Combining Institutional and Personal Data

This question asks if you mix your customer's data with information from other sources - even if that data has been anonymized or had names removed. It's like asking if you combine ingredients from different suppliers in your recipe. For example, enriching customer university data with public LinkedIn profiles, or combining their user data with third-party marketing databases. Even 'anonymous' data can often be re-identified when combined.

Data combination without disclosure can violate contracts and privacy laws, leading to immediate termination and legal action. The Cambridge Analytica scandal showed how combining data sources can destroy companies. However, transparent and ethical data combination can provide valuable insights that differentiate your service. The key is explicit consent and clear value delivery to all parties involved.

The biggest mistake is thinking that anonymized or de-identified data doesn't count - it does. Companies also forget about indirect combination through third-party services like analytics platforms that aggregate data across clients. Another pitfall is not considering machine learning models trained on combined datasets as a form of data combination.