MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Amy Cyphert, a lecturer at the West Virginia University College of Law, has won a national award for a legal article on machine-learning algorithms and online surveillance.
Cyphert received the Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award from the Future of Privacy Forum for “Tinker-ing with Machine Learning: The Legality and Consequences of Online Surveillance of Students,” which was published in the Nevada Law Journal in 2020.
In her article, Cyphert discusses what First and Fourth Amendment legal challenges to third-party surveillance might look like, as well as the likelihood of success of those arguments.
The Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award recognizes research relevant to Congress, federal agencies and data protection authorities around the world. Recommended to policymakers as the “must-read” privacy scholarship of the year, winning papers highlight work that analyzes current and emerging privacy issues and proposes solutions that could lead to real-world policy solutions.
“Few of us recognize all the ways in which evolving artificial intelligence technologies are reshaping the world, and Professor Cyphert does us all a service by calling attention to the issue and offering sensible policy ideas about how this emerging technology should be regulated,” said John Taylor, interim dean of the College of Law. “We are so proud of Amy’s work, and I am delighted to see her receive this national recognition for her scholarship.”
The other recipients of this year’s Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award are scholars from Harvard University, Boston University, Georgetown University, Florida State University and the Asian Business Law Institute.
All of the winners are presenting their work at the 11th Annual Privacy Papers for Policymakers virtual event on February 10 from 1-3 p.m. Registration is free and open to the public.
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