Carnegie Mellon celebrates International Data Privacy Day

Coming on the heels of a year of unprecedented data breaches, targeted ads and new ethical questions about data privacy, Carnegie Mellon University will host its fourth celebration of International Data Privacy Day on Friday, January 27^th.

Data Privacy Day is an international effort held each year to raise awareness about the importance of privacy and the protection of personal information.

It is difficult to do anything or go anywhere without having your personal information collected.

Lorrie Cranor, Professor, Engineering and Public Policy & Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University

“It is difficult to do anything or go anywhere without having your personal information collected, both online and in the physical world.” says Lorrie Cranor, co-director of Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Engineering Master’s Program, CyLab faculty and professor in the departments of Engineering and Public Policy and the Institute for Software Research. “Most of us really want to have some privacy and it’s really important to be educated about who is collecting our data and what we can do to protect our privacy.”

This year’s Privacy Day celebration at Carnegie Mellon will include a privacy clinic, where members of the general public may come and talk with students researching data privacy about ways they can help protect and preserve their privacy in their daily lives. Topics such as online tracking and targeted ads, encryption for messenger apps and privacy requirements for mobile apps will be discussed at the clinic.

In addition, over 20 research projects on digital privacy will be presented at a research poster session, with topics including (but not limited to) the implications of length and framing on the effectiveness of privacy notices, people’s willingness to share fitness data, and personalized privacy assistants for mobile apps.

All parts of the celebration are free and open to the general public. The event will be held in the Cohon University Center on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus.

“Data privacy Day is about raising awareness of the public at-large as well as contributing to the public debate in this area: what do we feel comfortable with, both as individuals and as a society when it comes to collection and use of our data? It is an opportunity to showcase all the great research conducted in this area at CMU and also educate people about the increasing demand in industry for privacy engineers and other privacy professionals” says Norman Sadeh, co-director of the Privacy Engineering Master’s Program, CyLab faculty and a computer science professor in the Institute for Software Research.

A full list of topics being presented at the privacy clinic and research poster session can be found on the event website.