Daniel Weitzner

Daniel J. Weitzner (Danny) is the Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative and Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. He teaches Internet public policy in MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department.

Beginning in September 2026 he serves as Ethyca’s Chief Strategy Officer where he will set the strategic direction for how Ethyca’s data governance products enable agile deployment of emerging AI technologies while respecting changing legal requirements and core ethical principles.

Weitzner's career has spanned civil society, academic and government. He pioneered the field of accountable systems in computer science with the goal of improving privacy in large-scale data analytics platforms. His research on new methods for quantitative cyber risk measurement led to the issuance of a patent on uses of confidential computing algorithms for cyber risk modeling.

Weitzner was United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy in the White House where he led government-wide initiatives on privacy, cybersecurity, copyright, and digital trade policies promoting the free flow of information. He was responsible for the Obama Administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and the OECD Internet Policymaking Principles.

Weitzner has been a leader in Internet public policy from its inception, making fundamental contributions to the successful fight for strong online free expression protection in the United States Supreme Court, opposing technologically unwise regulation of encryption technology, and for laws that protect the privacy of email and web browsing data against government surveillance. He was a leading proponent and drafter of Section 230 of the US Communications Act, known as the “the 26 words that made the Internet.”

During the COVID pandemic, he co-led a cross-disciplinary team at MIT which pioneered the COVID-19 exposure notification protocol, later implemented by Apple and Google in hundreds of millions of smartphones around the world.

Weitzner is a founder of the Center for Democracy and Technology, led the World Wide Web Consortium’s public policy activities, and was Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is Co-founder was General Chair of the annual ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (2019), was awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (2016), is recipient of the International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award (2013), and is member of the Council on Foreign Relations.