studies technology-society clashes: the conflicts that arise when technology products collide with human values, institutions, rights, markets, law, and everyday life. Her work finds practical ways for society to realize the benefits of innovation while preventing its harms.
Diagnose the Clash
What technology products are colliding with society?
Identify the Risk
Who is at risk of harm, and what is the nature and extent of that harm?
Design the Response
What product, business, policy, legal, or market changes will eliminate the harm?
Select Writings
Tech@FTC
News Blog
Accomplishments
Personal
Dr. Latanya Sweeney studies how powerful technologies reshape society and what must change in response. Her work identifies technology–society clashes, assesses who is at risk and how, and develops technical, legal, policy, and institutional remedies that allow society to benefit from innovation without sacrificing privacy, civil rights, democratic values, or human dignity.
She is President of the Techizen Institute, President of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Technology Science.
Dr. Sweeney's earliest work on technology–society clashes focused on privacy. Her research helped establish data privacy as a field of study and demonstrated how seemingly anonymous information could be used to identify individuals. She later conducted pioneering research showing discrimination in online algorithms, helping lay the foundation for the emerging area of algorithmic fairness. Her work with Ji Su Yoo and Jinyan Zang was the first to document vulnerabilities in voter-information websites during the 2016 election.
Dr. Sweeney previously served as Chief Technology Officer, also known as Chief Technologist, at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. She describes the role as a formative and rewarding experience. One of her central goals was to make it easier for researchers, students, technologists, policymakers, and businesses to develop innovative solutions at the intersection of technology, policy, and society.
Throughout her career, she has sought to harness the energy and ingenuity of students, researchers, and innovators to address urgent public problems. Her work combines empirical research, technology design, public policy, education, and institution-building to help society respond more effectively to the consequences of technological change.
After decades at Harvard as a senior faculty member and Faculty Dean of Currier House—where she founded the Data Privacy Lab and the Public Interest Tech Lab and helped pioneer the fields of data privacy, algorithmic fairness, and public-interest technology—Dr. Sweeney transitioned the Public Interest Tech Lab into the independent nonprofit Techizen Institute. The move expands the Lab's reach, impact, and capacity to address technology–society clashes while allowing her to devote herself full-time to helping society understand and resolve them.