Biographical sketches of Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D.

Vitae

General Bio

Latanya Sweeney, PhD creates and uses technology to assess and solve societal, political and governance problems, and teaches others how to do the same. One focus area is data privacy, and she is the Director of the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard. She has made numerous discoveries related to identifiability and privacy technologies and she 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, was cited in the original publication of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and was praised in the TAPAC Report that reviewed the Total Information Awareness Project of DARPA. She has also testified before the Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security and the European Union Commission. Companies have licensed and continue to use her privacy technologies. Dr. Sweeney is Professor of Government and Technology in Residence at Harvard University, was a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Technology and Policy in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. and remains the Director and founder of the Data Privacy Lab, now at Harvard University. She received her PhD in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her undergraduate degree in computer science was completed at Harvard University. More information about Dr. Sweeney is available at her website latanyasweeney.org.

Academic Bio

Latanya Sweeney, PhD is Professor of Government and Technology in Residence at Harvard University, was a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Technology and Policy in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. and remains the Director and founder of the Data Privacy Lab, now at Harvard University. Latanya's work involves creating technologies and related policies with guarantees of privacy protection while allowing society to collect and share person-specific information for many worthy purposes. 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. The American College of Medical Informatics inducted her as a Fellow in 2006. In 2009, the was appointed to the Federal HIT Policy Committee. Dr. Sweeney received her PhD in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, being the first black woman to do so. Her undergraduate degree in computer science was from Harvard University where she graduated cum laude. More information about Dr. Sweeney is available at her website latanyasweeney.org and in numerous press articles, including (Scientific American).

Healthcare Bio

Latanya Sweeney, PhD 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, Professor of Government and Technology in Residence 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 she 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 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001. Her undergraduate degree in computer science was completed at Harvard University where she graduated cum laude. More information about Dr. Sweeney is available at her website latanyasweeney.org.