Will different privacy laws alone protect us from different privacy concerns? There are numerous privacy worries in the world today. From collecting unnecessary data to storing them for a prolonged period of time, to not disposing them off appropriately, to not complying with different laws, the list of privacy woes is huge.
However, privacy cannot be about laws alone. While the majority of certifications focus on the different privacy laws around the world, just relying on laws to protect privacy will just not bring absolute privacy to end users.
How do we solve this issue of privacy apart from legislating good laws? We can start by engineering privacy into different roles within the organization or in short by having a “privacy engineer”. ‘Privacy engineering’ deals with the technical side of the privacy riddle.
Since, privacy is always at the intersection of numerous departments from legal, compliance, design and IT teams, a ‘privacy engineer’s role is sewed into different teams. They don different hats for the different teams and solve all the privacy issues keeping the organization logistically safe and privacy enabled.
The ‘privacy engineer’ will offer a decent reprieve from the different privacy issues that plague the different organizations today.
What does a ‘privacy engineer’ do?
The field of ‘Privacy engineering’ is in its nascent stages and it is constantly evolving. Even so, the role of ‘privacy engineer’ is broad and it may vary from organization to organization. But here are some responsibilities of a ‘privacy engineer’:
1. Design team and privacy engineering
A ‘privacy engineer’ will try to implement ‘PbD’ or ‘Privacy by design’ concepts if it is not already present. It is a well-known fact that ‘Privacy by design’ is a high-level thought of privacy implementation. As an example, if the design team, decides to change certain features of a website and incorporate more public interfaces, a privacy engineer can help them do so without impairing anybody’s privacy. They can also do privacy reviews for future product launches and ensure that all data is protected at rest or in transit.
2. Privacy compliance
While laws like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA and numerous other laws have been enacted, it can be tough for organizations to actually implement it. GDPR recommends organizations to informs individuals of a data breach in 72 hours and a privacy engineer can actually help implement it by means of automation.
3. Training and documentation
Not everyone in a company can be a ‘privacy champion’ or ’privacy passionate’. Keeping this in mind, a ‘privacy engineer’ can give ‘privacy training’ to different departments and help them to come up to speed to privacy terms. They can always give ‘privacy pep talks’ to boost the privacy morale and make everybody aware of privacy issues that might come up in the future.
Good privacy practices can also be documented for the benefit of all.
4. Cross privacy consulting
A ‘privacy engineer’ can consult multiple teams like design, IT, compliance and legal and help them be more privacy aware and implement it accordingly. As an example, a privacy engineer can study the data habits of the company and then assess it to make sure that too much of data is not collected from the user and it is deleted once it has been used. All data and privacy policies can be written clearly and transparently to the user with the help of a privacy engineer.
5. Incident response
In spite of the best privacy defences, privacy incidents will occur and a privacy engineer must decide on the best course of action if it has not been decided.
The above list is just a small set of responsibilities for a privacy engineer. The list may be more or small depending on each company.
So, what skills should a privacy engineer have to perform these duties? Let us see that next….
What skills should a ‘privacy engineer’ have?
Looking at the above duties, we can see that a privacy engineer needs a rainbow of skill sets.
However, these are some good skills that a privacy engineer is recommended to have though, it is largely dependent on the organization that is hiring.
- Some amount of coding skills
- Being a team player
- Good communication skills
- Passionate about privacy and security
- Ability to work horizontally as well vertically in an organization
- Having knowledge of the privacy concepts or holding any privacy certifications will definitely help in a big way
These are some basic thoughts on ‘privacy engineering’ and what a ‘privacy engineer’ does. Do join us as we uncover more privacy concepts in future posts!
Why Choose Azpirantz for Data Privacy Consulting?
At Azpirantz, we believe privacy isn’t just a legal requirement, it’s a strategic advantage. While we may not label our service as “privacy engineering,” our data privacy consulting solutions incorporate many of the same principles: cross-functional collaboration, privacy by design, and proactive risk management. We work with your legal, compliance, IT, and design teams to embed privacy into your business processes and product lifecycles. From implementing global standards like GDPR, ISO 27701, and India’s DPDPA, to building privacy awareness across departments, Azpirantz helps organizations create a strong privacy posture that goes beyond compliance and delivers long-term trust and value.
*This blog content is released by Azpirantz Marketing Team.