Nowadays, many AEC executives are very concerned about their data privacy and IP protection. Seeing how big companies like OpenAI could use public data to develop a new generation of AI systems makes you wonder if your data could be used similarly to train AI systems. If not handled correctly, other companies may access your data, and in this case, you can lose your secret sauce or competitive advantage.

To protect your data, you need to have a systemic overview of how your data is shared directly in your ecosystem by your employees, clients, tech providers, and partners and indirectly within the ecosystem of your clients, tech providers, and partners.  

 

Let us explain the indirect exposure, as it might be new to you. When working with external entities, such as clients, tech providers, and partners, they often use different tools and technology solutions in their ecosystem that might unintentionally expose your data to the public world. For example, in the 2013 Target data breach, hackers could access Target’s network through a third-party vendor’s compromised credentials, and this data breach incident cost Target millions of dollars in fines and severely damaged its reputation. So, understanding your external partners’, stakeholders’, and tech providers’ data protection ecosystem is extremely important to safeguard your company against any data breach. 

 

How to do it? 

 

1. One easy starting point is to map and track how you share your data directly and indirectly. Mapping and tracking the various ways your data is shared can help prevent the cascading impact of exposing your sensitive data and IPs. A single breach in any of these can ripple through your entire network, affecting everyone, including your business and reputation_ like what happened to Target.

 

2. Ask the right questions from each entity to reduce the risk of your data exposure. Here are some sample questions for you: 

 

• Internal data sharing with employees.  

            a) How does your organization protect sensitive data from unauthorized AI exposure? 

            b) How do you monitor employee interactions with AI to prevent improper data sharing? 

 

• External data sharing with your clients and stakeholders.