Paul Ohm

Paul Ohm is a professor at Georgetown Law whose work bridges computer science, law, privacy, and computer crime. Georgetown describes his research as focusing on information privacy, surveillance, technology, and the law, informed by experience as a programmer and network systems administrator.

Anonymization under scrutiny

His article Broken Promises of Privacy examined the failure of anonymization and helped focus policy discussion on re-identification risk. The work challenges a common but unsafe assumption about data release.

Technical and legal practice

Ohm has also worked in U.S. government roles involving computer crime and privacy policy, showing how secure-system design and legal rules depend on actual technical capabilities.

Timeline

• 1990sWorks as a programmer and network systems administrator before law school.
• 2000sWorks in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
• 2010Publishes Broken Promises of Privacy.
• 2010s-2020sTeaches and researches privacy, technology law, and computer crime at Georgetown.