Alessandro Acquisti
Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy, Heinz College
Alessandro Acquisti is a professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, the co-director of the CMU Center for Behavioral Decision Research (CBDR) and a member of the Carnegie Mellon CyLab and the CyLab Usability, Privacy, and Security (CUPS) lab. His research combines economics, decision research, and data mining to investigate the role of privacy in a digital society. His studies have spearheaded the economic analysis of privacy, the application of behavioral economics to the understanding of consumer privacy valuations and decision-making, and the investigation of privacy and personal disclosures in online social networks. Acquisti's work has been published in several journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Journal of Economic Literature. His research has been featured in media outlets around the world, including The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. In a previous life, he has been a soundtrack composer and a motorcycle racer (USGPRU).
Education
2003 Ph.D., Information Management and Systems, UC Berkeley
2001 M.I.M.S., Information Management and Systems, UC Berkeley
1999 M.Sc., Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, London School of Economics
1999 M.Litt., Economics, Trinity College Dublin
Affiliations
Media mentions
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Ads may not provide benefits companies say they do
A recent study by researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab and Heinz College tests claims by the advertising industry that online ads help consumers find better, cheaper products faster.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Three CyLab papers presented at the FTC’s PrivacyCon 2020
Three CyLab papers were presented at this year's PrivacyCon, focusing on privacy and security nutrition labels, making privacy choices easier, and perceptions of advanced video analytics.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
How much control are people willing to grant to a personal privacy assistant?
In a new study presented at the CHI 2020 conference, CyLab researchers sought to find out how much autonomy people would feel comfortable giving to a personalized privacy assistant.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Finding privacy choices on websites is hard for average users.
In a study presented at this year's ACM CHI conference, CyLab researchers show precisely how difficult it is for average users to access privacy choices online.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
“Looking at You” illustrates today’s privacy dilemma in the form of an opera
A team of CyLab researchers helped put on an opera called Looking at You, which ran in New York City in September and explored issues of digital privacy in today’s screen-filled world.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Ads, cookies, and the European privacy regulation
A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Paris-Sud have been pondering how the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation affected the use of cookies, as well as its impact on websites that rely on cookies for revenue-generating ads.
Wall Street Journal
Acquisti in WSJ on GDPR
Europe’s new privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), appears to benefit Google and Facebook for now. These big players have gained more money from advertisers and they can ask for consent directly from a larger pool of individuals. However, CyLab’s Alessandro Acquisti says it is too early to tell whether the GDPR will favor Facebook and Google or weaken their businesses at the end. “We should be extremely cautious about distinguishing between short-term effects and long-term effects,” he says. “Until we see how cases will be litigated and their outcomes, and until we do empirical studies about downstream impacts, there is no way to resolve these opposing claims.”
The Economic Times
Acquisti comments on a year of Facebook scandals
Facebook users have found themselves increasingly disenchanted by the social media network this past year, beginning with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and proceeding through the recent document dump unearthed by the UK’s Parliament. CyLab’s and Heinz College’s Alessandro Acquisti commented, “Time and again, Facebook has shown a cavalier attitude towards the handling of users’ data as well as towards informing users clearly and without deception about the actual extent of Facebook’s data collection and handling policies.”
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
CyLab study finds users may be over-confident in protections of private browsing
A team of researchers from the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Lab analyzed 450 consenting users' browsing behaviors over a three-year period. Their study was presented at last month's Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security in Baltimore.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Proofpoint Acquires CMU Spinoff Wombat Security for $225 Million
Proofpoint Inc., a leading cybersecurity company, has completed its acquisition of a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff, Wombat Security Technologies Inc., for $225 million. The deal was announced by Proofpoint last month.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Carnegie Mellon researchers create an AI to help us make sense of privacy policies
If you’re anything like the average Internet user, you probably didn’t spend the estimated 244 hours it would take to read every privacy policy for every website you visited last year. That’s exactly why a team led by Carnegie Mellon University just launched an interactive website aimed at helping users make sense of their privacy on the web.
The Week
Acquisti quoted on facial recognition software
CyLab researchers created oversize colored glasses that not only masked the wearer's identity but also made the software think the person was a celebrity.