SECURITI.ai wins 2020 HPE-IAPP Privacy Innovation Award

Rehan Jalil, SECURITI.ai’s president and CEO, doesn’t normally pay too much attention to awards, but he did for their latest honor.

SECURITI.ai has been named a winner of the 2020 HPE-IAPP Privacy Innovation Award, which recognizes unique privacy and data protection services in the private and public sectors. The award is meant to distinguish operations that integrate privacy and elevate its value as a competitive differentiator and a centerpiece of trust.

“I think this really means a lot, especially coming from the IAPP, because our missions are so much aligned, and our mission is to advance data privacy and data security,” Jalil said. “Getting recognized by (the IAPP), I would say, is very rewarding. Not just for me, but also for my team.”

The vendor’s platform uses automation and machine learning to perform compliance tasks, such as conducting privacy impact assessments, gathering consent, assisting with data subject requests and assessing third-party vendors. It also features Auti, a chatbot that uses natural language processing to further help privacy professionals perform their duties within the platform.

Jalil said his company wanted to provide an all-inclusive platform to handle the entirety of an organization’s privacy workflows and compliance requirements, and he believes automation has made the goal a reality. He added the platform’s natural language interface and its “People Datagraph” feature, which scans for information across an organization to make a profile on a person making a data subject request, are the reasons why the vendor is able to stand out.

“These things combined really changed the arc of where privacy management is going. We are helping transform it from simple long data-driven privacy workflows to having the ability to achieve true data-intelligence driven automation,” Jalil said.

Winning the 2020 HPE-IAPP Privacy Innovation Award wasn’t the only bit of good news SECURITI.ai received in 2020. The tech vendor closed a round of Series B funding worth $50 million in January. The news came after SECURITI.ai obtained $31 million in Series A funding in 2019.

Jalil said the new round of funding further validates the work his company had put forth so far. The privacy tech vendor hasn’t rested on its laurels after its successful funding rounds. Jalil said SECURITI.ai introduced a new data intelligence offering that expands beyond privacy use cases. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze hundreds of data stores, automatically identify and classify sensitive data, apply labels for governance policies and identify risk.

Automation has always been the major driver of the platform Jalil and his team have created. Jalil knows the vendor’s success has been tied to automation, and he believes it has to be standard for the privacy tech industry moving forward.

“More automation is certainly needed and not just from a data subject right perspective or for audits,” said Jalil. “I think that’s where a lot more innovation is needed in this segment. In the end, it’s all about the understanding of the data.” 

Part of enhancing the importance of automation may come from SECURITI.ai’s recognition as an Innovation Award winner, Jalil said, who added it may motivate others to consider taking a similar path when they launch their own privacy tech companies.

“I think recognition by the IAPP will frankly change the arc of innovation and change how people see data intelligence and automation in the future,” Jalil said. “It’s the way to move forward. There will certainly be more vendors and we welcome it, because, in the end, the consumer benefits from it.”

Jalil said these technological advances can help privacy professionals advance beyond conducting their duties through questionnaires and web and paper forms. By having the ability to perform compliance activities in real-time, Jalil said privacy programs will be in a better position not only to meet their requirements, but also to better protect the information in their stead.

Jalil understands this transition will happen gradually, and he’s happy for SECURITI.ai to play any role it can to help.

“We do think there’s a journey forward where there’s up-to-date, real knowledge of the underlying data and every action, every control, every PIA and every (data protection impact assessment) and is determined by real intelligence of the data,” Jalil said. “Industries can evolve from it and adopt it. I think it’s going to be a journey, and we want to support it along the way.”

SECURITI.ai will be presented with the 2020 HPE-IAPP Privacy Innovation Award at an upcoming IAPP KnowledgeNet meeting.

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash