jeff@democraticmedia.org
202-986-2220
Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), a Washington, D.C. non-profit and one of the leading NGOs advocating for consumers on digital privacy and consumer protection issues. Founded in 1991, CDD (then CME) led the campaign for the enactment of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA, 1998). Since 2003, CDD has helped place digital privacy on the Federal Trade Commission's policy agenda. Through a series of reports and formal complaints, CDD successfully engaged the Commission to begin addressing unfair and deceptive practices arising from online advertising. Recently, CDD's two-and-a-half year effort to strengthen COPPA's privacy protections for children under 13 resulted in a groundbreaking decision by the FTC in December 2012, in which the commission ruled -- for the first time -- that "cookies," geo-location data and other "persistent identifiers" are to be considered "personally identifiable information" (in the context of online services targeting children). A former investigative reporter, Jeff Chester is author of Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy. He was named "Domestic Privacy Champion" in 2011 by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. CDD is a member of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD).