We explore the evolution of the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) role from a reactive, compliance-focused position to a dynamic, multi-disciplinary leadership role. This includes, the expanding responsibilities of modern privacy leaders, including team management, technological fluency, business acumen, and customer-centric strategy.
Jump to:
- From side hustle to strategic leadership
- The expanding scope of the Privacy Officer
- Today’s CPO: A multi-hyphenate leader
- The CPO as a renaissance professional
- Why strong Consent and Preference Management partners matter
From side hustle to strategic leadership
In the early days of privacy – before privacy was a “thing” – individuals responsible for privacy often wore multiple hats. These early privacy pros typically had a primary role in legal, compliance, or marketing and either volunteered (or were “voluntold”) to take on privacy as a side hustle. At the time, few Chief Privacy Officers (CPOs) existed, and privacy was treated as an afterthought, mostly in a reactive way.
As privacy regulations like Canada’s PIPEDA, the EU’s GDPR, and similar laws emerged, organizations were required to designate privacy leaders. This regulatory shift, combined with growing complexity, led to the rise of full-time privacy professionals and a more proactive approach to privacy management.
The expanding scope of the Privacy Officer
During the middle years of privacy, a typical privacy officer’s responsibilities included:
- Advising internal teams on data use
- Conducting data inventories and impact assessments
- Managing privacy inboxes and rights requests
- Drafting privacy notices
In larger or more mature organizations, the role expanded to include formal programs like Privacy by Design, testing processes, and advocacy initiatives.
Today’s CPO: A multi-hyphenate leader
Now, though, the privacy officer role is exponentially more complicated and requires broad knowledge as well as deep expertise in local privacy requirements. Today’s Chief Privacy Officer must have expertise across multiple domains.
Manage teams
The increased visibility, complexity, and volume of privacy activities mean that a single person is no longer able to do the work within any but the smallest of companies. A Privacy Officer or Chief Privacy Officer will require a team to complete even the most basic of privacy tasks, which means that team management is a critical CPO skill.
Moreover, as technology becomes more central to operations, it assists privacy efforts as well as brings with it special privacy problems for the team to solve. This means that a privacy team that includes technical members is likely, so a CPO may need to effectively manage operational, legal, and technical team members.
Understand technology
Privacy Enabling Technologies (PETs) have the potential to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of privacy activities. Technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, also bring into play special privacy and security concerns.
The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), a global privacy information and certification company, now offers AI- and IT-specific privacy certifications in addition to general and jurisdiction-focused certifications.
Therefore, it is useful for any CPO to appreciate technology, both in terms of how it can help the privacy effort, and how it can bring its own privacy concerns (and how to solve them). A CPO who understands technology and technology development lifecycles will more easily speak and work with critical security, information technology, and data-driven partners inside and outside of the organization.
Have business acumen
Privacy is no longer solely the determiner of which customers can receive direct marketing communications, and which cannot. Since data is the fuel that powers all facets of a business, privacy has the potential to impact the entire organization, end to end. Today’s privacy professional must understand not only marketing practices, but also customer experience expectations, product development cycles, competitive pressures, technology constraints, human resources questions and trends, whole-company regulatory demands, and many other factors that contribute to a company’s success or failure.
In other words, to enable a company to meet its goals and evolve from cost center to competitive edge, the CPO will need to deeply understand their company and its marketplace.
Operationalize compliance requirements
As privacy has shifted from a reactive to a proactive motion, the successful CPO can no longer content themselves with advising the business and then stepping back. Rather, today’s CPO must translate requirements into practical, efficient actions.
Whether the Privacy Officer manages a compliance requirement, such as individual rights handling, or supports another function like customer experience/marketing in its compliance activities, like consent management, it is the CPO who bridges the gap between what the privacy law says and what concrete actions the organization will take to comply with that law.
This requires practical know-how, operational experience, and process design expertise.
Know the customer
Privacy done well engenders customer trust, with that trust increasing marketing efficiency, higher conversion rates and revenue, and brand/customer loyalty. A customer laser-focus and familiarity with customer experience expectations, trends, technologies, and research will help today’s CPO collaborate with marketing, sales, customer experience, and digital teams to create a winning (privacy sensitive) experience strategy.
Navigate the C-suite
With privacy so central to a company’s success, a CPO will have the attention of any data-driven company’s leaders. The ability to navigate upper organizational echelons, tying privacy matters to key business drivers, is a skill that stands today’s CPO in good stead.
Privacy is no longer a side issue, but it is up to the CPO to keep privacy relevant across the organization and explain privacy pitfalls and benefits in a language that resonates with fellow senior leaders.
The CPO as a renaissance professional
In a way, the modern CPO is something of a renaissance person – someone with deep subject matter expertise in the field of privacy, certainly, but also with broad knowledge of privacy-adjacent fields like technology/AI, operational matters, all facets of the business, and communication techniques.
This evolution is similar to the shift of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role, which has changed from focusing on only foundational information technology issues to a much broader, business-focused scope. In the same way, a CPO must be fluent in not only privacy, but also business, technology, customer, and operational matters.
The new, multi-hyphenate privacy officer is a demanding job, but the profession is up to the task.
Why strong Consent and Preference Management partners matter
For today’s multi-hyphenate CPO, who must balance legal, operational, technical, and customer-facing responsibilities, consent and preference management is a strategic enabler.
A strong partner in this space helps the CPO:
- Scale privacy operations efficiently across channels and jurisdictions
- Translate customer expectations into actionable, compliant experiences
- Bridge the gap between legal requirements and marketing execution
- Build trust through transparency, control, and seamless user journeys
In short, a capable consent and preference management partner empowers the CPO to operationalize privacy in a way that supports business growth, enhances customer relationships, and keeps privacy central to the organization’s strategy.
