Usually, our decisions are less about compliance with actual laws and more about our own internal policies, which tend to align with whatever the highest legal standard is globally. First and foremost, we never want to risk progress toward the Mozilla mission of keeping the internet open and accessible to everyone. Laws tend to set the floor; they\u2019re generally just trying to make sure companies don\u2019t do active harm. But we want to go beyond that and be an example for the industry\u2014to show it\u2019s entirely possible to succeed in tech and build extraordinary products without vacuuming up people\u2019s data and squeezing it for every last bit of money.<\/p>\n
Tell us more about how you collaborate with other teams.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
At other companies, the relationship between Legal and Product or Engineering can be pretty adversarial\u2014Legal is seen as an obstacle to overcome rather than a partner. But here, our relationships with other teams are incredibly strong. In part, that\u2019s because we tend to get involved early on, and we always try to understand not only the question we\u2019re being asked but why we\u2019re being asked it\u2014so that if we do have to recommend against something, we can suggest another solution that will still help our colleagues meet their goal.<\/p>\n
And it helps that our Engineering and Product folks do a big part of our job for us. At most companies, the Legal team gets questions like, \u201cHey, we have all this data. Can we use it in this way or that way?\u201d Here, it\u2019s often, \u201cWe have all this data. Can we delete it? Or anonymize it?\u201d People really want to meet our internal standards<\/a>, which again, are often more strict than the actual law.<\/p>\n I think another big reason we work together well is that we know each other as people. My colleagues in engineering know that I do magic. I know about their hobbies, their kids, their life outside work. In a bigger company, or where those interactions are more rare, I think it\u2019s easy to be skeptical of what Legal is telling you. But knowing each other really helps us give each other the benefit of the doubt and trust that we\u2019re all trying to do the right thing.<\/p>\n What\u2019s challenging about your job?<\/b><\/p>\n Learning everything that\u2019s going on is my favorite part of the job, but it can definitely be a challenge to keep track of it all\u2014especially on a small-but-mighty team, and when some of our products are so deeply technical. When I was doing litigation, I still needed to have the facility to know where to go for research, but I often had more time to dig into questions. In-house, it\u2019s more on me to have enough background that I can already know the best solution or have it at my fingertips. Plus there\u2019s always something new to learn. For example\u2014when I joined Mozilla a few years ago, I had a background in intellectual property law that applied reasonably well to a lot of what we were working on at the time. But then we developed some paid products, and it became part of my job to look out for issues in payments law, which is very complex and regulated.<\/p>\n That said, there are some great, authoritative resources online, and we have a stable of outside counsel whose expertise we trust in specific areas. I also do a lot of continuing legal education to help me get background on new topics. And there\u2019s lots of institutional knowledge within Mozilla, not only within my team but also on the Product and Engineering teams. They may not know the nitty gritty details of the laws, but they know a ton about privacy and security in general and can help me figure out where to go.<\/p>\n Of course, they\u2019re also a great resource for technical expertise. More often than not, I don\u2019t have to get extremely detailed there; laws generally govern the \u201cwhat\u201d rather than the \u201chow.\u201d And I did learn a little code in college\u2014I was a double-major in political science and music science and technology\u2014so I can read it when need be. But really, I know just enough to be dangerous. So if I\u2019m working on something highly technical, like our enhanced tracking protections that block cookies and fingerprinting, I do rely very heavily on our wonderful engineers, who can not only do these things but explain them in terms I understand.<\/p>\n Tell us more about doing magic. How did you get involved in that?<\/b><\/p>\n Like most people my age who are into magic, it was something I found early on. These days, that\u2019s changed\u2014we have all these high-profile people like David Blaine<\/a> and Derren Brown<\/a>, and shows like America\u2019s Got Talent <\/i>and Penn & Teller: Fool Us, <\/i>and that\u2019s created a group of magic fans who are much more diverse, in age and in general. Historically, though, it was mostly people who got magic kits as gifts when they were kids\u2014as most young boys do, and more young girls should\u2014and that was the case with me. Then I saw a magician in a restaurant, and I was fascinated; I asked my parents to take me back three times in a week. That magician did a Paul Harris<\/a> trick called Immaculate Connection, where you link two cards together\u2014and he wouldn\u2019t tell me how to do it, but he did tell me where the local magic shop was.<\/p>\n So I got a book with that trick, which turned out to be very difficult, but I stuck with it and loved it. To this day, much as I enjoy performing, it\u2019s the difficulty and manual dexterity I\u2019m really drawn to. In fact, I\u2019m usually working a little harder on stage than most pros would advise! But I\u2019ve been at it for long enough now that even if a trick goes wrong, I can usually fix it.<\/p>\n I practice a lot, too; anyone who worked near me back when we were in the office has probably seen me take out a deck and drill techniques at my desk while I read some documents or join a video meeting. And I perform as much as I can\u2014I do corporate events and private parties, and before the pandemic I ran a show called the SF Magic Hour, where different magicians would go up every month to work on new material in front of an audience. I\u2019ve had several large crews of Mozillians come out when I performed at those; it\u2019s always nice to have a cheering section.<\/p>\n What are you looking forward to right now, with magic and at Mozilla?<\/b><\/p>\n With magic, what I really like doing is coming up with new tricks\u2014or new methods for existing tricks. I\u2019m working on my third book right now, which should be out later this year or early next, and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing my ideas in print so other magicians can build off of them. I\u2019m also excited about things getting safe enough to go back to live performance soon. I did get to do some different, fun, activities during the pandemic; I had time to develop a new trick and perform on Penn & Teller\u2019s<\/i> Fool Us<\/i><\/a>,<\/i> and I did some Zoom shows. But while I am happy to share magic that way, and I know people enjoy it\u2014it\u2019s still so painful to finish a trick to dead silence because everyone is muted!<\/p>\n Seeing people in person is part of what I\u2019m looking forward to work-wise, too. I\u2019m very extroverted; I gain energy from being around people. So I\u2019m excited to see my coworkers again, and to meet all of the new Mozillians who have joined over the last year or so. Beyond that, we\u2019re growing in several cool areas, both in terms of new products and in expanding how our VPN<\/a> works and where it\u2019s available. Mozilla never stands still, and that\u2019s what I really love. There\u2019s always something coming across my desk for which I get to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll find out.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Interested in working with Michael and the rest of the Mozilla team? Check out our open roles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"image](\"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/careers\/files\/2021\/07\/Michael-Feldman-309-600x400.jpg\")
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