In my world, privacy is survival, or as my grandma used to say, “You can’t outrun them, but you sure can out hide them.” Of course, she said that after losing to a turtle in a foot race. I digress. The point is that MGT 6727, Privacy for Professionals, could not have been more timely or needed in our current surveillance-capitalistic society, driven ravenous by its AI data craze.

Part of the online master’s in cybersecurity requirements at Georgia Tech is that everyone must take one “flex-core” option — a core class outside of their primary track. I reached out to a couple of buddies in the policy track for recommendations and couldn’t be happier with their suggestion to take Privacy for Professionals.

Professors Peter Swire and DeBrae Kennedy-Mayo lead the course, both bringing their legal backgrounds to the table. Now, don’t you security folks tune out at this point! There’s some great stuff in here with very practical implications for your work, whether you’re on the blue team trying to meet privacy regulations, the red team working to prevent incidents, or anywhere in between.

After a semester of outdated lectures that nearly had me waving the white flag on this educational adventure, the “Ripped from the Headlines” (RTFH) short essays kindled a new flame. The course utilizes these 100-200 word essays to validate students’ understanding of weekly topics by applying them to current events. And with the privacy landscape being what it is today, boy-oh-boy, is there plenty of material!

The grading is very test heavy! RFTH takes 30%, midterm 30%, and your final 40%. The course utilizes the same textbook as the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) uses for their certified information privacy professional (CIPP), making the course a great way to bootstrap another certification under your belt. We might cover IAPP’s online training for the certification at a later date, no promises. 😜