Google's job posting for a data privacy engineer has drawn attention to its reported efforts to build out a privacy "red team." The Privacy Red Team, according to the ad, works "to independently identify, research, and help resolve potential privacy risks across all of our products, services, and business processes...." Often criticized for its cavalier attitude toward user privacy, Google perhaps was persuaded to focus attention on the problem by the $22.5 million fine levied recently by the Federal Trade Commission. Google hasn't commented on reports about the red team, so it's not clear whether the unit is new or is being increased in size. A Kaspersky blog post says that for decades companies have used red teams. These small groups of security experts try to break in physically, attempt to infiltrate software and networks, or try to circumvent security systems. Google's effort to apply the concept to privacy, however, could be unique, it says. According to the posted position on Google's Jobs page under Technical Infrastructure:
Top candidates will have an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of modern web browsers and computer networks, enjoy analyzing software designs and implementations from both a privacy and security perspective, and will be recognized experts at discovering and prioritizing subtle, unusual, and emergent security flaws.
The search giant is hiring privacy specialists to join its legal team with posted positions for product counsel, privacy, as well as ethics and compliance counsel, data security and privacy compliance.
Image:
3d abstract security team with shields isolated on white background by Bigstock
