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Latanya Sweeney

Visiting Professor 2008-2010 Chief technologist, Federal Trade Commission
The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been in the minority… It will take such a small committed minority to work unrelentingly to win the uncommitted majority. Such a group may transform America’s greatest dilemma into her most glorious opportunity.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Background

Latanya Sweeney is an associate professor of computer science, technology and policy in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She earned an ALB in computer science at Harvard University, and both a SM in electrical engineering and computer science and a PhD in computer science at MIT.

Interests

Sweeney is one of the world’s experts in analyzing and mitigating risks to privacy that arise from the collection of large volumes of private data, a common characteristic of virtually all contemporary information systems. As an MLK professor, Sweeney assisted Prof. Hal Abelson with his Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier course (6.805). She also worked on a manuscript for a forthcoming book titled Connecting Your Dots: What they will know from what you leave behind.

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