Alessandro Acquisti
Adjunct Research Professor, CyLab
Professor of Information Technology, MIT
Alessandro Acquisti is a Professor of Information Technology at MIT Sloan and an Adjunct Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. His research has spearheaded the application of economics and behavioral economics to the study of privacy and personal data, and the investigation of privacy and disclosure behavior in social media.
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
CyLab researchers present at ACM CHI 2025
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute researchers will present nine papers and teach one course at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025).
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Bryan Parno honored with the IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice
Bryan Parno, Kavčić-Moura Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Computer Science, has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Cybersecurity Award for Practice for his contributions to the theory and practice of end-to-end secure systems.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
NIST awards $6M to Carnegie Mellon University to establish AI Cooperative Research Center
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Sept. 24 that the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded $6 million to Carnegie Mellon University to establish a joint center to support cooperative research and experimentation for the test and evaluation of modern AI capabilities and tools.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
CyLab hosts top cybersecurity researchers for the 2024 NSF SaTC PI Meeting
On Sept. 4-5, more than 500 of the world’s leading cyber-systems researchers convened in Pittsburgh for the 2024 National Science Foundation Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Principal Investigators’ Meeting (NSF SaTC PI), hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
CyLab icon connects users with online privacy choices
Have you noticed the new icon popping up on websites across the Internet? Thanks to researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab Security and Privacy Institute, the University of Michigan, and Fordham University, users can now easily make choices about how websites use their personal information, all in one convenient spot.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
CyLab members present research at annual FTC PrivacyCon
CyLab faculty, postdocs, and students presented their research at the FTC’s seventh annual PrivacyCon on November 1.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
CyLab well represented at SOUPS 2022
There is no shortage of Carnegie Mellon (CMU) students and faculty participating in this year's Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS).
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
“Adulting” for cybersecurity, GANs, and more: CyLab’s 2022 seed funding awardees
Over $400K in seed funding has been awarded to 18 different faculty and staff across seven departments at Carnegie Mellon to support security and privacy research.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Understanding the evolutionary roots of privacy
New research co-authored by CyLab researchers in the journal Science explores the concept of privacy not as a modern anomaly, but as a concept that spans time and space, social class, and degree of technological sophistication.
The Wall Street Journal
Acquisti quoted on facial recognition
CyLab’s Alessandro Acquisti was quoted in The Wall Street Journal on privacy concerns about facial recognition and Facebook’s announcement that it is shutting down its facial-recognition system in the coming weeks.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Are the recent Facebook revelations a “privacy Chernobyl?”
CyLab’s Alessandro Acquisti shares his thoughts around the privacy issues Facebook is facing today.
CyLab Security and Privacy Institute
Misconceptions plague security and privacy tools
According to a new study out of CyLab, people hold a myriad of misconceptions about the security and privacy tools out there meant to help protect our privacy and online security.
TIME
Acquisti quoted on changes to TikTok’s privacy policy
CyLab’s Alessandro Acquisti was quoted in TIME on the potential implications of new changes to TikTok’s privacy policy.
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.
Smithsonian.com
Acquisti quoted on facial recognition technology
CyLab’s Alessandro Acquisti was quoted in an article for Smithsonian.com about the advancements in facial recognition technology.