Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Colleges / Universities: Princeton University
Contact
Sherrerd Hall, 3rd Floor
Princeton, NJ 08544
Email: felten@cs.princeton.edu
Website: Princeton University faculty profile
Professor Edward Felten's research interests include computer security and privacy, and public policy issues relating to information technology. Specific topics include software security, Internet security, electronic voting, cybersecurity policy, technology for government transparency, network neutrality and Internet policy.
Ed Felten is the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs. Additionally, Professor Felten is the Director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), a cross-disciplinary effort studying digital technologies in public life.
Professor Felten served as the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from summer 2015 through December 2016. Previously, Professor Felten was appointed as the first chief technologist for the Federal Trade Commission, serving from January 2011 through August 2012.
Professor Felten often blogs about technology and policy at Freedom to Tinker.
Degrees
Ph.D. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, 1993
M.S. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, 1991
B.S. Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1985
Recent Academic Article Summaries
How Will Language Modelers like ChatGPT Affect Occupations and Industries
A method that assesses which occupations will be most affected by artificial intelligence (AI) predicts that advances such as ChatGPT will have significant effects in education and financial services.
Language modeling advances will significantly affect occupations such as teaching and telemarketing.
The Occupational Impact of Artificial Intelligence: Labor, Skills, and Polarization
A new impact study may be used to measure the effect of progress in artificial intelligence (AI) on specific occupations. Since 2010, progress in AI has had the greatest effect on high-income occupations.
AI may increase inequality between high-income and low-income occupations.
Accountable Algorithms
Computers now make many decisions formerly made by humans. Procedures used to oversee human decision-makers cannot be applied to computers. This article describes technological tools to help developers design algorithms consistent with social goals.
Fairness and accountability should be built in to computerized processes from the start. Policymakers and computer scientists should work together to ensure accountability.
"You Might Also Like:" Privacy Risks of Collaborative Filtering
When one shops online, recommender systems often display related purchases by other users. Researchers designed a cyberattack using these systems to discover what users had bought. The success of the attack shows that these systems leak information.
The use of large quantities of data drawn from private records can threaten privacy.
Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine
This paper reveals security problems with a commonly used voting machine.
The security problems with this voting machine should be addressed immediately to prevent election fraud.
Blog Posts
Quotes in the News
Felten, E. (2020, June 18). Columbia Journalism Review’s: The Media Today.“Perhaps the problem is not irrationality, but instead it’s cold-eyed rationality in response to an observed failure in privacy protection.”
Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Princeton University
Felten, E. (2019, July 11). The New York Times.“The bad guys have had more time to spend on this, and more time to develop new tricks.”
Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Princeton University
Felten, E. (2017, November 8). U.S. News.“There will be a substantial impact on the military because the capabilities of all kinds of systems will change and there will be an introduction of automation on a lot of different functions.”
Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Princeton University
Felten, E. (2015, June 3). The Christian Science Monitor.Calling patterns “can reveal when we are awake and asleep; our religion, if a person regularly makes no calls on the Sabbath, or makes a large number of calls on Christmas Day; our work habits and our social aptitude; the number of friends we have; and even our civil and political affiliations.”
Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Princeton University
Felten, E. (2014, April 9). The New York Times.“There’s a level of care in designing systems and sweating the details of their operations that’s missing in the culture of software development. We don’t have the kind of safety culture that is common in fields such as aviation.”
Edward Felten
Director, Center for Information Technology Policy
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs
Princeton University
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