“Privacy” has a strong chance as a nominee for 2019 Word of the Year. Thanks to our increased output of consumer data and a number of high-profile data breaches, virtually every industry takes data privacy into consideration in their business strategy. Chief privacy officers are making their way into corporate c-suites, and policymakers at every level are drafting legislation aimed at keeping consumer data safe.

But privacy is not a black and white concept. Consumers’ self-reported views on data privacy often conflict with the actions they take on devices. The privacy of children, health data, and biometric data have distinct and sometimes burdensome regulations. With so much at stake, a strong body of scholarly and practitioner research and best practices is emerging to inform the decisions at a regulatory and industry level.

The Innovators Network Foundation established its inaugural class of privacy fellows this year to support thought leadership and research across a variety of privacy issues. The 2019 fellows are:

Lorrie Faith Cranor, FORE Systems Professor, Director of CyLab, Carnegie Mellon University

Lorrie Faith Cranor is a leading researcher in both online privacy and usable privacy and security. She is the director and Bosch distinguished professor in security and privacy technologies of CyLab and FORE Systems professor of computer science and of engineering and public policy. She has co-authored more than 200 research papers on privacy and played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the seminal book Security and Usability (O’Reilly 2005). Professor Cranor founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). In 2016, she served as chief technologist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. She is also a co-founder of Wombat Security Technologies, Inc., a security awareness training company. Professor Cranor holds a doctorate in engineering and policy from Washington University in St. Louis.

Paula J. Bruening, Founder and Principal, Casentino Strategies, LLC

Paula J. Bruening is an expert with more than 25 years of experience working on issues related to emerging technologies, privacy governance, and compliance with data protection regulation She is counsel for Sequel Technology and IP Law, LLC, a law firm specializing in intellectual property, cybercrime, and data security law, and founder and principal of Casentino Strategies, LLC, a privacy and information policy consulting firm. Most recently, she served as director of global privacy policy at Intel Corporation, where she developed and coordinated privacy policy across the company, focusing particularly on the European Union. During her tenure with the Centre for Information Policy Leadership, she was principal drafter of consensus-based documents mapping an approach to accountability in data governance.

Ms. Bruening’s experience spans government, advocacy, and international organizations.  Her writing on data protection has been published in academic and policy journals in the United States and abroad. She holds a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Alexandra Givens, Founding Executive Director, Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Georgetown University

Alexandra Givens is the founding executive director of the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law, which focuses on emerging technology issues ranging from cybersecurity to IP law. At the institute, Professor Givens currently oversees an extensive new project to explore algorithmic fairness, privacy, and the rights of people with disabilities. She previously served as chief counsel for IP and antitrust to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and to its chairman/ranking member, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). She advised Senator Leahy and developed legislative strategy on matters including patent reform, federal trade secrets legislation, net neutrality, First Amendment issues surrounding online speech, access to medicines, and oversight of mergers and antitrust policy. Professor Givens served as a policy advisor on the Senate campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and was previously an active advocate on disability policy issues. She also was previously a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from Yale University.

Eric Goldman, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law

Eric Goldman is a professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law. He also co-directs the school’s High Tech Law Institute and supervises the school’s Privacy Law Certificate. Professor Goldman teaches and publishes in the areas of internet law, intellectual property, and advertising and marketing law. He blogs on these topics at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog, which has been inducted into the ABA Journal’s “Blawg Hall of Fame.” Professor Goldman has also written extensively about the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The California State Bar’s IP Section has named him an “IP Vanguard,” and Managing IP magazine twice named him to a shortlist of “IP Thought Leaders” in North America.  Before joining the SCU faculty in 2006, he was an assistant professor at Marquette University Law School, general counsel of Epinions.com, and an internet transactional attorney at Cooley Godward LLP.  Professor Goldman holds a  BA, JD, and MBA from UCLA.

Subbarao Kambhampati (Rao), Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University

Subbarao Kambhampati (Rao) is a professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University. Professor Kambhampati teaches and studies the fundamental problems in planning and decision making, motivated in particular by the challenges of human-aware artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Kambhampati’s research, as well as his views on the progress and societal impacts of AI, are frequently featured in national and international media outlets.  He has published over 250 articles on AI.

Professor Kambhampati also directs the Yochan research group which is associated with the AI Lab at ASU. He is the recipient of a 1992 NSF Research Initiation Award, a 1994 NSF young investigator award, a 2001-2002 College of Engineering teaching excellence award, and a 2004 IBM Faculty Award. In 2004, he was named a Fellow of AAAI (American Association for Artificial Intelligence, now Association for Advancement of Artificial Intelligence). He later served as the president of AAAI from 2016 to 2018.

Professor Kambhampati earned his Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Joy Pritts, Founder, Pritts Consulting, LLC

Joy Pritts is an independent consultant helping IT companies develop and implement innovative strategies, policies, and practices on health information privacy, security, and individual access. Ms. Pritts has more than 15 years of expertise in the health information privacy field. She founded and led the Center on Medical Record Rights at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute where, among other things, she analyzed and published reports on HIPAA, the Common Rule, federal substance abuse confidentiality regulations, and state privacy and data access laws. More recently, she served as the first chief privacy officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In that role, Ms. Pritts provided advice to the secretary of HHS and the national coordinator for developing and implementing ONC’s privacy and security programs under the HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health). She holds a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College.

What to Expect

Through the diverse set of interests and perspectives represented among our privacy fellows, we hope to enrich the debate on commercial privacy law and policy. Our fellows will contribute their expertise to national publications and present their ideas at speaking engagements through the rest of 2019 and into 2020. Expect to see our fellows weighing in on the litany of unresolved privacy issues currently vexing regulators, developers, and consumers, including how a comprehensive federal privacy law should deal with healthcare data, ways to improve upon the current notice and consent regime, the impacts of privacy regulation on the development of artificial intelligence-driven accessibility features, and much more. Check back on the Innovators Network Foundation website for further announcements and updates on fellows’ activity.