Congratulations to Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research fellow Christopher Soghoian for being recognized by MIT’s Technology Review as a 2012 TR35 Honoree!
The designation recognizes the world’s top young innovators under the age of 35, spanning biotechnology, computer and electronics hardware and software, energy, the Internet and nanotechnology, among other fields.
Soghoian, a privacy researcher and activist, earned his Ph.D. from IU this summer. His multi-disciplinary research is focused on the role that third-party Internet and telecommunications service providers play in assisting law enforcement surveillance of their customers. His research has been published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and cited by several federal courts.
Previous TR35 honorees have included notable innovators like Google co-founder Larry Page and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning.
Soghoian is well-known among academia, his colleagues and the media for his dedication to consumer privacy, especially as it relates to surveillance. In a profile published last fall, Soghoian was described by Wired magazine as the “Ralph Nader of the Internet.” From 2009 to 2010, he served as the first in-house technologist at the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. There he assisted with investigations of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Netflix.
Before joining the FTC, Soghoian co-created, along with IU alumnus Sid Stamm, the Do Not Track anti-tracking mechanism now adopted by all of the major Web browsers.