back to article Privacy watchdog needs someone to explain technology

The Information Commissioner's Office needs you to help it deal with the privacy implications of new technology. The ICO admitted in August that it needed to "develop our understanding of the impact of technology on privacy and ensure that this informs our policy making". The watchdog is appointing a Technology Reference …

COMMENTS

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  1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    WTF?

    Wait a minute...

    Isn't this the same idiots who are considering deep packet inspection and retention of all internet traffic? Right hand, meet left hand.

  2. Velv
    Flame

    ICO could save a fortune.....

    Just feed an El Reg journalist the story of the new tech and wait for the Commentards to point out it's failings :-)

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      @Velv

      I'll take the job! I know a reasonable amount about this here IT stuff...and I have a captive audience of cynics to bounce concepts off of.

      Alas, I'm Canadian. I doubt they'll let me work from home, not to mention the bit where they'd get poo flung at them for hiring a "dang furriner"...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I'd apply...

    ...but I already have a job that pays handsomely for doing f*ck all. I don't need another.

    1. Alpha Tony

      I for one..

      ...would like to welcome you to the Register forums Mr Clegg.

    2. mmiied

      yer

      that is prob why none of el reg's fine top notch jurnos are willing to go in for gov work

      1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: yer

        People always think journalists earn a ton of cash. People are misinformed.

        The best-paid 'journalist' in the country is apparently that astrologer guy whose name escapes me.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    so

    Money on the role going to an ex high flyer from a big investor in privacy violation? (BT, Google, IBM, etc)

  5. Mark C 2
    Stop

    I'd apply

    But not for 40K a year and not in Wilmslow in Cheshire. At that salary they're not going to attract much talent.

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: I'd apply

      Yeah, pft, peanuts.

      1. Jonathan Richards 1

        To be fair...

        £39k is not an enormous salary, if you read the job and person specification. The post-holder is expected to take on a considerable leadership role and have significant experience in several diverse areas. The post reports to the Deputy Commissioner.

        OK, I know that we're meant to be bearing down on feather-bedded gold-plated trough-snouting civil servants, but speaking *as* an FBGPTSCS, I just invite you to consider whether you would get that sort of expertise from any of the consulting companies at a gross cost of say £50k p.a. It would be more like £200k, in my experience.

    2. John G Imrie
      Joke

      Was that for ...

      One or two hours a week. If it's only for one hour a week it sounds reasonable

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Perhaps....

      ...that's exactly the point....

    4. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Forty kilopounds?

      Where do I sign up?

    5. Ian 14
      Thumb Down

      Cheap advice?

      They admit to not being sufficiently knowledgeable about the technology and need to hire some help - that's good. They expect to get it for less than £40k a year - that's laughable. I know the pool of people they ought to be recruiting from - hell, I can list half a dozen excellent candidates immediately - and none of them are even going to bother reading beyond the the second line of the job ad that says "£35,816 - £39,137".

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Can Google help them?

    Perhaps they can hire a Google PR person as a consultant in the panel of experts?

  7. s. pam Silver badge
    Pirate

    DRUG ALERT: £35,816 - £39,137

    They've got to be fecking joking, for someone who can elaborate and support media, and others needs private industry would be IRO £90K-£110K.

    But someone's on drugs, and hiring a LCD will compliment the significant lack of clues shown by this quango!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All you need is commentards

    A daily scan of El Reg would probably reap greater rewards than appointing someone - anyone who fancies a job with the ICO almost disqualifies themselves out on sanity grounds.

  9. My8bits
    FAIL

    You'd get only the bad muppets...

    Not even Kermit the Frog (tm) would apply for that job given the pittance offered, and he was a good muppet.

    The job actually sounds quite interesting and challenging....However, one senses a slow painful death due to banging ones head against a wall may be the outcome in the long run.

    Pay peanuts and you get monkeys, or peanut eating muppets.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Q_Q

      I make less than forty kilopounds. :( I like to think that I am marginally more evolved than a monkey! Now my feelers are hurt. I am going to screech loudly at the people on the other side of the invisible barrier and fling various things around (the server) for a while...

  10. Gilbert Wham

    Hang on...

    Why the shuddering fuck does the ICO need a tech advisor? Shouldn't the INFORMATION COMMISSIONER be someone who knows about technology? Can someone explain to me, once and for all, why these idiots are not already on fire?

  11. skeptical i

    location, location, location

    40 kilopounds (tee-hee, Trevor!) -- which is what, ~ $80K U.S.? -- would buy a nice bit of tech knowhow in my neck of the woods, but I'm guessing that in real cities with real costs of living, 40K might buy a college grad. However, if the unemployment rate remains favorable (for management, not labor) and the foreclosure demons continue to cast their long shadows across the land, one might have better pick of the labor pool litter.

  12. mmiied
    Joke

    lest offer to all do it

    we could put in a coltive bid to do the job as a team and split the mony

    the reg could right the stories and we could all make scarcastic comments on them whail we do our other jobs and then we could submit a bill to the goverment. apart form the mony it seames to be what we do anyway

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