Privacy Law Panel

KARA SWISHER

Moderator

KARA SWISHER (Moderator) is the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, producer and host of the Recode Decode and Pivot podcasts and co-executive producer of the Code Conference series. She is a New York Times contributing opinion writer and a contributor to NBC, CNBC and MSNBC. Swisher co-founded Recode and, before that, co-produced and co-hosted The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference series with Walt Mossberg starting in 2003. It was, and still is, the country's premier conference on tech and media, with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, the Google leadership, Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey and many other leading players. She and Mossberg were also the co-executive editors of a tech and media Web site, AllThingsD.com, founded in 2007. Swisher worked in The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau. For many years, she wrote the column “BoomTown,” which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and online at WSJ.com. Previously, Swisher covered breaking news about the Web’s major players, Internet policy issues and also wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. Earlier in her career, Swisher worked as a reporter at the Washington Post and as an editor at the City Paper of Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and her graduate degree at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Swisher is also the author of “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web,” published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, “There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future,” was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.

SUZAN DELBENE

Panelist

SUZAN DELBENE (Panelist) represents Washington’s First Congressional District, which spans from northeast King County to the Canadian border, and includes parts of King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties. Suzan brings a unique voice to the nation’s capital, with more than two decades of experience as a successful technology entrepreneur and business leader. Suzan takes on a wide range of challenges both in Congress and in the First District and is a leader on issues of technology, health and agriculture. Suzan currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which is at the forefront of debate on taxes, healthcare and retirement security. Suzan also serves as vice-chair of the New Democrat Coalition, and co-chair of the Women's High-Tech Caucus, Internet of Things Caucus, Dairy Caucus and Aluminum Caucus. Suzan worked in the biotechnology industry before earning an MBA from the University of Washington and embarking on a successful career as a technology leader and innovator. In more than two decades as an executive and entrepreneur, she helped to start drugstore.com as its vice president of marketing and store development, and served as CEO and president of Nimble Technology, a business software company based on technology developed at the University of Washington. Suzan also spent 12 years at Microsoft, most recently as corporate vice president of the company’s mobile communications business.

MONICA HOPKINS

Panelist

MONICA HOPKINS (Panelist) is the executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia. She took the helm of the D.C. affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2014. Prior to joining the ACLU-DC, Monica served as the executive director of the ACLU of Idaho from 2008–2014 during which time she oversaw sweeping statewide victories, particularly in the areas of criminal justice reform, LGBTQIA equality, immigrants’ rights and upholding the First Amendment. Prior to joining the ACLU, Monica had a held several executive and development positions in the nonprofit sector. Under Monica’s leadership, the ACLU-DC has grown its capacity and reach allowing the organization to become a resource for all District residents. As executive director, Monica oversees substantive programmatic and advocacy efforts to defend and advance the ACLU-DC’s work on civil rights and civil liberties for the over 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia. Monica is a graduate of Boise State University. She is also a 2012–2013 Rockwood Institute LGBT Advocacy Fellow and currently serves on the board of the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens.

MEG LETA JONES

Panelist

MEG LETA JONES (Panelist) is an associate professor in the Communication, Culture and Technology Department at Georgetown University where she researches rules and technological change with a focus on privacy, data protection and automation in digital information and computing technologies. “Ctrl+Z: The Right to be Forgotten,” her first book, is about the social, legal and technical issues surrounding digital oblivion. Her second book project focuses on the transatlantic construction of digital consent since the mid-20th century through the lens of cookies.

MARC ROTENBERG

Panelist

MARC ROTENBERG (Panelist) is president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an independent nonprofit in Washington, D.C., established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging privacy issues. EPIC is one of the leading advocates for the “Right to be Forgotten."

SHARYN ROTHSTEIN

Panelist

SHARYN ROTHSTEIN (Panelist) is the playwright for Right to be Forgotten. Her plays include By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club/Ars Nova), Neglect (Ensemble Studio Theater), All the Days (McCarter Theatre Center), Landladies (Northlight Theatre), and Tell Me I'm Not Crazy and Camp Monster (Williamstown Theater Festival). She was a writer and producer for the USA legal drama “Suits” and has developed shows for Bravo and Apple. Sharyn is the winner of the American Theater Critics Association Francesca Primus Prize and four-time recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Sharyn holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU as well as a Master’s in Public Health, Hunter College; and a BA in Sociology, Vassar College.

JOHN VERDI

Panelist

JOHN VERDI (Panelist) is vice president of policy at the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF). FPF is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that serves as a catalyst for privacy leadership and scholarship, advancing principled data practices in support of emerging technologies. John supervises FPF’s policy portfolio, which advances FPF’s agenda on a broad range of issues, including: artificial intelligence and machine learning; algorithmic decision-making; ethics; connected cars and mobility; smart communities; student privacy; health; the internet of things; wearable technologies; de-identification; and drones. John is a US/EU Privacy Shield arbitrator and previously served as director of privacy initiatives at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), where he crafted policy recommendations for the U.S. Department of Commerce and President Obama regarding technology, trust and innovation. John led NTIA’s privacy multi-stakeholder process, which established best practices regarding unmanned aircraft systems, facial recognition technology and mobile apps. Prior to NTIA, he was general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), where he oversaw EPIC’s litigation program. John earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Law from SUNY-Binghamton.