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Who Wants to Be NSA’s First Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer?


September 24, 2013 | Kyle Chayka

The National Security Agency has recently posted a new full-time job opening for “Civil Liberties and Privacy Officer.” This position is the first of its kind, likely created in response to the NSA’s recent — not so recent — blatant spying on US citizens.

The NSA Civil Liberties & Privacy Officer (CLPO) is conceived as a completely new role, combining the separate responsibilities of NSA’s existing Civil Liberties and Privacy (CL/P) protection programs under a single official. The CLPO will serve as the primary advisor to the Director of NSA for ensuring that privacy is protected and civil liberties are maintained by all of NSA’s missions, programs, policies and technologies. This new position is focused on the future, designed to directly enhance decision making and to ensure that CL/P protections continue to be baked into NSA’s future operations, technologies, tradecraft, and policies.  The NSA CLPO will consult regularly with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence CLPO, privacy and civil liberties officials from the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, as well as other U.S. government, private sector, public advocacy groups and foreign partners.

Whoever lands this illustrious position will be compensated quite handsomely for their services, with a yearly income of up to $173,000.