Lorrie Faith Cranor, D.Sc. is the FORE Systems Professor of Computer Science and
Engineering and Public Policy
Engineering and Public Policy, informally known as EPP, is an interdisciplinary academic department within the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering. EPP combines technical analysis with social science and policy analysis, in order to address pr ...
at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
and is the director of the
Carnegie Mellon Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory. She has served as Chief Technologist of the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
, and she was formerly
a member of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ...
Board of Directors. Previously she was a researcher at
AT&T Labs-Research and taught in the
Stern School of Business
The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. I ...
at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
. She has authored over 110 research papers on online privacy, phishing and semantic attacks, spam, electronic voting, anonymous publishing, usable access control, and other topics.
Early life and education
Cranor was a member of the first class to graduate from the Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science Magnet Program at
Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a public high school located in Four Corners, Maryland, United States, operated by Montgomery County Public Schools. The school's total enrollment of 3,600 makes it the largest public high school in Montgo ...
in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...
. She received a bachelor's degree in Engineering and Public Policy, master's degrees in Technology and Human Affairs, and Computer Science, and a doctorate in Engineering and Policy, all from
Washington University in St. Louis.
Marriage and children
Cranor is married to Chuck Cranor, a fellow researcher at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
.
They have three children together.
Career
At CMU, Cranor's research has largely focused on privacy policies and passwords.
Cranor is not only a leading researcher but also a tough critic of the online ad industry's privacy initiatives. In 2008, she blasted Web companies for crafting unreadable privacy policies. She said in a report that online privacy policies take users an average of 10 minutes to read. That report also said that if every U.S. Web user read the privacy policy at every site visited, the time spent reading privacy policies would total an estimated 44.3 billion hours per year.
Cranor led the development of the Platform for Privacy Preferences (
P3P
The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) is an obsolete protocol allowing websites to declare their intended use of information they collect about web browser users. Designed to give users more control of their personal information whe ...
) Project at the
World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working ...
and authored the book ''Web Privacy with P3P''.
She also led the development of th
Privacy BirdP3P user agent and th
Privacy FinderP3P search engine.
Cranor has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the book ''Security and Usability'' (O'Reilly 2005) and founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS).
Cranor is a co-founder of Wombat Security Technologies, Inc and has authored over 150 research papers on online privacy, usable security, and other topics.
She is a member of the feminist collective
Deep Lab.
Honors and awards
In 2003, she was named to the
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
Technology Review
''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...
TR100
The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com
...
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
In 2013, Cranor's Security Blanket won Honorable Mention in the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge presented by
''Science'' and the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
. She gave a
TEDx
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sa ...
talk in March 2014 entitled, "What's Wrong with your pa$$w0rd."
In 2014, she was elected to
ACM Fellow
ACM or A.C.M. may refer to:
Aviation
* AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile
* Air chief marshal
* Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting
* Air cycle machine
* Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia
Computing
* ...
''For contributions to research and education in usable privacy and security.''
In 2016, was named
(IEEE).
In 2017, she was elected to the CHI Academy. At the same conference, Cranor was awarded a prestigious ''Best Paper'' award for her paper titled ''Design and Evaluation of a Data-Driven Password Meter''.
References
External links
Lorrie Faith Cranor's WebsiteSymposium On Usable Privacy and Security
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranor, Lorrie
Living people
New York University Stern School of Business faculty
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Washington University in St. Louis alumni
People from Silver Spring, Maryland
1971 births