Obama's Executive Order Spotlights, Boosts Privacy Issue, IAPP Executives Say
President Barack Obama's latest executive order creating a Federal Privacy Council boosts the privacy profession and spotlights the need for privacy along with security, wrote two top executives with the International Association of Privacy Professionals in a piece posted Thursday…
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on the group's website. IAPP President-CEO Trevor Hughes and Omer Tene, vice president-research and education, said the Tuesday executive order, which was part of a larger cybersecurity plan (see 1602090068), is "focused on fomenting agency and inter-agency privacy management programs; creating and sharing best practices for protecting privacy and implementing appropriate privacy safeguards; and improving the processes for hiring, training, and professional development of privacy professionals in government." The executive order also recognized that privacy is "a key standalone concept" that must be considered along with data security, they wrote. "It means being transparent, responsible, and ethical in organizational uses of personal data, managing individuals’ expectations, and minimizing data flows." They said the "dichotomy between privacy and security is a false one," and the concepts are "two sides of the same coin." For instance, without privacy, they said, surveillance agencies would do their jobs unfettered by human rights considerations and employers would scrutinize their workers' every move. Hughes and Tene said the executive order is the beginning of a process for more privacy-conscious workers and privacy that is translated into action.