’Privacy, Please!’ Lorrie Cranor on why she wrote a privacy book for 4-to-6-year-olds

Lorrie Cranor has long been a leader in the privacy space. As Director and Bosch Distinguished Prof. in Security and Privacy Technologies at Carnegie Mellon's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute, Prof. Cranor is on the cutting edge of usable privacy and security. Her work has influenced researchers to view privacy as a fundamental design standard rather than an abstract ideal and has helped reshape the technology field with more than 200 co-authored research papers on online privacy and security. 

 

She has also served as chief technologist at the US Federal Trade Commission and co-founded Wombat Security Technologies, among many other initiatives. 

 

Much of her work has focused on understanding how people interact with digital systems and where those systems failed. But, Prof. Cranor is also a mom and has raised three children. 

 

She has published new, illustrated book, called Privacy Please!, which Is geared for children aged 4-6, to help them and their parents understand what privacy means and why it matters. 

 

IAPP Editorial Director Jedidiah Bracy caught up with Prof. Cranor to discuss her new book, what inspired it, and how this book can help children develop a sense of privacy, autonomy and expression. We also discuss some of the broader children's privacy issues that are emerging in jurisdictions around the world, including through social media bans and age verification laws. Here's what she had to say.