Tech Policy Forum: Privacy Regulation Strategies for 2026
Past Event
About the forum
In a rapidly evolving policy landscape, there is a critical need for sustained, structured dialogue between policymakers, experts, and civil society. The Block Center’s Tech Policy Forums are designed to meet this need by leveraging the convening power and interdisciplinary expertise of Carnegie Mellon University and Heinz College to address urgent questions at the intersection of technology, governance, and society.
Privacy concerns sit at the center of nearly every modern policy debate involving technology—from artificial intelligence and data sharing to competition policy and digital trust. As data increasingly drives innovation, economic growth, and public service delivery, policymakers face unresolved questions about how to protect individual rights while enabling responsible technological advancement. Establishing a strong foundation around privacy regulation will inform future forums focused on AI governance, algorithmic accountability, and data-driven public systems.
Read the forum's synthesis here.
Panel 1: What Is Privacy Online and Why Is It So Unregulated?
This panel examines the current fragmentation of the U.S. privacy landscape, assessing which regulatory and institutional approaches have proven effective, where significant gaps remain amid emerging technologies, and which actors are best positioned to advance meaningful privacy protections.
- Panelists:
- Alessandro Acquisti (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Julie Cohen (Georgetown University)
- Lorrie Cranor (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Moderator:
- Kirsten Martin, (Carnegie Mellon University)
Panel 2: Why Doesn’t ‘Consent’ Work?
This panel explores the limits of consent-based privacy frameworks, how authorized and unauthorized data use should be defined in practice, and how researchers and the public can better elevate these challenges for policymakers.
- Panelists:
- Antonio Rangel (California Institute of Technology)
- Florian Schaub (University of Michigan)
- Lior Jacob Strahilevitz (University of Chicago Law)
- Moderator:
- Kirsten Martin (Carnegie Mellon University)
Panel 3: How to Identify and Measure Privacy Violations
This panel addresses the technical and policy challenges of determining when data can be considered identifiable, and how to assess whether data is being shared or used in ways that violate reasonable privacy expectations.
- Panelists:
- Florian Schaub (University of Michigan)
- Norman Sadeh (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Moderator:
- Cesca Antonelli (Bloomberg Industry Group)
Panel 4: Privacy Harms and Firm Responsibility
This panel brings together experts to examine how privacy harms arise in practice and to reconsider the responsibilities of firms in preventing, mitigating, and being held accountable for those harms.
- Panelists:
- Laura Brandimarte (University of Arizona)
- Jonathan Kanter (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Paul Ohm (Georgetown University)
- Moderator:
- Kirsten Martin (Carnegie Mellon University)