S3E3: 'Shifting Left from Practicing Attorney to Privacy Engineer’ with Jay Averitt (Microsoft)

The Shifting Privacy Left Podcast

My guest this week is Jay Averitt, Senior Privacy Product Manager and Privacy Engineer at Microsoft, where he transitioned his career from Technology Attorney to Privacy Counsel, and most recently to Privacy Engineer.
In this episode, we hear from Jay about: his professional path from a degree in Management Information Systems to Privacy Engineer; how Twitter and Microsoft navigated a privacy setup, and how to determine privacy program maturity; multiple of his Privacy Engineering community projects; and tips on how to spread privacy awareness and stay active within the industry.

Topics Covered:

• Jay’s unique professional journey from Attorney to Privacy Engineer
• Jay’s big mindset shift from serving as Privacy Counsel to Privacy Engineer, from a day-to-day and internal perspective
• Why constant learning is essential in the field of privacy engineering, requiring us to keep up with ever-changing laws, standards, and technologies
• Jay’s comparison of what it's like to work for Twitter vs. Microsoft when it comes to how each company focuses on privacy and data protection
• Two ways to determine Privacy Program Maturity, according to Jay
• How engineering-focused organizations can unify around a corporate privacy strategy and how privacy pros can connect to people beyond their siloed teams
• Why building and maintaining relationships is the key for privacy engineers to be seen as enablers instead of blockers
• A detailed look at the 'Technical Privacy Review' process
• A peak into Privacy Quest’s gamified privacy engineering platform and the events that Jay & Debra are leading as part of its DPD'24 Festival Village month-long puzzles and events
• Debra's & Jay's experiences at the USENIX PEPR'23; why it provided so much value for them both; and, why you should consider attending PEPR'24
• Ways to utilize online Slack communities, LinkedIn, and other tools to stay active in the privacy engineering world

Resources Mentioned:

• Review talks from the University of Illinois 'Privacy Everywhere Conference 2024'
• Join the Privacy Quest Village's 'Data Privacy Day’24 Festival' (through Feb 18th)
• Submit a Proposal / Register for the USENIX PEPR ‘24 Conference

Guest Info:

• Connect with Jay on LinkedIn

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Chapters

1. Introducing Jay Averitt, Sr. Privacy Product Manager & Privacy Engineer (Microsoft) (00:00:00)

2. Shifting Privacy Left from a Legal Mindset to a Privacy Engineering Mindset (00:09:05)

3. Building Relationships within Your Org and Enabling Privacy Engineering (00:24:40)

4. Conducting Technical Privacy Reviews (00:29:53)

5. Jay Shares His Data Privacy Day Activities Related to Privacy Engineering (00:34:54)

6. How Jay Stays Updated on Privacy Engineering Topics (00:46:45)