Aleecia M. McDonald 
Assistant Professor | Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES
Expert in internet privacy, expectations for privacy tools, behavioral economics, models of privacy, and industry self regulation policies.
Biography
Aleecia M. McDonald is the Associate Director for the Privacy Engineering program. She focuses on the public policy issues of internet privacy, including user expectations for privacy tools, behavioral economics and mental models of privacy, and the efficacy of industry self regulation. She co-chaired the WC3’s Tracking Protection Working Group, which was an effort to establish international standards for a Do Not Track mechanism that users can enable to request enhanced privacy online.
Areas of Expertise (1)
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Media Appearances (2)
As Privacy Concerns Grow, States Create Bold Policies
Government Technology Magazine online
2019-06-25
In fact, states may be better positioned than federal authorities to move in this complex area. They have flexibility to try new policies and be a little more experimental, according to Aleecia McDonald, assistant professor of practice at Carnegie Mellon’s Information Networking Institute in Silicon Valley. “States can often update laws in a faster, more agile way.”
California’s New Data Privacy Law Came To Be In About A Week. Here’s What You Need To Know.
Capital Public Radio online
2018-08-02
Privacy advocates are excited about the bill’s expansiveness. Aleecia McDonald, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Information Networking Institute based in Silicon Valley, says consumers are beginning to understand “there’s a whole lot of data that is being collected about them that they have no idea about.” But critics contend that it’s the scope of the law that makes it problematic.
