Helen Nissenbaum

Term of Service on the CCC Council: 2020 – 2021

Helen Nissenbaum is a Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech, Cornell University, where she is director of the Digital Life Initiative. Her research takes an ethical perspective on policy, law, science, and engineering relating to information technology, computing, digital media, and data science. Topics have included privacy, trust, accountability, security, and values in technology design. Her books include Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest, with Finn Brunton (MIT Press, 2015), Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life (Stanford, 2010), and Values at Play in Digital Games, with Mary Flanagan (MIT Press, 2014). Grants from the NSF, AFOSR, and the U.S. DHHS-ONC have supported her work. Recipient of the 2014 Barwise Prize of the American Philosophical Association, Nissenbaum has contributed to privacy-enhancing software, including TrackMeNot and AdNauseam. Nissenbaum holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University and a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy and mathematics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.