howdy everybody I am Sam Fievel I'm the
content director here at the ia pp and
we are getting ready to celebrate data
privacy day and data privacy day is
surely a big day for raising awareness
around you know how do consumers can do
better with their privacy how they can
manage their settings all that sort of
stuff but clearly here at the ia pp we
want to celebrate privacy pros and who
better to celebrate than the privacy Pro
at the privacy Pro Association which is
not only none other than Rita Highness
here DPO at the IPP how you doing I'm
doing well Sam thanks for having well so
it's big pressure is what I think all
the time right like you know you're the
DPO at some you know company that uses
data all the time people expect there to
DPO they expect it to you know go this
way in that way the IDP like you kind of
have to get it right all the time
otherwise everybody's like even though
OPP doesn't know how to do privacy it's
a disaster so how do you manage that
kind of level of stress mm-hmm I see
well we we keep it very open mind we
appreciate feedback from our customers I
will admit that having people who
actually read everything you write is
makes the job a little more tense little
stressful because like it's like you
know 45,000 bosses right all of our
members are like I know how to do
privacy and you're terrible at it that's
right but if we get it right feel you
know we feel extra good about ourselves
that's true so so we strive to get it
right and I will also say that it helps
having alert members write in and tell
us when they think things aren't
transparent enough or they want more
information because we realize that not
everything we do is clear to them and we
could do a better job so the constant
feedback loop with very friendly and
accommodating customers is actually
really helpful so it's stressful but
actually a really rewarding way to do
privacy yeah well I feel like we're kind
of we can kind of make the mistakes so
they don't make them in some ways right
so what I love about the DPO
confessional is we kind of lay out our
thought process and we're not afraid to
say first we tried this that would
didn't work then we tried this that
didn't work we came down to this and
that's what you see and that lates all
of our member
they don't have to show their dirty
laundry because we just did they can
learn from our mistakes and they can you
know make better decisions for
themselves it's amazing how many
comments we get along those lines like I
was just thinking about this thank you
so much
yeah that must feel pretty good well I
would say that if I weren't so busy
trying to do it right I would write more
you know but so it is good there's
plenty to confess privacy is hard to
nail and the laws itself are complicated
sometimes really confusing like the
California Consumer Protection Act
so knowing whether or not you've guessed
what the regulator is thinking and have
reflected that in your practices is
virtually impossible so it's I think
hopefully a good thing that we can
express the complexity honestly with our
members and share sort of be on the same
side as them because we also understand
how hard the work is but if there are
nuggets of useful information then
that's a good thing I think that is a
good thing and I also think we you know
your job is most reflective of the most
of our members right so I think you know
the privacy teams that sort of get the
most press are Facebook Google Microsoft
they have big giant teams of privacy
professionals you know I remember
looking at our database Microsoft has
like 500 members with us or some huge
number but that's not most of our
customers most of our customers have
like one person or a half a person or
something like that
you're not even our full-time dpo not
even close you're like a general counsel
and a director of research and you have
like 17 jobs I think that's most of our
members that must help you kind of think
of new research projects and you know
better ways to help them yes in fact
that's how it was pitched to me but you
should become our privacy officer it
will make you better at all your other
jobs that's right here's where it is
easier for us than it might be for
others because our mission is privacy
and promoting the privacy profession
everyone at the IPP knows and cares
about it so when you talk to the
marketing team or the sales team or
anyone else about how we collect
personal information and what we do with
it and the fact that we need to be more
transparent or maybe even modify our
practices
they're open-minded they're accepting
right they might grumble but it's always
with a smile and then everybody pitches
right in so it would be harder to do it
an organization that was maybe less
appreciative of the role of privacy you
don't know you're not swimming as
upstream at mission to interpret the
laws strictly as possible and provide
everyone with the highest level of
privacy that we think the law requires
rather than try to do the opposite which
is to get away with as much as we can
right and probably not very many other
organizations have like I don't know 100
CIP P's or whatever we have on staff so
you know I think it's a super
interesting thing in that the the
scrutiny is both you know sort of a
positive and a negative and you know I
feel that obviously writing about
privacy I'm trying to sort of write
about laws for you know 40,000 or
whatever lawyers that we have who are
also doing their own interpretation but
it also makes me sort of take the job
more seriously I feel that pressure you
know so in some ways it's got to be a
sort of positive thing in that you know
it's not hard to sort of get motivation
for the day you know you've got you sort
of know that if you mess it up people
will actually notice whereas you know a
lot of jobs you can kind of have fast it
no one really cares I will say the one
the one thing that makes me gives me a
little stress is that if if someone
thinks that we have to crossed a line
they tell us that it's so ironic did
whatever usually it's an email they
weren't expecting and so we of course
provide them with all the opportunity to
not get them anymore but the fact that
they weren't expecting in the first
place means you have to go back and
figure out well how did this person come
to receive an email from us and how did
it come that they didn't expect it you
know but I don't want to hear ironic so
I'm sure you as DPOs are also very nice
on data privacy day and
we thank you for you know being members
and for us helping us celebrate data
privacy day and thank you Rita for
hanging all that you do for the IEP team
is such a model model you try thanks for
did you get dpi tattooed have a great
dinner privacy day everybody will see
you
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