Position Opening: Visiting Program Officer for Privacy | SPARC

The transition to online platforms for education and research—even open ones—has created new, complex, and unprecedented threats to libraries’ commitment to protecting user privacy. Vendors’ involvement in surveillance, even in areas that extend beyond the scope of their scholarly products, stands in direct contradiction to libraries’ core values and all but ensures that more surveillance will make its way into products used throughout the academic enterprise. The erosion of privacy protections and growth of surveillance has become increasingly evident throughout SPARC’s work.

SPARC, a project of the New Venture Fund, is seeking a Visiting Program Officer (VPO) to advance SPARC’s growing work related to privacy and surveillance. The aim of this position will be to educate SPARC members about privacy threats and provide avenues of support for libraries in taking action to address these threats.

While candidates should have a commitment to addressing privacy and surveillance threats, expert-level knowledge of these issues is not a requirement. The VPO will be supported by expertise from the SPARC team and experts from the wider community.

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