ACM US Technology Policy Committee
ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC), currently comprising more than 170 members, serves as the focal point for ACM's interaction with all branches of the US government, the computing community, and the public on policy matters related to information technology. The Committee regularly educates and informs Congress, the Administration, and the courts about significant developments in the computing field and how those developments affect public policy in the United States. USTPC's substantive work, which is entirely non-partisan and apolitical, is done largely through standing Subcommittees of dedicated volunteers and in coalition with other organizations.
The USTPC carries out its mission by responding to requests for authoritative technical expertise and guidance, publishing and distributing its materials, presenting findings at policy briefings, participating in public meetings, and engaging with a range of stakeholders. The Committee also advances public policy through educational programs and collaborations with other ACM policy entities, special interest groups, task forces, and committees.
USTPC's structure is detailed in, and its activities governed by, its Operating Procedures.
Key Issues and Resources
ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee regularly produces data-driven, apolitical statements, reports and other materials on a wide range of computing-related policy issues. Current key issues and resources include:
Coalitions, Consortia & Collaborators
ACM and its US Technology Policy Committee frequently benefit from and contribute to the work of both formal and informal alliances with other technology policy-oriented organizations. Such collaborations may take the form of joint reports, policy statements and principles, letters directed to policymakers, and legal briefs. (Please see USTPC's procedures for authoring and joining briefs amicus curiae.) These organizations include:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- American Medical Informatics Association
- Brennan Center for Justice
- Center for Democracy and Technology
- Code.org Advocacy Coalition
- Common Cause
- Computing Community Consortium
- Computing Research Association
- Electronic Privacy Information Center
- Free Speech for People
- Future of Privacy Forum
- National Election Defense Coalition
- Partnership on AI
- Privacy Coalition
- R Street Institute
- Verified Voting
USTPC Statement on CrowdStrike Incident
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has released a “Statement on Mass Cybersecurity Incidents Likely to Recur.” On July 18, 2024, CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, released a sensor configuration update which caused a global outage affecting an estimated 8.5 million computers. Several critical infrastructure sectors including airlines, 911 emergency systems, banks, government agencies, healthcare, and hospitals around the world were impacted. While CrowdStrike has provided some information as to how the accident happened, ACM USTPC urges that all the details be thoroughly and publicly investigated.
USTPC Urges Narrower Definition of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee filed a friend of the court brief with the US Supreme Court in the landmark case of Van Buren v. United States—the first time it has reviewed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 law that was originally intended to punish hacking. USTPC notes that the questions posed in this case have broad implications for data and computing scientists, as well as other professionals who use the internet and computing technology, particularly to access information posted online.
USTPC Issues Statement on Use of Facial Recognition Technologies
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has called for “an immediate suspension of the current and future private and governmental use of facial recognition (FR) technologies in all circumstances known or reasonably foreseeable to be prejudicial to established human and legal rights” in its “Statement on Principles and Prerequisites for the Development, Evaluation and Use of Unbiased Facial Recognition Technologies.”
USTPC Issues Statement on Privacy and Security for Virtual Meetings
ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) has released a Statement on Security and Privacy Principles for Virtual Meetings in light of changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Statement urges urges virtual conferencing platform designers, hosts, and users to adopt eight key security and privacy principles that are intended to greatly heighten the privacy and security not only of conference participants, but also of any transmitted or stored data.
USTPC Joins Call on Election Officials to Avoid Internet Voting
ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) joined many of the nation’s leading experts in cybersecurity, computing, and science in calling on all governors and state election directors to refrain from using any form of internet voting or voting app system in the 2020 elections. The joint open letter includes a detailed analysis prepared by the AAAS Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues which clearly demonstrates that internet voting is not a secure solution for voting in the US.
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U.S. Technology Policy Committee
- Chair
- Larry Medsker
- Vice Chair
- Jody Westby
- Past Chair
- Charles Brownstein
- Edward Felten
- James Hendler
- Stuart Shapiro
- Barbara Simons
- Eugene Spafford
- Accessibility Subcommittee Chair
- John Murray
- AI & Algorithms Subcommittee Co-Chairs
- Jeanna Matthews
- Digital Governance Subcommittee Chair
- Simson Garfinkel
- Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chair
- Paul Hyland
- Law Subcommittee Chair
- Andrew Grosso
- Privacy Subcommittee Chair
- Brian Dean
- Security Subcommittee Co-Chairs
- Carl Landwehr
- Alec Yasinsac
- Voting Subcommittee Co-Chairs
- Andrew Appel
- Douglas Jones
- Members-at-Large
- Joshua Kroll
- Europe Technology Policy Committee Chair, ex officio
- Chris Hankin
- ACM CEO, ex officio
- Vicki Hanson
- ACM COO, ex officio
- Pat Ryan
- ACM President, ex officio
- Yannis Ioannidis
US Technology Policy Committee Chair, Larry Medsker
Larry Medsker has been named Chair of the ACM US Technology Policy Committee effective July 1, 2023. USTPC serves as the focal point for ACM's interaction with US government organizations, the computing community, and the US public in all matters of US public policy related to information technology. Medsker is Research Professor in the Human-Technology Collaboration Lab and PhD program at George Washington University, and Founding Director of its Master's Program in Data Science. He is also Policy Officer for ACM's Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence.
Simons Named Chair of US Election Assistance Commission Committee on Election Security
Former ACM President Barbara Simons, who was also a founder of ACM's US Technology Policy Committee, has been appointed Chair of a special committee on election security with the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC). "I am very excited about the opportunity created by the appointment of a new committee of the EAC Board of Advisors on election security," Simons said.
USTPC Comments on FDA Paper on Software-Based Devices
USTPC submitted comments to the Food and Drug Administration on its discussion paper, “Proposed FDA Regulatory Framework for Modifications to Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Based Software.” The proceeding was opened to seek guidance on how current testing and ongoing evaluation protocols for software as a medical device (SaMD) should be modified.