This event page was archived to the CS News blog on 3 October 2018 as we reorganize the CS website.

Lectures in CS || Technology Can Save Privacy: A Talk by Dr. Latanya Sweeney

On Tuesday, April 3, 2012 from 4:30-6:00 PM in SCI 377, the Computer Science Department co-sponsored a talk by Dr. Latanya Sweeney entitled:

Technology Can Save Privacy (click for viewing)

Abstract: Traditional privacy safeguards for data sharing are rooted in consent and de-identification and past approaches seem ineffective in today’s data rich networked society. Popular applications, like those of Facebook and Google, trade personal data for services, and are acquiring unprecedented amounts of personal information.

To some, privacy seems lost already. But even though technology challenges privacy, technology can also save privacy. Recent scientific advances and technical innovations enable new ways of thinking about privacy so that privacy itself can leverage technical advancement. The promise from doing so is that society will not be bound by the false belief that society must choose between privacy and technology, but instead, society will be able to enjoy both privacy and technology. In this talk, we will examine some new models for privacy in today’s data rich networked society.

Students had dinner and conversation with Dr. Sweeney afterwards.

Dr. Latanya Sweeney is the Director and founder of the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard University. The Lab, formerly at Carnegie Mellon, works with real-world stakeholders to solve today’s privacy technology problems. Dr. Sweeney, a Visiting Professor and Scholar at Harvard, previously a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Technology and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, was recently appointed to the Privacy and Security Seat of the Federal HIT Policy Committee, the group responsible for advising ONC on policy for the new national health information infrastructure.

Dr. Sweeney’s work involves creating technologies and related policies with provable guarantees of privacy protection while allowing society to collect and share person-specific information for many worthy purposes. She has made numerous discoveries related to identifiability and privacy technologies and has had significant impact on American privacy policy. Her work has received awards from numerous organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Informatics Association, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Dr. Sweeney’s work has appeared in hundreds of news articles, numerous academic papers, and was even cited in the original publication of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Health Breach Regulation. Companies have licensed and continue to use her privacy technologies. Dr. Sweeney received her PhD in computer science from MIT in 2001. More information about Dr. Sweeney is available at her website: http://latanyasweeney.org.