Francie KleckleyPrivacy & Data Protection Consultant

The former national director of Privacy Policy and Compliance for the Internal Revenue Service, Francie Kleckley has coordinated responses to high-profile data breaches across the United States. She holds three certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals and, though not an attorney, she works closely with the attorneys at Burnette Shutt & McDaniel to offer clients the full range of privacy and data protection services needed in today’s world.

During her time with the IRS, Francie was responsible for planning and overseeing responses to multiple data breaches. She served as incident coordinator, moving rapidly from incident identification to remediation. This work required extensive collaboration across the organization, media interaction, and acquisition of identity monitoring products to ensure a timely and effective response on behalf of the IRS.

She implemented a privacy compliance strategy to ensure IRS adherence with ever-changing federal privacy regulations. Francie also developed a privacy training curriculum for both privacy professionals and IRS employees. She led privacy policy development for the IRS to enhance the agency’s ability to ensure the proper collection, storage, access, transmission, and disclosure of data for the 150 million American taxpayers.

Her certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals include a Fellow of Privacy, a credential that demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge of privacy laws, privacy program management and essential data protection practices  The IAPP is the world’s largest information privacy organization. Privacy professionals earn certification only after passing stringent exams covering workplace privacy, limits on private-sector data collection and state and federal privacy regulations. In the case of the Fellow of Information Privacy, earning the credential requires at least three years’ work as a privacy professional as well as references from peers.

This combination of advanced credentials and deep experience allows Francie to help businesses with a broad range of privacy needs, from emergency response to developing sound policies and procedures. She can help organizations make informed privacy policy and compliance decisions and understand their obligations across multiple jurisdictions.

Her privacy and data protection services include:

• Data breach response, notification and remediation
• Compliance audits of systems and policies
• Developing policy recommendations for protection of Personally Identifiable information
• Staff training sessions and materials

All told, Francie worked for 36 years for the IRS, beginning as a revenue officer and rising to an executive position. She also served as the Taxpayer Advocate for the state of South Carolina assisting taxpayers in resolution of disputes and identifying and resolving systemic tax issues. She led an organization that provided nationwide guidance on the most technically complex tax issues.