IAPP: What’s happening at CDT? A whole lot

Angelique Carson at the Internet Association of Privacy Professionals recently did a profile of our organization, with comments from our CEO & President, as well as numerous directors and analysts. 

Nuala O’Connor, CIPP/US, CIPP/G, is a stenographer’s nightmare. If ever you’ve spoken with her on the phone or in person, you get it. The speed with which she moves and speaks can be dizzying. But move she does, whether you can keep up or not.

Since she started as president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), O’Connor has been moving at a dizzying pace, indeed. Following her appointment by the CDT’s Board of Directors last December, O’Connor has hired 13 new staffers for positions from general counsel to privacy director to “free expression fellow.”

“Someone said to me that I’m hiring superstars,” O’Connor said. “I’m not afraid to hire superstars. I want a team of hard-charging, fast-moving, really talented people who can go in a lot of different directions. The policy world could change tomorrow.”

Some of those hires were made possible by cy pres funds; some filled positions that were simply open. A nonprofit that aims to protect the open Internet and its users by ensuring it remains a tool for freedom of expression, the CDT is mainly funded by direct donations from businesses. From its HQ in Washington, DC, the organization operates offices in San Francisco, Brussels and the UK, driving policies on consumer privacy, security and surveillance and digital copyright issues, including advocacy for net neutrality and stronger legal controls on government surveillance.

“We see ourselves as advocates for the human being, for their civil liberties, their digital online liberties,” O’Connor said. “We’d like to see people thinking about their LinkedIn profile, their transactions with big brand names, as part of the digital self.”

Read more here.