About

Team size: Eight

Major legal advisers: Farrer & Co, Squire Patton Boggs

Kate Teh was well ahead of the curve ten years ago when she began developing an interest and specialism in data privacy issues while working
at Telegraph Media Group. Teh, an M&A lawyer by background, has been legal director of the media group for 12 years and is one of its most senior lawyers.

‘Nobody was doing data work at The Telegraph ten years ago so I started taking up the reins on it and have become very involved with industry and regulators in this area,’ she says.

The unprecedented rise of the digital age has undoubtedly rendered Teh’s skillset invaluable as the likes of Facebook and Google continue to face intense scrutiny from regulators and data privacy activists over how they use personal data. The emergence of ‘ad-tech’, an industry devoted to technology that supports digital adverting on publishers’ websites, has thrown up its own challenges regarding the legally-compliant use of people’s data online by third-party advertisers.

Teh has become an active voice for more pronounced regulation in the advertising technology space to help control the misuse of data for the purposes of targeted adverting. She is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Transparency and Consent Framework steering group. The industry initiative is trying to make digital advertising companies’ handling of personal data, through cookies and other tracking devices, compliant with GDPR. Teh also sits on the board of various media bodies, including NLA Media Access.

In response to calls for greater privacy controls, Google in January agreed to phase out third-party cookies, which can track users’ movements online, over two years.

Says Teh: ‘High-quality journalism is one of the foundations of our democracy that cannot be overstated, but it is under serious threat. As a lawyer, working for press sustainability and press freedoms in this challenging environment is something that really matters.’

Jane Clemetson, commercial legal director of competitor media group Reach, comments: ‘Kate is a very senior and well-respected lawyer. I work with her, as Reach’s representative, on a number of these initiatives and she is impressive.’