“The sky’s the limit” for innovation at Bumble

“Automating legal compliance allows us to dig deeper into the legal question at hand.”

Meet Teodora Pimpireva Tapping, Global Head of Privacy at Bumble.

In conversation with Josef Co-founder and COO Sam Flynn, Teodora shares the global dating app’s trick for keeping up with an ever-changing set of privacy obligations. Spoiler: it involves innovating with Josef!

What role can GenAI play in the privacy space? What are Teodora’s top tips for other in-house teams looking to build new, innovative solutions? Privacy at Bumble is now a “cool” and “beautiful” experience thanks to the team’s suite of compliance tools on Josef.

Watch the full interview to learn more, or catch our top takeaways below.

Tech makes privacy “cool”

Teodora says, “From the legal team’s perspective, we always think, ‘How do we make things cool for the business?’ But we don’t stop and think, ‘Well, how do we make it cool for us?’”.

She explains, implementing new tech “makes us faster, more efficient, and in terms of the bigger picture, you know, it makes us better lawyers.”

Bumble’s made privacy “beautiful” with Josef

“We needed to streamline how the business comes to us with privacy questions, so we started with our Data Protection Impact Assessments,” Teodora explains.

On Josef, “The business fills out a form that is beautifully created and very easy to fill out. They don’t have to go through a lengthy questionnaire.” The form asks tailored questions based on the user’s role, whether they’re from HR, the data science team, or beyond and it’s made operations smoother and simpler for everyone.

“We’ve since broadened the scope of the tool because, you know, the sky’s the limit!” she says.

In an upcoming tool, whatever information the user provides will generate the most relevant document based on their inquiry and kickstart internal processes in the Privacy Team.

It’ll mean that “users won’t have to answer yet another form. The tool will generate a Data Protection Impact Assessment or a Legitimate Interest Assessment for you. Everything will seamlessly be there.”

Self-serve tools allow you to “dig deep”

“By automating legal compliance, it allows you to actually focus on the in-depth analysis rather than filling out a spreadsheet,” Teodora says.

“This allows us, as privacy professionals, to dig deeper into the legal question at hand and not think, ‘Oh no, yet another tedious compliance question.’”

In-house teams, “don’t give up!”

Be patient, is Teodora’s advice.

As lawyers, “you expect things to happen straight away.” But you need to “remember all the time you’re saving in the future and how much better things will be,” Teodora says.

“So, while you’re building, it’s important to persist, because when I have gotten results, it’s been incredible. Our internal version of Josef is an example. When it worked after all the decision-making, it felt so amazing. It was like, okay, this was definitely worth it.”

Learn more

For L’Oréal‘s in-house legal team, technology isn’t an afterthought but a central part of everyday operations thanks to Legal Counsel and automation extraordinaire Candy Welsh.

Watch Sam’s chat with Candy to hear how her self-serve contract and regulatory tools have empowered the business and made compliance that bit simpler.