[Infowarrior] - DHS Appoints New Chief "Privacy" Officer

[Richard Forno]

New Chief "Privacy" Officer
http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1527022

After a nine-month search, the Department of Homeland Security has appointed
mid-level homeland security lawyer Hugo Teufel III, who has no formal
experience in privacy compliance, to be the Chief Privacy Officer for
Homeland Security.

While the Department interviewed prominent and experienced privacy officials
both from the corporate world and within the government, Chertoff instead
chose a loyalist lawyer with no real experience in the field of privacy
policy.

    Hugo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this leadership
position, having served previously as Associate Solicitor at the Department
of the Interior, the Deputy Solicitor General for the state of Colorado, and
as an attorney in private practice.  Hugo is a graduate of the Washington
College of Law at American University, where he was an editor of The
Administrative Law Journal, and he is currently pursuing a Master¿s degree
in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

I guess Homeland Security hiring practices are pretty much the same as they
were in the Katrina "heckuva job" era.

Word on the street is that the interviewees who had years of experience
managing employees and dealing with privacy law and compliance didn't even
get the courtesy of a callback.

Teufel replaces Maureen Cooney, a civil servant named to be the acting chief
privacy officer after Nuala O'Connor Kelly left the post in September 2005
to take a job with General Electric.  O'Connor Kelly was the first to hold
the position, which was created by an act of Congress.

As civil servant holding down a job intended for an appointee, Cooney, who
ably served as O'Connor Kelly's deputy, had little power within the
department, and her office did not release a single report during her
tenure.

Teufel, who will manage an office of 30 civil servants in DHS's central
privacy office and oversee privacy efforts in all DHS components, will have
fine appointed company underneath him.