[Joe Calandrino is a veteran of Freedom to Tinker and CITP. As long time readers will remember, he did his Ph.D. here, advised by Ed Felten. He recently joined the FTC as research director of OTech, the Office of Technology Research and Investigation. Today we have an exciting announcement. — Arvind Narayanan.]
Arvind Narayanan and I are thrilled to announce a new Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro ’17) to be co-hosted with the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland) in May 2017:
Advances in technology come with countless benefits for society, but these advances sometimes introduce new risks as well. Various characteristics of technology, including its increasing complexity, may present novel challenges in understanding its impact and addressing its risks. Regulatory agencies have broad jurisdiction to protect consumers against certain harmful practices (typically called “deceptive and unfair” practices in the United States), but sophisticated technical analysis may be necessary to assess practices, risks, and more. Moreover, consumer protection covers an incredibly broad range of issues, from substantiation of claims that a smartphone app provides advertised health benefits to the adequacy of practices for securing sensitive customer data.
The Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro ’17) will explore computer science topics with an impact on consumers. This workshop has a strong security and privacy slant, with an overall focus on ways in which computer science can prevent, detect, or address the potential for technology to deceive or unfairly harm consumers. Attendees will skew towards academic and industry researchers but will include researchers from government agencies with a consumer protection mission, including the Federal Trade Commission—the U.S. government’s primary consumer protection body. Research advances presented at the workshop may help improve the lives of consumers, and discussions at the event may help researchers understand how their work can best promote consumer welfare given laws and norms surrounding consumer protection.
We have an outstanding program committee representing an incredibly wide range of computer science disciplines—from security, privacy, and e-crime to usability and algorithmic fairness—and touching on fields across the social sciences. The workshop will be an opportunity for these different disciplinary perspectives to contribute to a shared goal. Our call for papers discusses relevant topics, and we encourage anyone conducting research in these areas to submit their work by the January 10 deadline.
Computer science research—and computer security research in particular—excels at advancing innovative technical strategies to mitigate potential negative effects of digital technologies on society, but measures beyond strictly technical fixes also exist to protect consumers. How can our research goals, methods, and tools best complement laws, regulations, and enforcement? We hope this workshop will provide an excellent opportunity for computer scientists to consider these questions and find even better ways for our field to serve society.
