Golden Frog & Data Foundry Talk Data Privacy at the Texas Capitol

Data privacy talk

Last week, CTO Philip Molter from our sister company, Golden Frog (an Internet security solutions provider and a leader in the VPN market) and our Government Affairs Manager, Carlos Espinosa, participated in a panel discussion on data privacy for the Texas Innovation and Technology Caucus (IT Caucus) at the state capitol. They were joined by legal privacy experts Elizabeth Rogers and Aaron Gregg of the global law firm Greenberg Traurig.

The crowd of roughly 60 chiefs of staff, legislative directors and a few legislators listened to the panel discuss how to protect personal data while using tools like VyprVPN to mask your information while on public networks. The legal ramifications of not doing enough to protect public data on an institutional level were also addressed.

Most of us are aware of the recent Equifax data breach that exposed the personally identifiable information (PII) and credit details of over 140 million Americans. The company is already facing two class-action lawsuits. Government and political organizations have also experienced major data breaches this year, such as the Kansas Department of Commerce data breach in July that gave hackers access to over five million social security numbers, and the information of nearly 200 million voters that was left exposed by a contractor of the Republican National Committee back in June.

Attendees had many great questions, including, “How does a consumer know how their data is protected while using a VPN?” Philip responded, “We always tell people they should do their due diligence when it comes to picking a VPN provider. Golden Frog owns their own servers, so we can guarantee that customer information and privacy is protected.” Among other things to consider when choosing a VPN are communications protocols, server locations and limits on data.

It is essential that Texas lawmakers are aware of the vulnerabilities they face online, not only personally but at the organizational level, to better understand the digital threats to privacy Texans face and to keep our sensitive information safe at the institutional level.