Sarah Scheffler serves as planning committee chair for 2026 Privacy and Public Policy Conference

Privacy researchers, data stewards, and policymakers from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C., on February 9 and 10 for the second Privacy and Public Policy Conference (PPPC), hosted at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Building on the success of the inaugural 2024 event, the conference aims to strengthen collaboration across disciplines and explore practical, policy-relevant solutions to today’s most pressing data privacy challenges.

Sarah Scheffler, assistant professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Software and Societal Systems at Carnegie Mellon University, attended the first PPPC as a participant and is the planning committee chair for this year’s event.

“I was really impressed by how practitioner-focused the first conference was,” said Scheffler. “It brought together people who are actually responsible for stewarding sensitive data with researchers developing privacy technologies and policymakers shaping the rules around data use.”

The two-day, single-track conference will open with an invited panel on the current state and future of data privacy, followed by research talks and applied case studies from experts working at the intersection of technology and public policy. The first day will conclude with a poster session and lightning talks, featuring prizes for outstanding presentations, and the second day will continue with additional talks and discussions.

A central focus of PPPC is privacy and data practices for  organizations, particularly government agencies, that hold sensitive data but face strict legal and ethical limits on how that information can be shared.

“These agencies are tasked with producing high-quality statistics and insights that inform public policy, but they also have some of the strongest privacy obligations in the country,” Scheffler said. “This conference is really about sharing methods that let us have both: strong protections for individuals and meaningful, aggregate insights that help governments make better decisions.”

Data is essential to good decision-making, but privacy is non-negotiable.

Sarah Scheffler, assistant professor, Engineering and Public Policy, Software and Societal Systems

Rather than centering on legislation or litigation, the conference emphasizes practical tools and frameworks, including privacy-enhancing technologies and statistical techniques that enable responsible data use across institutional boundaries. Past participants have included representatives from federal statistical agencies, research organizations, and academic institutions.

Carnegie Mellon will have a visible presence at the 2026 conference. In addition to Scheffler’s leadership role, Professor Joe Calandrino will serve as a panelist, and Veronica Lin, a Ph.D. student advised by CyLab director Lorrie Cranor, will present research that measures user responses to online age verification.

With approximately 100 in-person attendees expected, the conference is designed to foster deep discussion and collaboration in the evolving privacy landscape.

“Data is essential to good decision-making, but privacy is non-negotiable,” said Scheffler. “What we’re trying to do here is build a foundation where we can use data responsibly, protecting people’s privacy while still learning what we need to know to improve public policy.”