CPPA Board Selects Dr. Jennifer King to Join California Children’s Data Protection Working Group
The California Privacy Protection Agency has appointed Dr. Jennifer King, Privacy and Data Policy Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, to the California Children’s Data Protection Working Group. The Working Group, which was established by the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, is tasked with preparing legislative recommendations on best practices regarding children’s access to online services, products, and features.
“Dr. King is one of the nation’s leading scholars on privacy and artificial intelligence, and we are honored to have her represent the Agency on the California Children’s Data Protection Working Group,” said Jennifer M. Urban, Chairperson of the California Privacy Protection Agency Board. “We are grateful that she will help shape the groundbreaking work of the group to better protect children online.”
The California Age-Appropriate Design Code requires businesses providing online products or services likely to be accessed by a person under 18 to complete data protection impact assessments prior to their public launch. This includes ensuring default settings are at the most privacy-protective level possible for children. It also prohibits businesses from using the personal information of a child in a way that is detrimental to their physical or mental health.
The bill also created a Children’s Data Protection Working Group, housed within the Office of the Attorney General, to deliver a biennial report to the legislature, from July 1, 2024 to 2030, regarding best practices for implementation of the new law. The CPPA appoints one member, and the group is tasked with considering a number of issues, including how the CPPA’s unique expertise may be leveraged to support the law’s goals. The remaining eight members of the working group are appointed by the Governor, the Senate Pro Tempore, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Attorney General.
Dr. King has extensive experience researching how people interact with and understand technologies and privacy. She has produced a number of publications on dark patterns, which are user interfaces designed to impair a user’s autonomy, decision‐making, or choice.
Dr. King has a master’s and doctorate in Information Management and Systems from the University of California, Berkeley School of Information. Previously, she was the Director of Consumer Privacy Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society and a co-director at UC Berkeley’s Center for Technology, Society, and Policy. Before that, she was a privacy researcher at the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic at Berkeley Law.
She was a member of the California State Advisory Board on Mobile Privacy Policies and the California State Radio Frequency Identity Verification (RFID) Advisory Board. In addition, she has private-sector experience from working in security and product management for several internet companies.
Contact: press@cppa.ca.gov