Lorrie Cranor, the FORE Systems Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Public Policy, has joined 11 other distinguished computer scientists on the Technology Policy Council, newly formed by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The ACM, the world's largest association of computing professionals, created the council to coordinate the agenda for its policy activities around the globe. It also will serve as the ACM's contact point for its interaction with government organizations, the computing community and the public in matters of public policy related to information technology and computing.

In addition to Cranor, the council includes Vint Cerf, vice president of Google; and former SCS faculty member Latanya Sweeney, now at Harvard University.

Cranor is the director and Bosch Distinguished Professor in Security and Privacy Technologies at the CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. She also directs the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory and co-directs the privacy engineering master's program. In 2016, she served as the chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission.

"The digital revolution is an international phenomenon, and the leading tech companies, whose services are used by billions every day, have facilities and customers in countries all over the world," said ACM President Cherri Pancake. "So the pressing issues we hear about in the media ― such as online privacy, data breaches, algorithmic bias and the future of the internet ― go beyond national borders. ACM's new Technology Policy Council will provide a space in which computing professionals come together to offer global perspectives on global challenges."

One of the Technology Policy Council's first initiatives will be to publish a bimonthly series of short technical bulletins that summarize emerging technologies and research, and present nonpartisan perspectives on their policy implications. The ACM Tech Briefs series is intended to inform policy decision makers, the media and the general public.