Michael Zimmer is a

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and data ethics

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

. He currently is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Department of Computer Science at

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

and Director of the Center for Data, Ethics, and Society. Previously, he was on the faculty at the School of Information Studies at the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...

, and director of the Center for Information Policy Research. Zimmer is on the advisory board of the

Future of Privacy Forum The Future of Privacy Forum is an American advocacy group focused on issues of data privacy headquartered in Washington DC. Members include AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Intelius and Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American ...

, and was on the executive committee of the

Association of Internet Researchers Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

from 2009-2016. He was the Microsoft Resident Fellow at the

Information Society Project The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School is an intellectual center studying the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society. The ISP was founded in 1997 by Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Con ...

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

from 2007-2008. Zimmer has criticized the

research ethics Research ethics is a discipline within the study of Ethics, applied ethics. Its scope ranges from general scientific integrity and scientific misconduct, misconduct to the treatment of human and animal subjects. The social responsibilities of sc ...

of a

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

-sponsored research project that harvested the

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

profiles of an entire cohort of undergraduate students. He has appeared on the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

shows ''

Science Friday ''Science Friday'' (known as ''SciFri'' for short) is a weekly call-in talk show that broadcasts each Friday on public radio stations, distributed by WNYC Studios, and carried on over 500 public radio stations. ''SciFri'' is hosted by science ...

'' and

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...

. Zimmer appeared in the "Is My Cellphone Spying On Me?" commentary accompanying the DVD release of ''

Eagle Eye ''Eagle Eye'' is a 2008 American action thriller film directed by D. J. Caruso from a screenplay by John Glenn, Travis Adam Wright, Hillary Seitz and Dan McDermott. The film stars Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Ch ...

'' On October 25, 2013, Zimmer announced "The Zuckerberg Files", a digital archive of all the public utterances of Facebook's founder and CEO,

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

. Zimmer published a critique of Zuckerberg in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' to commemorate Facebook's 10th anniversary. In 2021, Zimmer was named among experts advising ''

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' () is a design, technology, science, and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the sub-blogs ''io9'' and ''Earther'', which focus on pop ...

'' regarding the release of

The Facebook Papers In 2021, an internal document leak from the company then known as Facebook (now Meta Platforms, or Meta) showed it was aware of harmful societal effects from its platforms, yet persisted in prioritizing profit over addressing these harms. The ...

Selected publications

* ''Internet Research Ethics for the Social Age: New Challenges, Cases, and Contexts'', Peter Lang, 2017

References

External links

Personal homepage

Marquette University profile

“But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in Facebook
''Ethics and Information Technology'', 2010
The Zuckerberg Files
Yale Information Society Project Fellows {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub