Stanford’s Jonathan Mayer On Fixing Privacy

A Q&A with Stanford graduate student Jonathan Mayer.

His research on internet tracking set off an explosive series of media reports and a flurry of privacy demands in Washington. But what does Mayer himself think should be done—is it possible to regulate privacy without harming Silicon Valley? Mayer says that the culture of technology companies, especially their focus on growth, makes them ill-suited to safeguard consumer privacy. Mayer thinks that increased government oversight in the privacy sphere would be effective so long as the mandate was given to an independent agency and not Congress itself.