Privacy Advocate Schwartz Joins NIST

Ari Schwartz, a longtime advocate for protecting privacy in the age of Web-based government, is leaving his post at the Center for Democracy and Technology to press for change from within the administration at the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

After working at the Washington civil liberties group for nearly 13 years, Schwartz on Monday announced that he has accepted an offer to become a NIST senior adviser for Internet policy. The move will allow him to continue examining issues related to identity management, cybersecurity and privacy, he said.

Recently, Schwartz helped CDT negotiate with the Office of Management and Budget to lift a decade-old rule banning federal websites from using Web-tracking tools and add constraints that would protect users' personal identities.

Schwartz will join the federal government on Aug. 30.

"I've always said that my position at CDT was my dream job. In fact, it exceeded any expectation I could have ever had. Mostly that is due to the great colleagues and mentors that I've had here. On the other hand, I have great admiration and respect for those in public service," he said in an e-mail. "I have been on the lookout for the right position in the federal government and I'm confident that this is it."