Barbara van Schewick, 
associate professor of law, Helen L. Crocker Faculty Scholar, and faculty director of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society (CIS), and Aleecia McDonald, director of privacy at CIS, have received a Frontier Award from the 
National Science Foundation for online privacy research. The award of $3.75 million will be shared by Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and Fordham to support the foundation’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace project.

The CIS project tackles the tough problem of online privacy notices. Many companies publish privacy policies that explain how they collect, use, and retain online data. But in practice, privacy policies are hard to understand and take too long to read.

“We need a better way for people to get the information that matters most to them about online privacy,” says McDonald, who will oversee research conducted at CIS. “We know people don’t read privacy policies, even with serious and growing concerns about massive online data collection. You would need to be a lawyer and a technologist to understand what policies do say, as well as a privacy professional to notice what policies don’t say. That’s why we are taking an interdisciplinary approach with experts from three leading universities in all three fields.”

“Our work will make it easier for Internet users to understand what happens to their data and will help them make more informed privacy decisions online,” says van Schewick.

Ultimately, the researchers envision a browser plug-in that can alert users to online practices that do not match their expectations and preferences. In addition to improving transparency online, researchers will have a database to query in order to understand how companies approach privacy—as well as changes over time—opening new avenues for public policy research. SL