data & privacy
Meta Mesh is one of the few nonprofit Internet Service Providers, which puts us in a unique position; as an Internet service provider, we handle a large amount of private membership data, and as a nonprofit, the respect we pay to handling this data is core to our mission. Before we begin, we wanted to let you know this blog started as a review of the policies and procedures Meta Mesh uses to keep data safe; it was about three pages in and our 7th reference to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, a governmental organization focused on measurements and standards) that we realized this is perhaps not going to be helpful to most people. So instead, below, you will find a short description of the processes and people involved in protecting the data of our communities and their members.
Like in relays, data privacy is a team effort involving administrative and technical teams at Meta Mesh. The technical side includes our technical advisory board (a group of community volunteers), contractors, and technical staff. Our admin side is composed of our board of directors and admin staff. Both groups work together to ensure our member's data is private and secure.
The technical team starts with the incoming data (personal, technical, etc.). This is where smart data management and technical policies combine to ensure a member's data stays safe. While our above list seems simple, this amounts to dozens of policies and hundreds of hours of work, all of which would be impossible for a small nonprofit like us. However, our Technical Advisor Board steps in; their collective scores of years of industry knowledge and experience help us build a strong network capable of protecting a customer's data. Even beyond this, placing the values of our community up front allows our team to make networking decisions that are best for everyone, thinking beyond just the technical to the impact on the individual household. Their work is elevated by the technical staff who focus on implementing and maintaining these policies, identifying gaps, and bringing in outside resources to help cover them. This can be hard work as it involves managing the work of the Technical Advisor Board and external consultants and keeping them aligned with the member's benefit and mission in the forefront.
Next is the administrative side, which is led by our Board of Directors, who make data security an essential part of the board's function within Meta Mesh. To help us achieve our security goals, the Board of Directors Audit Committee reviews and provides a second set of eyes on our security and privacy policies. Further, the Audit Committee helps define our privacy and security goals and keeps them aligned with the mission from the board's side. The last portion of work is in the admin and policies that make it come together. These involve items such as ensuring appropriate data handling to building policies around what we can report to stakeholders as we serve residents.
Whatever our role, every member of the Meta Mesh team is responsible for creating, following, or maintaining policies to help protect our member's data. A task we undertake with respect and humility.
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TL;DR We work as a team to ensure all the right voices are heard and all the expert knowledge is acted on to provide high-quality data security. From issues as simple as managing member emails to complex topics such as notifications on Firewall services, we are constantly looking to provide top security and privacy to our community members.
