Well apparently my phone interview didn’t go as well as I thought and they determined my technical skills didn’t match the position. Onward and upward! I still think my proposed solution to their password resetting problem was at least mildly innovative. I certainly haven’t seen any other social networking type sites utilizing a similar system, basically getting your friends to authenticate you. Granted, it has little application outside social networking sites (though I am brainstorming on a similar implementation for my current employer dealing with initial passwords).
Finding a job in Privacy is certainly proving more difficult than I expected. I guess my job constraints are really limiting the market for me. That’s why I was hopeful about the Border Stylo job because at least in terms of job responsibilities the mix was complementary with my skills. Note to self: next time study up on the standard interview questions.
It’s interesting that the IAPP report, A Call for Agility: the next-generation privacy professional, seems to reiterate the fact that a combination of legal and technical skills are crucial, that the generation privacy professional is a privacy engineer, utilizing privacy by design to influence organizations across functional lines.
While there is little debate as to whether privacy professionals ought to have a basic grasp of legal and technical concepts around data privacy and security, experts’ opinions diverged on whether tomorrow’s privacy professional would by necessity need a legal or technical degree. The central role of regulatory and IT drivers shaping the privacy profession almost ensures an ongoing need for privacy professionals to be conversant in not one, but both of these disciplines . . .
Quite simply, if people do embed these types of innovations into their daily lives, a new role may materialize: the privacy engineer. Companies that hope to market their innovations to a public more informed about their privacy risks will need to hire engineers who are also privacy experts. Their task will be to “bake in” privacy to their product designs.
It does not appear this privacy engineer position has gained much traction. The vast majority of open privacy positions I’ve encountered are more geared toward assuring compliance rather than proactive use of privacy as a differentiator. I’m sure, as the IAPP report suggest, that the role of Privacy Engineer will be more prevalent over the next decade, but it sure isn’t the status quo yet.