The fifth annual Helsinki Information Law Moot court competition was held Friday, 17 March. The Helsinki Information Law Moot is a competition aimed at helping students excel in the discipline of information law. The competition gathers people and students worldwide to explore topics including privacy and data protection, access to documents, governmental surveillance and more. The organizers — Tobias Bräutigam, CIPP/E, CIPM, FIP, a partner and Head of Data Protection at the law firm Bird &... Read More

What am I worth and how do I increase my value as a privacy professional? What do I need to pay my privacy staff to attract and retain them? These are the recurring questions hiring managers and specialists have asked for the last two decades as the privacy profession exploded and morphed in multiple directions, and resource models have increasingly become strained. Why have they been so hard to answer? The short answer is: constant flux. Since I joined the privacy ranks in 2000, near the birth... Read More

The largest companies across the technology sector have been hit by tens of thousands of layoffs in recent months. Unable to maintain major growth experienced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many such companies look to cut back and privacy professionals have not been immune. Just last week, Google announced it is laying off 12,000 employees and Amazon notified employees of a second round of layoffs as part of a plan to reduce staff by 18,000 people. Earlier this month, Salesforce cu... Read More

WilmerHale Partner Kirk Nahra, CIPP/US, was featured on the “How I Lawyer” podcast hosted by Georgetown University law professor Jonah Perlin. Nahra, a former member of the IAPP Board of Directors and winner of the 2021 Vanguard Award, discussed how the privacy legal field did not exist when he first started his career. He also touched on how various aspects of law eventually led him to pursue a career in privacy and data security.Full Story... Read More

Growing up with a deep passion for sharks that left her wanting to “spend all day everyday with them,” Melanie Ensign pursued a college degree in marine biology. About halfway through the program, Ensign realized she was not particularly excited by jobs in the field, so she changed course, a decision that ultimately led her to cybersecurity and privacy. “If you were to ask me, was it a waste of time for me to study marine biology if this is where I was going to end up? Absolutely not,” said Ens... Read More

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present new privacy challenges from mandated vaccinations to remote work, and new privacy laws and regulations emerge throughout the U.S. and across the world, the need for privacy professionals shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the privacy job market is seeing the opposite, TRU Staffing Partners Founder and CEO Jared Coseglia and Hintze Law Founder and Managing Partner Susan Hintze, CIPP/US, CIPT, FIP, said during a LinkedIn Live with IAPP Senior We... Read More

When Anna Zeiter, CIPP/E, CIPM, started her law career 12 years ago, she knew three things for certain. “I never wanted to work in privacy, I never wanted to work in-house and I never wanted to work in Switzerland,” she said, adding, “You have plans and life has other plans.” Zeiter has a Ph.D. in free speech and, after graduating wanted a career in media law, started out on that path as an associate with DLA Piper in Hamburg, Germany. There was a privacy component to the role, which accounted... Read More

Privacy professionals must answer mission-critical questions daily. Is it OK to share data with this strategic third party? Can we deploy this new marketing feature? Can we place this function in the cloud? Can we deploy this new monitoring tool into our workforce environment? Are we required to delete this data, and if so, what does this mean? Do we need to notify regulators and individuals of this event? Over the years, I've observed that highly successful privacy professionals focus on apply... Read More

If you are one of the IAPP’s more than 6,000 Certified Information Privacy Managers, you may have participated in a Job Task Analysis survey for the CIPM program last spring. While these important surveys fulfill an essential obligation as part of the IAPP’s ANSI-ISO accreditation, they also ensure we adequately keep a pulse on the evolving field of privacy as it relates to our certification programs. As the field evolves, so, too, should our exams. Below, you’ll find some highlights from the re... Read More

A job search at any time can be challenging, but in a pandemic that has left many out of work or furloughed and dramatically altered the face of networking with scarce in-person meetings, successfully finding your next position can feel insurmountable.  Privacy professional Brittany Charles, CIPP/US, a 2018 graduate of Syracuse Law who most recently worked at Facebook, has embraced that challenge head-on using the virtual tools at her disposal. She has identified other privacy professionals on ... Read More

Axios reports there is a shortage of privacy professionals at a time when it is critical for companies to comply with privacy regulations. "Companies around the globe are having trouble finding people," said Perkins Coie Partner Dominique Shelton Leipzig, CIPP/US, adding it's important "to realize that every company is a data company — it’s not just big tech." The report notes the "privacy profession is very much an evolving discipline," especially as law schools have introduced privacy courses ... Read More

This year’s IAPP salary survey has provided us with a detailed look at compensation trends in the privacy profession around the world. This piece highlights a few of the survey’s main findings, including the growth in salaries and additional compensation and regional disparities in pay. It also discusses ways that greater gender equality in pay for privacy professionals can be achieved. First and foremost, this type of research owes a debt of gratitude to those IAPP members and Daily Dashboard ... Read More

Since its launch in 2013, the Westin Fellowship program has sent eight privacy professionals out into the world after spending some considerable time dedicated to the research center here at the IAPP. The Privacy Advisor recently caught up with seven of them to talk about life on the other side; the challenges they’ve faced so far and what advice they might share with someone looking to break into the privacy space. The general takeaway? Get involved, read a lot and reach out to fellow privacy ... Read More