For over a decade I have explored the impact of technology on privacy and data confidentiality. As Wisconsin’s first State Privacy Advocate, I promoted privacy policies, formulated model fair information practices and recommended privacy-enhancing legislation. In my role as a privacy ombudsman, I also helped citizens access their own information maintained in government databases. Because this office was unique, I am one of the few Americans ever to have served in such a capacity.

After the state office was eliminated in Wisconsin’s 1995 biennial budget, I directed the Wisconsin Data Privacy Project funded by the ACLU of Wisconsin. For the most part this project continued and extended my work as a state public official. I testified before legislative committees, spoke to a wide variety of audiences and published four reports on government data handling practices. In 2001, those reports were consolidated into a larger publication entitled Wisconsin’s Electronic Government. (See “Publications.”) I have also written about genetic privacy, the public records law and data surveillance.

Now an independent privacy consultant in Madison, Wisconsin, I focus my attention on medical, consumer and government privacy issues. I conduct research, offer training sessions and participate on conference panels. I also advise government on data sharing and integration practices as well as public records issues.

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Throughout my career, I have never been far removed from the fields of applied ethics and public policy.

I have a graduate degree from the UW-Madison LaFollette Institute of Public Policy and have served on several government commissions and boards including the Madison Ethics Board, (which I chaired in 1999), and the Dane County Ethics Board, on which I currently serve.