Heather West
An information privacy professional, Heather has led standards and policy efforts around emerging technologies throughout her career. She regularly collaborates with stakeholders and policymakers in Washington, DC, and with global product and policy teams, to help steer the conversation on the role of AI in society and its impact on privacy and security.
Heather previously served as the director of the privacy policy team at one of the world's largest social technology companies, leading policy development around the company's work to develop privacy-protective product experiences, building policy frameworks that create accountability, and promoting privacy-protective decision making across the company.
Earlier in her career, Heather helped found the public policy team at a website performance and security company and served as the global and federal privacy and security issue expert on a multinational technology company's public policy team. She started her career working on government technology, privacy, and identity management at a public interest group focused on the rights of individual users in relation to technical policy.
Related Practices
Related Industries
Insights
Credentials
Education
- B.A. Computer Science and Cognitive Science Wellesley College 2007
Professional Memberships and Activities
- Fellow, National Security Institute, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School
- Co-editor, W3C Tracking Protection Working Group
- Member, Advisory Council, Center for Democracy and Technology
- Member, Advisory Board, Future of Privacy Forum
- Member, The Network, Washington Post
- Board member, Internet Society
- Board member, Internet Society Foundation
- Senior fellow, Digital Innovation Initiative, Center for European Policy Analysis
Recognition
- Forbes, 30 Under 30, Law and Policy, 2014