Lorrie Faith Cranor

Lorrie Faith Cranor is the Director and Bosch Distinguished Professor in Security and Privacy Technologies of CyLab and the FORE Systems Professor of Computer Science and of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. She also directs the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS) and co-directs the MSIT-Privacy Engineering masters program. She teaches courses on privacy, usable security, and computers and society.

In 2016 she was on leave from CMU while serving as Chief Technologist at the US Federal Trade Commission, working in the office of Chairwoman Ramirez. She is also a co-founder of Wombat Security Technologies, Inc, a security awareness training company that was acquired by Proofpoint. She came to CMU in December 2003 after seven years at AT&T Labs-Research. While at AT&T she also taught in the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Dr. Cranor is a leading researcher in both online privacy and usable privacy and security, and has co-authored over 200 research papers in these areas. She has played a key role in building the usable privacy and security research community, having co-edited the seminal book Security and Usability (O'Reilly 2005), and founded the Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). She has testified about privacy issues at a Congressional hearing and at workshops held by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission. She chaired the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) Specification Working Group at the World Wide Web Consortium and authored the book Web Privacy with P3P (O'Reilly 2002).

In 2003, Dr. Cranor was named one of the top 100 innovators 35 or younger by Technology Review magazine. In 2014 she was named an ACM Fellow for her contributions to usable privacy and security research and education, and in 2016 she was named an IEEE Fellow for her contributions to privacy engineering. In 2017 she was elected to the ACM CHI Academy. She is a recipient of the 2018 ACM CHI Social Impact Award and the 2018 IAPP Privacy Leadership Award. She has also received an Alumni Achievement Award from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and (with colleagues) the 2018 IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice. Dr. Cranor was appointed a Privacy by Design (PbD) Ambassador by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Cranor is frequently quoted in the press, and has appeared on the Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN Financial News, NPR Morning Edition, NPR Science Friday, and NPR All Things Considered. Her TED talk on passwords has been viewed over 1.5 million times and was featured entertainment on Delta Airlines.

Dr. Cranor has served on a number of boards and working groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation Board of Directors, the Computing Research Association Board of Directors, the Aspen Institute Cybersecurity Group, and The Future of Privacy Forum Advisory Board. She is also a commissioned Kentucky Colonel and a member of USACM. In 2000 she served on the Federal Trade Commission Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security. She has also served on the editorial boards of several journals.

Dr. Cranor has consulted for companies and non-profits on privacy policies, P3P, usable privacy and security, and technology policy. She has served as an expert witness in patent litigation, privacy cases, and in cases challenging the constitutionality of Internet harmful-to-minors laws, including the ACLU's successful challenge to the 1998 Children's Online Protection Act.

Dr. Cranor has been a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion. She has successfully advocated for expanded childcare options and family-friendly policies at Carnegie Mellon University, and played an active role on university committees on inclusion, diversity, and well-being. She has been a mentor to a diverse set of students and junior faculty.