IAPP Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT) Revamp Coming in 2020

The International Association of Privacy Professionals, aka the IAPP, is one of the largest and most forward-looking privacy and risk management organizations around today. Founded in 2000, the IAPP's stated mission is to help "practitioners develop and advance their careers and organizations manage and protect their data."

They have provided a valuable forum and a global community through which privacy professionals can learn and share best practices, keep abreast of privacy trends and threats, improve privacy management policies, and standardize the profession's credentials, concepts and terminology. The organization's three primary credentials include:

? Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP)
? Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM)
? Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT)

The third of these certifications is deep into the revision process. Byron Johnson, an IAPP manager, contacted me on LinkedIn last week to let me know that big changes are underway. I talked to him by phone this morning, and he gave me the lowdown on the upcoming changes for the CIPT and a rough idea about how the schedule for the new exam will fall into place.

Out with the Old, In with the New

If you visit the CIPT home page, you'll understand immediately that this is a technology oriented credential aimed at computing professionas who work in IT, security, or engineering fields. Thus, it seeks to ensure that those who earn the credential understand how to design data privacy into their products and services from the get-go.

The CIPT aims squarely at professionals concerned with topics that include secure software engineering, secure data management, and best security and privacy auditing practices.

According to an e-mail from Mr. Johnson, the planned changes are "not a minor change to the CIPT certification. Thirteen of the 26 topic areas are new within our exam blueprint and Body of Knowledge (BoK)." In fact, the exam introduces two entirely new domains — namely, Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design Methodology.

The revisions will add new content in the follow topic areas as well:

? Privacy risk models and frameworks
? Value-sensitive design
? Privacy responsibilities of the IT professional
? Intrusion, decisional Interference and self-representation
? Software security
? Data-oriented strategies
? Process-oriented strategies
? The privacy engineering role in the organization
? Privacy engineering objectives
? Privacy design patterns
? Privacy risks in software
? The Privacy by Design (PbD) process
? Ongoing vigilance of PbD
? Mobile social computing

And finally, content will also be expanded in the remaining CIPT topic areas, including fundamentals of privacy-related IT, automated decision making, plus tracking, and surveillance.

Mr. Johnson opines that the CIPT is a valuable credential that should be of great and vital interest to data scientists and analysts, software engineers and designers, privacy engineers, risk managers and compliance professionals. By design, this CIPT seeks to explore and explain the ways in which such professionals can optimize their organizations' privacy programs through proper and effective use of technology solutions.

How (and When) Will This Switchover Occur?

In early November (Nov. 6, to be precise) the updated version of the online training for "Privacy in Technology" will be made available. The official CIPT updated resource textbook will appear early in 2020, right after the end-of-year holiday season concludes. Dec. 31 is the final day on which CIPT candidates can still test under the current version and regime.

A blackout period starting on Jan. 1 will follow, during which no CIPT exam will be available. Sometime in February, the CIPT exam will go out in limited beta release (look to the IAPP site for exact dates and possible exam discounts during the beta period). Sometime in March, the CIPT will be relaunched publicly, with a finalized version of the exam.

Those who are already prepping for the CIPT would be best advised to take the exam on or before Dec. 31. Otherwise, it's probably best to wait for the new materials to become available, and for the blackout period to conclude. Those who aren't in a  particular hurry will probably be best served if they wait until the exam goes final and public.

That said, the preceding links for the new Exam Blueprint and Body of Knowledge are already live. Interested readers will want to jump all over those materials.

There's also a LinkedIn Live Video featuring the IAPP's Certification Director, Dr. Douglas Forman, and the organization's certification manager Bridget Morang, wherein those two well-informed drivers of iAPP training and certification talk about the upcoming, new and improved version of the CIPT and its exam content. Check it out!