Brent highlights the ongoing work developing a Children’s Framework to help set guidelines on the use of young people’s data in the Bailiwick and the need for people to take part in the survey to produce something fit for purpose.

Kirsty and Brent also chat about the big move and how him and his family are all settling in and embracing island life.

Discover the story behind Warro the Data Bear and her friend Bijou the Blue Tit. The book is the Bailiwick of Guernsey’s Office of the Data Protection Authority’s (ODPA) latest project to help engage young people with the issues around data protection.

Aimed at children aged 7-10 years old, the book tells of Warro’s adventure into a world filled with data where she learns about what personal data is and how it might created and used. The ODPA are distributing the book to all year 4 students in Bailiwick schools in November 2023 to tie in with the UN’s World Children’s Day.

Katherine Levy Spencer speaks to author Kirsty Bougourd about the book and where the ideas came from.

More at: https://www.odpa.gg/warro

* WARNING: This podcast includes reference to suicide, please contact www.samaritans.org if you are affected by this.*

In this episode the Office of the Data Protection Authority's Senior Investigator, Ed Chapman, talks to Kirsty Bougourd about why we should all be so careful with personal data - whether it’s ours or someone else’s. Ed leads the ODPA’s investigations into data breaches and sees first-hand the effect of a breach on the person whose personal data is involved, and also helps uncover how the breach occurred.

He talks about how we can all become complacent with personal data and lose sight of its incredible value, and how intrinsically it is linked to who we are. Ed also discusses how easy it can be to unintentionally cause a breach to occur and why following some simple steps can help prevent them from happening.

In early 2023 the ODPA published a document, written by Ed, explaining the Top 10 Common Pitfalls seen when handling people's data, and the practical steps that can be taken to mitigate them.

As well as talking about the importance of personal data, Ed and Kirsty discuss these pitfalls and explain the reasoning behind some of them in more detail.

You can read more about the 10 common pitfalls at: www.odpa.gg/information-hub/guidance/handling-data-breaches/

The Office of the Data Protection Authority is honoured to have Elizabeth Renieris, an expert on data governance and the human rights implications of new and emerging technologies, as our 2023 Bijou guest lecturer.

The author of Beyond Data: Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse, her passion for data protection was ignited at university when a classmate hacked into internal residential house directories, scraped the student ID photos of female residents from their pages and pitted the undergraduate women against each other on a website called Facemash. Her classmate was Mark Zuckerberg, who went on to control one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Introduction by Bailiwick of Guernsey Data Protection Commissioner Emma Martins.

More at: https://www.odpa.gg/project-bijou/the-bijou-lecture/the-bijou-lecture-2023/

In this episode, Kirsty Bougourd speaks to Matthew Parker who, for the past 11 years, has dedicated hundreds of hours of his free time to educating the Bailiwick's young people about online safety and data protection. In early 2023 Matthew was awarded one of the Islands Data Governance Forum's inaugural Bijou Awards for his dedication and commitment all given to local schools for free. He discusses his motivation and how the digital landscape has changed over the years.