I Work in Privacy. But Most of My Job Isn’t About Compliance.

When people hear “privacy,” they usually think of:

Policies.
Consent.
Regulations.
Checklists.

And for a long time, I did too.

But the more I’ve worked closely with products and teams,
the more I’ve realised:

Privacy work doesn’t really start with compliance.

It starts with questions.

Questions like:

Should we collect this data at all?

What happens if this feature is misused?

Would a user actually expect this?

Are we solving a problem… or creating a new one?

There’s no template for these.

No clear right or wrong.

Just trade-offs.

And that’s the part of privacy that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Because it’s not as clean as frameworks or regulations.

It’s messy. Context-driven.
And deeply tied to how products are built.

Over time, I’ve found myself spending less time asking:

“Are we compliant?” …and more time asking:

“Are we comfortable with this decision?”

That shift changes how you approach everything:

• Conversations with product teams
• Risk discussions
• Even how you interpret regulations

This space — where privacy meets real-world decisions —
is what I find most interesting.

And probably what I’ll be writing more about here.