Danielle Citron

Privacy is not a privilege. It is a human and moral right. This principle guides privacy expert Danielle Citron in every aspect of her work. 

At UVA, in addition to teaching, Citron serves as the inaugural director of the LawTech Center, a new scholarly hub that focuses on critical issues at the intersection of law and technology, and co-host of the podcast “Common Law.” Her latest book, The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity and Love in the Digital Age, was published in fall 2022 and examines the pervasive assault on privacy by the individuals, companies, and governments that seek to exploit our personal data. 

For the past decade, Citron has worked with lawmakers, law enforcement and tech companies to combat online abuse and to protect intimate privacy. She serves as an adviser to the White House Gender Policy Council. In June 2019, she testified before Congress about the national security and privacy risks of deepfakes. She has been involved in reform efforts around the regulation of online platforms. In October 2019, she testified before Congress about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. From 2014 to 2016, Citron served as an advisor to then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and as a member of Harris’ Task Force to Combat Cyber Exploitation and Violence Against Women. In 2011, Citron testified about misogynistic cyber hate speech before the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Anti-Semitism at the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. Since 2011, she has been a member of Facebook’s Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery Task Force. She served as an adviser to Twitter from 2009-2022, as an adviser and member of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council from 2016-2022, and as an adviser to the video-sharing platform TikTok from 2020-23. She is an adviser to the music-streaming service Spotify.

In April 2023, Citron was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2024, she became the first woman ever to be ranked the #1 legal scholar among the Top 100 Law Scholars. This prestigious recognition, based on citation impact and scholarly influence, underscores her groundbreaking work at the University and beyond.