Peter Swire

Peter Swire is the J.Z. Liang Chair in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy in the Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Computing and Professor of Law and Ethics in the Scheller College of Business, with an appointment by courtesy in the School of Public Policy. He joined Georgia Tech in 2013, following his tenure as the C. William O’Neill Professor in Law and Judicial Administration at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law from 2006 to 2013, where he also directed the Washington DC Summer Program. Previously, Swire served as Associate Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law from 1990 to 1996, Visiting Professor at George Washington University Law School in 2001–2002, and Adjunct Professor there from 2002 to 2009. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985, serving as Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A. summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1980, with a concentration in economics.

Swire's distinguished government service includes Chief Counselor for Privacy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton from 1999 to 2001, the first official with government-wide responsibility for privacy policy, and Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy under President Obama from 2009 to 2010. He was one of five members of President Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology in 2013–2014, whose report influenced major provisions of the USA FREEDOM Act. Swire co-chaired the World Wide Web Consortium’s global Do Not Track process from 2012 to 2013 and has served on National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including the Forum on Cyber Resilience from 2015 to 2021 and the Study Committee on the Future of Encryption from 2020 to 2022. His research specializes in privacy and cybersecurity, with emphasis on cross-border data flows; he is lead author of the textbook U.S. Private-Sector Privacy: Law and Practice for Information Privacy Professionals, now in its fourth edition (2024, with DeBrae Kennedy-Mayo). Other key publications include Liberty and Security in a Changing World: Report and Recommendations of the President’s Review Group (2014, co-authored), None of Your Business: World Data Flows, Electronic Commerce, and the European Privacy Directive (1998, with Robert E. Litan), and recent articles such as “Risks to cybersecurity from data localization, organized by techniques, tactics and procedures” (Journal of Cyber Policy, 2024, co-authored). Awards include the Outstanding Academic Scholarship Award from the Future of Privacy Forum (2019), Privacy Leadership Award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (2015), and Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2018). Currently, he is Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird, LLP, Research Director of the Cross-Border Data Forum, and Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy Forum.

Professional Email: Peter.Swire@scheller.gatech.edu