Role of privacy specialists in digital trust

🌊 The Privacy Professional Iceberg 🌊 Most people assume privacy professionals spend their time doing things like reviewing contracts, policy writing or managing data subject requests (DSRs). While those tasks are certainly part of the role, there’s a whole other layer of skills that often go unseen. These are the skills that truly make a difference and allow us to navigate today’s fast-evolving landscape of privacy and AI. What We Actually Do: ⚙️ Operations: Turning legal requirements into practical, scalable processes. Rolling those out and monitoring whether they work, if not, adapt! 🤖 AI & Emerging Technologies: Understanding new and popular tools and technologies and their impact on privacy. Getting ahead of this, so you have done some thinking prior to having to review them during your day-to-day. 📈 Program & Project Management: Building privacy programs that run across teams and jurisdictions. Ensuring projects are planned, executed and properly evaluated with metrics and KPIs is key. 👥 Team Building & Management: Attracting the right team and doing your best to coach and develop them. We’re not just solo experts, if a program is in good shape, chances are there is a group of brilliant people behind that. It’s about creating a privacy function that’s robust and sustainable. 📚 Continuous Learning: Staying ahead of new laws and technologies and what is happening in the real world. Trying new technolgies yourself so you understand what may come across your desk. 🤝 Stakeholder Alignment: Finding the how together with your stakeholders. Influencing across departments to ensure privacy is embedded while ensuring cross-functional alignment and achieving business goals. 🌐 External Relationship Building: Staying connected with industry groups, policy makers and peers. 💼 Business Acumen & Strategy: Business skills are so helpful and will make you more successful, especially for privacy pros in commercial settings. You should understand the business and your colleagues who are driving that business forward. Business skills come in handy while actually running your program too: from user experience design to organisational strategy, learning about this has all been helpful to me. 💻 Tech-Driven Compliance Solutions: Staying up-to-date with tech solutions to improve, automate and manage compliance. 🎨 Creativity in Compliance: Try and have fun along the way. For example, your training can be fun and entertaining and done in ways beyond just recording a video or buying one off the shelf. This was an impossible list, I could have added so many more. Pitching skills is another one! 💖What else belongs on here?

Privacy isn't just about privacy anymore (and maybe never was). That's my takeaway from a fascinating new report from IAPP - International Association of Privacy Professionals. As regulations related to privacy, AI governance, cybersecurity, and other areas of digital responsibility rapidly expand and evolve around the globe, organizations are taking a more holistic approach to their values and strategies related to data. One indicator: over 80% of privacy teams now have responsibilities that extend beyond privacy. Nearly 70% of chief privacy officers surveyed by IAPP have acquired additional responsibility for AI governance, 69% are now responsible for data governance and data ethics, 37% for cybersecurity regulatory compliance, and 20% for platform liability. And, in my opinion, if privacy teams don't have official responsibility for other areas of data governance (AI, data ethics, cybersecurity), they should surely be coordinating with those other teams. https://lnkd.in/gM8WGx9T

Privacy pros are no longer just advising leadership. They are leadership. This is Path 6 in my privacy career series. While executive transitions from privacy remain less common than other routes, three clear patterns seem to be emerging: The Entrepreneur Route → Former CPOs launching or scaling startups → A state CPO became co-CEO of an AI firm that raised $2.2M → A security lead at a major platform became CEO of a privacy automation startup within a year These are not incremental moves. They’re leaps, fueled by deep understanding of unsolved problems. The Strategic Expander → According to the IAPP’s 2025 report, 68% of privacy professionals now oversee AI governance → Titles are evolving: Chief Privacy and Trust Officer, Corporate VP for Privacy, Safety, and Regulatory Affairs → These roles shape trust strategy, product development, and public positioning. The Operations Bridge → Privacy ops professionals are becoming VPs of Operations and Chiefs of Staff → Their core skills—process design, cross-functional coordination, regulatory strategy—transfer directly → These roles reward the same strengths that make privacy work succeed at scale. What makes these moves possible? Privacy professionals are often the ones who can: → Lead without authority → Navigate ambiguity and regulation → Influence cross-functional decisions → Balance compliance and innovation → Build systems that hold under pressure These are executive skills. I’m tracking these strategies now. Have you seen this unfold in your network? What executive transitions have surprised or inspired you? Let’s make this path more visible.

As someone who has spent years supporting trusted technology that advances consumer protection, competition, and privacy, I found @Arlo Gilbert’s article on @Dark Reading, “Is a CPO Still a CPO? Privacy Leadership’s Evolving Role,” particularly resonant. The role of a Chief Privacy Officer has truly transformed – especially over the past few years!   Today, a CPO cannot think about just data protection. The intersection of privacy, security, safety, ethics and even competition and geopolitical pressures all impact the CPO role. For many CPOs, responsibilities now extend beyond compliance to ensuring ethical data use across a spectrum of issues including AI data governance. This broader scope is crucial for building and maintaining trust in our digital world.   Effective privacy management also requires close cooperation with CISOs, CDOs, CTOs, Legal, Engineering, CCO, CFO, and other key players. Teamwork is essential to tackle the diverse challenges we face, from data breaches to digital safety, security, and of course, AI.   How is your role changing in this AI era?