Helen Nissenbaum is professor of information science at Cornell Tech. She is best known for the concept of "

contextual integrity Contextual integrity is a theory of privacy developed by Helen Nissenbaum and presented in her book ''Privacy In Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life''. It comprises four essential descriptive claims: * Privacy is provid ...

" and her work on

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

privacy law Privacy law is the body of law that deals with the regulating, storing, and using of personally identifiable information, personal healthcare information, and financial information of individuals, which can be Personally identifiable information ...

, trust, and

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

in the online world. Specifically, contextual integrity has influenced the United States government's thinking about privacy issues.

Early life and education

Nissenbaum studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, graduating in 1976. She then went on to study at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she completed a Master's in the social science of education in 1978, and a PhD in philosophy in 1983.

Work

Grants

Nissenbaum has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Ford Foundation, the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...

Office of the National Coordinator, and the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

Browser extensions

She has also contributed to several

browser extension A browser extension is a small software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styling of web p ...

s for Firefox and

Chrome Chrome may refer to: Materials * Chrome plating, a process of surfacing with chromium * Chrome alum, a chemical used in mordanting and photographic film Computing * Google Chrome, a web browser developed by Google ** ChromeOS, a Google Chrome- ...

. ''TrackMeNot'' was the first extension that she co-created in 2006. ''TrackMeNot'' uses the notion of privacy-through-obfuscation to protect the user against online identification, surveillance, and profiling. ''AdNauseam'', created in 2009, follows a similar obfuscation strategy for online ads. ''Adnostic'' was created in 2013 to enable online ad targeting without compromising user's privacy.

Publications

Nissenbaum has written or edited a number of papers and books: * * * * * * *

Honors and awards

* 2014 Barwise Prize of the American Philosophical Association * 2017 honorary doctorate from the Leuphana University of Lüneburg * 2019 distinguished fellow of the

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence *2021 Covey Award of th
International Association of Computing and Philosophy

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nissenbaum, Helen Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Scholars of privacy law Computer law scholars American philosophers New York University faculty Cornell Tech faculty Stanford University alumni University of the Witwatersrand alumni