Washington, DC - Researchers, the FTC is interested in hearing from you! Last week we announced our Fall Technology Series on emerging consumer technology issues, and this week we announced our second PrivacyCon event. Both the technology series and PrivacyCon offer opportunities for researchers to submit work that informs questions the FTC is exploring.
The Fall Technology Series will feature three half-day workshops, each focused on a different topic. The September 7 workshop will focus on ransomware, the October 13 workshop will focus on drones, and the December 7 workshop will focus on smart TV. If you are doing research on these topics that the FTC might be interested in, please bring it to our attention by submitting a public comment. In general, we are interested in the impacts of each technology on consumer security and privacy. We have a list of questions of particular interest on each workshop web page. You may submit your comments up to a month after each workshop, but we will be looking at the early comments as we plan the program for each workshop.
Building on our first PrivacyCon event in January 2016, we invite researchers to send us privacy research conducted in 2016 that addresses questions of interest. Of particular interest to us this year are papers that quantify consumers’ privacy and security interests, discuss attack trends and responses, and describe research on transparency and control. We’re also interested in papers describing privacy and security tools – both for consumers and for use in research, investigation, or enforcement. Submissions are due October 3. Even if you are not selected to present your research at PrivacyCon, your submission will be posted on our website.
It is extremely valuable for us to hear from privacy and security researchers about their work. This helps us stay up-to-date with technology and identify potential areas for investigation and enforcement. It also provides us with information about tools that may be useful in our work and helps us identify areas for our Office of Technology Research and Investigation to explore.
Submitting your research to the FTC is a great way to increase the impact of your work. By discussing your work at our events you may also get insights into new research directions to explore that may help address pressing real world concerns. We had over 300 in-person attendees and 1,500 virtual attendees at our first PrivcyCon event, including FTC commissioners and staff, as well as staff from other government agencies and members of the public. This is not a formal publication opportunity, so feel free to send us research that is under review or has been published recently.
