In today’s episode, Lisa Fine speaks with Susan Cooper, Vice President of Regulatory Compliance Programs and Global Data Protection Officer at Meta, discussing her approach to compliance in the technology sector.  Susan discusses the path that led her to her current role, which is unique as her team is embedded within Meta’s product organization.

Being part of the product development team allows compliance to work hand-in-hand with product development through their risk review process, which assesses privacy, security, content safety, and financial risks in a centralized process for over 1,400 products per month.  It is part of their processes.

Susan also discusses how Meta utilizes “privacy-aware infrastructure,” embedding compliance requirements into standardized, reusable code components that can be used throughout the organization. She also provides some advice for compliance professionals, particularly those who are interested in technology companies, including:

• Learn to speak “tech” if you want to work in tech compliance.


• Get to know your stakeholders and their concerns;


• Keep a growth mindset – be willing to ask questions and learn constantly; and


• Embrace AI and automation tools to scale your work and keep learning about these tools.