Carnegie Mellon professor to serve as FTC's chief technologist

The Federal Trade Commission is getting a new chief technologist. Carnegie Mellon University professor Lorrie Faith Cranor will replace Ashkan Soltani in that role, the agency announced on Dec. 3.

"Technology is playing an ever more important role in consumers' lives," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said, adding that "Cranor will play a key role in helping guide the many areas of FTC work involving new technologies and platforms."

Cranor will be responsible for advising the FTC on policy for emerging technology. The agency is charged with regulating consumer privacy and marketing, among other areas.

At CMU, Cranor teaches courses in computer science and in engineering and public policy, and serves as director of the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory. She has worked as a researcher at AT&T Labs Research and taught at New York University's Stern School of Business before joining the faculty at CMU. She's the author and editor of more than 150 research papers on online privacy and usable security. She will be the commission's fifth chief technologist since the position was established in 2011 and the fourth academic to serve in that role.

Cranor told FCW she is excited about her appointment. As "agency decisions become increasingly grounded in technology," she said, CTOs provide not only information but guidance to those who might not understand all the intricacies of technology.

Cranor will start work at the FTC in January.