Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D.

How it started
In my earliest memories, I always wanted to be a mathematician. I was drawn to the certainty of truth realized through mathematical formalisms. In high school, I was introduced to my first computer, and the certainty I enjoyed with math took physical form in programming --the logical thought process led to real-world programs. It seemed as though I could get a computer to solve any problem. The integration of creativity, mathematical certainty, and real-world applicability has powered my pursuits from that point forward.

Prior success
I am a Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Technology and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, with almost 100 academic publications, 2 patents, citations in the Federal Register for 2 regulations, and 3 company spin-offs. I have received professional and academic awards, and testified before federal and international government bodies. In 2009, through a national GAO search, I was appointed to the privacy and security seat of the Federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee.

My mission
Historic approaches to the 3 pillars of privacy (consent, notice, and de-identification) are failing to address privacy in today's data-rich networked world. My current mission is to replace them. I want to help society create and deploy technology-powered mechanisms that jointly provide a privacy fabric appropriate for today's setting. The goal is to allow society to reap the benefits of emerging technologies while enjoying privacy protection.

My strategy
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("the stimulus bill") provides a quintessential moment in history for technology design to reshape privacy discourse and not be held to historic, eroding trade-offs. One technology design decision can ease numerous policy decisions, but once policy becomes set in stone, the opposite happens, the opportunity for innovation is often lost. For technology design to transform privacy governance, we need efforts that weave technology and policy together. Working with my collaborators, our targets are: (1) trustworthy designs for nationwide health information exchange; (2) a privacy-powered data-sharing testbed; and, (3) small-scale efforts that inform and educate public discourse on this topic.

Academic Positions

• Distinguished Career Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science, Institute for Software Research.
• Visting Professor, Harvard University, Computer Science, Center for Research on Computation and Society.
• Visting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

• Director, Laboratory for International Data Privacy, also known as the "Data Privacy Lab", School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
• Co-Director, PhD Program in Computation, Organizations and Society, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.

Other Academic Affiliations

• Faculty, Machine Learning Department, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
• Faculty, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University.
• Faculty, Quality of Life Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
• Faculty, Aladdin Center, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon.
• Faculty, Cylab, Carnegie Mellon University

Corporate Affiliations

No issued licenses limit my access to these technologies for academic purposes.
• Privacert, Inc. has licenses to some of my technologies. I maintain no ownership interest or hold any official position. I do maintain sufficient involvement to assure my technology is being properly deployed.
• CITC has licenses to some of my technologies. I maintain no ownership interest or hold any official position. I do maintain sufficient involvement to assure my technology is being properly deployed.
• Datanon, LLC had licenses to some of my technologies, which are now available through Privacert, Inc.

View old Research Projects or see old Research Artifacts.

Keywords: learning, data anonymity, privacy technology, re-identification, data linkage

Current Students (photos) Xiaoqian Jiang Laurie Jones Wanhong Xu

Past Students (photos and updates) Thesis Supervision (alphabetically): Samuel Edoho-Eket William ("Spike") Gronim Ralph Gross Rolf Holzer Bradley Malin Brooke Singer Others: Edoardo Airoldi Aarthi Gopal Ponnurangam Kumaraguru Yiheng Li William Malloy Elaine Newton Rebekah Siegel Ben Vernot Daniel Yurovsky

Recent Collaborators (photos) Tom Hagan, Paradigm Health Andrew Halpert, Blue Cross Blue Shield David Hoffman, Intel Randy Miller, Vanderbilt University Kate Seelman, University of Pittsburgh Claire Vishik, Intel Vic Weedn, Allegheny County Forensic Lab Past Collaborators Joe Lombardo, Johns Hopkins University Hal Abelson, MIT Henry Leitner, Harvard University Peter Szolovits, MIT Jon Doyle ( now at NCSU) Gerald Sussman, MIT on amorphous computing

• collection of famous quotations