Introduction
There has been a tectonic shift in the importance of data protection and privacy since the pandemic.
The remote workforce trend, coupled with penetration of broadband, the internet of things and the data revolution has led to a massive increase in internet-connected devices, and correspondingly, data leaks and cybercrime across the world.
2020 brought in not just the COVID pandemic, but a cyber pandemic as well, as per a website called Government Technology.
Cyber-attacks have increased manifold - by way of example, the World Health Organization witnessed a 5x increase in cyber attacks.
Cybercrime will cost the world 10.5 trillion dollars by 2025.
Data leaks have been faced by virtually every famous company and growing startup - whether it is Microsoft, Twitter, Zoom, Zynga, Dubsmash, Digital Ocean, Mercato, WhiteHat Jr, Unacademy, etc.
A virtual/ remote work environment has increased the number of devices logged into the internet through open networks (not company intranets), leaving open vulnerabilities.
Further, a survey by Ernst & Young and IAPP revealed that the sudden need to shift to work from home to survive in the pandemic had led organizations to accelerate or skip privacy checks of various software, thus exacerbating the effect.
Countries across the globe have responded strongly by enacting data privacy legislations despite the pandemic so that organizations take measures to protect and secure the data that they collect, and that is leading to an explosion of careers in the data protection and privacy space.
Here are some trends:
- Global corporations which collect or process data of EU residents or have a presence in the EU, or sell software to EU-based businesses are required to comply with GDPR.
- Over 2020 and 2021, there has been a wave of data protection legislation around the world either being brought into existence or being revamped or amended, with many coming into force in 2021. For example, Canada is considering a new Digital Charter Implementation Act to replace its privacy law. California and Virginia have passed state-level privacy laws and several other states have prepared draft privacy legislation or introduced privacy bills. Brazil passed a data protection law in September 2020, Australia plans to review its privacy legislation, China and India are planning to introduce privacy legislation.
- Customer awareness around data protection has increased - platforms run the risk of losing customers due to reputational damage if they do not strictly observe the law, or are not fair and transparent about how they deal with data. For example, the change of policies by Whatsapp saw a mass exodus of users. This is going to increase available legal work in this area.
- The frequency and amount of fines being imposed by Data Protection Authorities are increasing, and owing to high cost and reputational impact, organisations are deploying highly trained professionals to prevent the risk of such fines being imposed.
Earlier this year, in January, a State Data Protection Commissioner in Germany fined a company a staggering amount of EUR 10.4 million because the company had video-monitored all its employees for a period of two years and stored the recordings for more than 60 days without any legal basis. These instances only increase the concern of the industry to get appropriate advice and implement proper data protection and privacy measures.
On top of that, the law is constantly changing, requiring businesses to keep on their toes about ensuring compliance.
This situation has created the need for organisations to build in-house privacy teams and engage trained professionals in various in-house and external roles, such as a Data Protection Officer, a Privacy Associate, Chief Privacy Officer, etc.
This work can entirely be performed remotely - freelancing platforms such as Upwork have hundreds of projects listed for GDPR implementation and advice, drafting data processing agreements, conducting impact assessments, and drafting privacy policies and terms of service compliant with data protection laws of multiple countries.
There is a huge opportunity for young lawyers, accountants and company secretaries to assist organisations with data protection and privacy-related issues.
Due to their prior training in interpreting rules, or in following specific processes, or in compliance, lawyers, accountants and company secretaries are very well suited to perform this work.
How can a young lawyer, accountant or company secretary build a career in this area?
There is the absence of intensive training which teaches how to perform multijurisdictional data protection and privacy work.
Some of the key tasks that learners must learn how to perform are implementation of principles such as privacy-by-design, drafting of privacy notices, privacy policies, binding corporate rules, implementation of various legal requirements, drafting contractual clauses for technical controls and data processing, performing audit and impact assessment work, and implementing a global privacy program for an organization.
Those who can perform this work can work in-house legal and compliance, policy or privacy team as privacy associates, privacy lead, Chief Privacy Officer, or as Data Protection Officer (DPO).
Many of these roles can be performed in a full-time remote environment post-pandemic, and responsibilities such as DPO can be performed on a freelance basis, without requiring you to obtain a visa or completing an LLB degree or qualifying to practice in a specific foreign jurisdiction.
Those who are planning to look for the highest paying jobs and most challenging projects in the market will find this training helpful in making proposals or performing client projects and in cracking job interviews.
You will also be able to set yourself apart in the market from those who have a certification based on an objective MCQ-based test such as the CIPP (Certified Information Privacy Professional), which is MCQ-based and jurisdiction-specific - through this training, you will learn practical real-life work, build a portfolio of samples, publish articles across more than 5 important privacy jurisdictions. If you have already cracked the exam, you will benefit by learning how to handle real client work, and not need to depend on entry-level jobs for the basic experience.
Certification
This course is recognized by the National Skill Development Corporation, a PPP under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India. You will receive a certificate cobranded by NSDC and Skill India on successful completion.
This is how the certificate from NSDC and Skill India will look as per the current applicable format (may change as per the approval authorities):
Money back guarantee
If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, attend all classes and do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or are not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money-back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.
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Client Opportunities & Recruitment Support where required
Many employers, law firms and companies are happy to recruit our high performing students. If you do well in your exercises and classes, we can help you to get jobs, internships and assessment internships in good law firms, with renowned lawyers as well as in various companies.
Our team helps our students in building their profile on LinkedIn and freelancing platforms to increase their reach to potential recruiters or clients.
Our experts guide the students on how to crack any interview.
On-demand, we provide mock interviews for our students looking for jobs.
We share multiple internship/recruitment opportunities every week on our Whatsapp group.
We help our students to get internships not only at law firms and chambers but also with rising startups in diverse sectors.
Our mentorship helps students to avoid running in the rat race behind the regular job openings; rather we help them design their own path based on their personal interests.
We share multiple and diverse client opportunities with our pool of practicing advocates on a daily basis. Our references have helped several advocates really scale up their practice. The opportunities range from contract drafting to complex international taxation matters.
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