This is the registration page for Tech Foundations 2018
To register for Tech Foundations 2019, please click here
Georgetown Law's Tech Foundations for Congressional Staff is an immersive two-day program covering new developments in current and emerging technologies.
Technologists, business leads and academics will discuss new developments in privacy, surveillance, content moderation, platform competition, and algorithmic accountability.
Presentations will cover how various technologies work, how they’re being deployed, the policy questions they raise, and how businesses, policymakers and civil society are addressing those questions in the real world.
Sessions take the form of classroom lectures, with interactive components and active group discussion. Participants learn from leaders in the field and forge connections with a dynamic, bipartisan cross-section of interested fellow staffers.
Join the former chief of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection to discuss the regulatory landscape for protecting consumer privacy. What regulatory tools exist? Where are the gaps, and how should we think about the different strategies for filling them?
Presenter: Jessica Rich, former Director of the Bureau of Competition, FTC
How can technology be leveraged to better protect consumer privacy?
And what new privacy-impacting technologies should consumers know about?
One of the leading experts in online privacy will present the latest technologies and privacy-impacting practices you should know.
Presenter: Arvind Narayanan, Princeton University
It's been three months since the GDPR went into effect. How are U.S. companies responding?
What is the status of legal cases enforcing and interpreting the law?
In-house business leads will also cover Europe's Network & Information Security Directive, which went into effect in May with significant ramifications for U.S. companies.
Panel: Karyn Smith, GC of Twilio; Frank Torres, Microsoft; Chris Calabrese, CDT
Moderator: Marc Groman, former Senior Advisor for Privacy, OMB
The Supreme Court’s recent Carpenter decision represents a landmark shift in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.
What are Carpenter's implications going forward: for surveillance practices? For the Court’s approach to privacy law? For data collection by companies and other private parties?
Georgetown Law professor and computer scientist Paul Ohm will discuss the case and the current and future state of surveillance tools.
Presenter: Paul Ohm, Georgetown Law
Machine learning discovers and reproduces patterns in existing data -- which means unthinking
use of it risks perpetuating societal biases. Explore the emerging science of fairness in machine learning, and the implications for companies and policymakers in search of practical solutions.
Presenter: Arvind Narayanan, Princeton University
There is increasing focus on how online platforms work to take down illegal, harmful, or misleading content on their sites. But how do companies actually carry out this moderation?
How similar are their approaches, and how does the practice of moderation inform policy?
Presenter: Kate Klonick, St John's School of Law
How do actors gain information superiority and disrupt decision-making processes through cyber operations?
This half-day simulation draws on real-world incidents to explore key concepts in cybersecurity and information warfare. Join a team-based exercise simulating a national cybersecurity crisis, designed to give participants a deeper understanding of threat elements and the complex factors involved in shaping a response.
*The simulation relies on pre-assigned teams, so please RSVP for this portion of the program only if you are confident you can participate.
Presenter: Daniel Bagge, Cyber Attaché to the United States and Canada for the Czech Republic
Tech Foundations is free and open to all full-time Congressional staff.
Advance registration is required.
Breakfast is served from 8.30 a.m.; lunch is also provided.
Breakout rooms are available if you need to step out of a session to handle something for work.
For more information or to request an accommodation relating to a disability, please contact TechInstitute@law.georgetown.edu.
This event has been designed to comply with Congressional ethics rules.
If you have questions about your ability to participate, please contact the appropriate ethics committee.