KUCI: Privacy Piracy

As director of information policy studies, Jim Harper focuses on the difficult problems of adapting law and policy to the unique problems of the information age. Harper is a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. His work has been cited by USA Today, the Associated Press, and Reuters. He has appeared on Fox News Channel, CBS, and MSNBC, and other media. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Administrative Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, and the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. Recently, Harper wrote the book Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood. Harper is the editor of Privacilla.org, a Web-based think tank devoted exclusively to privacy, and he maintains online federal spending resource WashingtonWatch.com. He holds a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law.

Susan Grant is Director of Consumer Protection at Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of some 300 non-profit consumer groups that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, education, and advocacy at both national and state levels. Ms. Grant works specifically in the areas of privacy, deceptive marketing, online safety and security, fraud, electronic and mobile commerce, and general consumer protection issues. She coordinates CFA's Fake Check Task Force, conducts CFA's annual Consumer Complaint Survey, and is a recognized authority on combating consumer fraud and deception.

Ms. Grant is also involved in global consumer protection issues through her work in the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, a group of consumer organizations in the United States and the European Union countries that provides input on cross-border consumer issues to the U.S. and EU governments, and her participation in the U.S. government delegation to the Committee on Consumer Policy at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. She began her career in consumer protection in 1976 as an investigator and Director of the Consumer Protection Division in the Northwestern Massachusetts District Attorney's Office. In 1993, Ms. Grant became Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, a professional organization for the heads of government consumer protection agencies. From 1996 to 2007 she served as Vice President of Public Policy and Director of the Fraud Center at the National Consumers League before joining the CFA staff in 2008.

Oct 21, Tina Stow - Senior Director of Privacy and Communications for LexisNexis

Tina Stow is Senior Director of Privacy and Communications for LexisNexis, a leading global provider of business information solutions to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets. Within this capacity, she reports to the Senior Vice President for Privacy, Security, Compliance and Government Affairs and is responsible for communication with public and private sector stakeholders and LexisNexis associates on matters of privacy, security and compliance as related to the company's business. She also develops outreach and education strategies, privacy, security, and compliance policies and standards, and is responsible for Web site privacy policy compliance. Additionally, she manages the company's consumer opt-out program and responds directly to consumer inquiries relating to privacy.

Tina earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies with a minor in English from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Georgia.

Beth Givens is founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), a nonprofit advocacy, research, and consumer education program located in San Diego, California. The PRC was established in 1992 with funding from the California Public Utilities Commission's Telecommunications Education Trust. It is an independent program of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for consumers' interests regarding telecommunications, energy and the Internet.

The PRC maintains a complaint/information hotline on informational privacy issues, the only one of its kind in the country. It publishes a series of guides on informational privacy issues. Topics include Internet privacy, wireless communications, credit reporting, identity theft, telemarketing, medical records, workplace privacy, employment screening, unsolicited mail, government records, children's online privacy, among others. These are available at the PRC's web site, www.privacyrights.org.

Givens frequently speaks and conducts workshops on the issue of privacy. She has participated in many media interviews including: The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), CBS Evening News, CNN, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Good Morning America, Court TV, NBC Evening News, CBS Weekend News, and major U.S. daily newspapers. She has testified on privacy public policy concerns before the U.S. Senate, the California Legislature, the California Public Utilities Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.

In addition, Givens has been a member of several task forces examining privacy-related public policy issues:: California Office of Privacy Protection Advisory Committee; Truste Wireless Privacy Committee; Justice Management Institute's Electronic Court Records Advisory Committee; Task Force on Criminal Records Identity Theft; California Legislature's Joint Task Force on Personal Information and Privacy; California Judicial Council Subcommittee on Privacy and Access; Internet Policy Committee of the San Diego Public Library; and the Mayor of San Diego's City of the Future Task Force. She has served on the U.S. Census Advisory Committee, California Radio Frequency ID Advisory Committee, and the California REAL ID Task Force,. Many of Givens' speeches and testimony are available on the PRC Web site under "Speeches&Testimony," www.privacyrights.org/ar.

Givens was awarded a Pioneer Award in 2002 from the Electronic Frontier Foundations. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a 2000 award recipient from The Foundation for Improvement of Justice for its work in assisting victims of identity theft. Givens is a recipient of the 2000 Privacy International Brandeis Award. Ms. Givens contributed articles on identity theft to two encyclopedias: World Book (2004) and Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment (2002). She also contributed a chapter to the 2006 book, RFID: Applications, Security and Privacy. She is the author of The Privacy Rights Handbook: How to Take Control of Your Personal Information (Avon Books, 1997). She is co-author of Privacy Piracy (with Mari Frank) : A Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft. Givens is also co-author and editor of the PRC's fact sheets, on the Web at www.privacyrights.org/fs.

Voice: 619-298-3396

Web:www.privacyrights.org