CMU and CLP Celebrate International Data Privacy Day on January 26

In celebration of International Privacy Day, Carnegie Mellon University is once again collaborating with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) to host Data Privacy Day 2025.

The event will take place on Sunday, January 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at CLP-Main (Oakland) on the first floor. The event is open to the public, and no registration is required. Refreshments will be provided.

Organized by the faculty and students from CMU’s Privacy Engineering program, this year’s Data Privacy Day will include a Privacy Clinic, taking place for the duration of the event. The Privacy Clinic will give attendees an opportunity to learn strategies for protecting their privacy during their daily usage of digital technology. CMU’s information privacy and security students and researchers will provide information and answer questions about privacy risks and remedies concerning topics ranging from creating strong passwords and webtracking, to setting privacy settings on social media platforms and understanding privacy tools on iPhone.

New to this year’s Data Privacy Day will be a series of privacy story presentations featuring Carnegie Mellon faculty members.

“This year we decided to focus on privacy stories as a fun and accessible way to talk about privacy with children, teens, and adults,” said Lorrie Cranor, CyLab director.

Cranor will lead two story times to introduce privacy concepts to kids of all ages. The Preschool Privacy Story Time will feature Cranor's original privacy story for young children and discuss where children can find privacy in the world around them. Following, during the Elementary School Story Time, Cranor will read a picture book, The EyeMonger by Daniel J. Solove, and lead a discussion about privacy and why it is important.

In addition, Sarah Scheffler, assistant professor of Software and Societal Systems and Engineering and Public Policy, will share real-life anecdotes of personal data being collected and used in unexpected ways. This informational talk is targeted to a general audience of adults and teens.

“With all the chaos of modern life, privacy sometimes gets left behind,” said Scheffler. “But there are simple and easy things you can do to give yourself a solid privacy foundation if you know where to look.”

Carnegie Mellon hosted its first Data Privacy Day in 2014 as part of an international effort to empower and educate people to protect their privacy and control their digital footprint. 

“We started holding Privacy Day events on campus a decade ago but decided last year to move the event to the Carnegie Library so that our students would have an opportunity to talk about privacy with members of the community,” said Cranor. “It is a great opportunity for our students to share their deep knowledge of privacy with members of our community and help raise awareness about how people can take control over their own personal information.”

Check out the Data Privacy Day website for more information and a full schedule of the day’s activities.