The University of Maryland’s Tech Policy Hub studies tech policy from a socio-technical perspective, building the bridge between computer science & public policy to understand how policy is designed and implemented for, by and with tech. Our hub spans across the forefront of tech policy domains, including cybersecurity, consumer privacy, misinformation and trustworthy machine learning. We bring together policymakers, scholars, industry leaders, and civil activists from across the DMV region. Through research, engagement and collaboration, the Hub advances understanding of how technological systems inform and shape society and how policy can help ensure technology serves the public good.
Cybersecurity Projects
County governments are often studied as isolated cybersecurity challenges, but their collective vulnerabilities may have broader implications for national resilience. This project develops new approaches for measuring and evaluating the integrated cyber attack surface across U.S. county governments, including the size, severity and vulnerability of publicly exposed infrastructure. By analyzing internet-facing systems and potential attack vectors across jurisdictions, the research provides a more holistic understanding of local government cyber risk and its implications for national cybersecurity.
Consumer Privacy Projects
Traditional privacy regulations often rely on notice-and-consent frameworks that can struggle to keep pace with evolving technologies. This project explores an alternative approach based on contextual integrity, which examines how information flows affect the social goods that privacy protections are intended to preserve. The research considers how adaptive regulatory approaches can help policymakers identify emerging risks, monitor evolving threats and evaluate the effectiveness of existing privacy protections.
Privacy advocates, researchers, journalists, whistleblowers and oversight organizations play an important role in promoting accountability across the U.S. privacy landscape. This project examines how formal and informal privacy watchdogs influence accountability efforts directed at both government institutions and corporations. The research explores how authority, resources and oversight mechanisms shape the effectiveness of these actors and what their efforts mean for privacy rights and regulatory accountability.
As digital advertising shifts away from third-party cookies and toward first-party data, advertisers are taking on a more direct role in managing consumer privacy. This project examines how organizations balance privacy obligations with business interests as they assume greater responsibility for data collection, targeting and consumer privacy decisions. The research also explores how industry standards and privacy-preserving technologies are shaping practices across the evolving digital advertising ecosystem.
Information Integrity Projects
Online news organizations rely heavily on third-party technologies for advertising, analytics and data collection. This creates challenges for internet users, who often have limited visibility into how these systems operate and whether they can be trusted to handle personal data responsibly. This project examines whether the technical infrastructure underlying news websites can provide insights into their quality, reliability and operational practices. By exploring the relationship between third-party website structures and information quality, the research seeks to identify new approaches for evaluating information sources and supporting efforts to strengthen information integrity online.
AI Accountability
As government agencies increasingly use artificial intelligence and machine learning systems to support public decision-making, questions about accountability become increasingly important. While automated systems can improve efficiency and resource allocation, they can also challenge traditional mechanisms of public oversight. This project examines how government agencies implement AI policy requirements and evaluates which accountability mechanisms—judicial, professional or social—are most effective in addressing the consequences of algorithmic decision-making.
The Values-Centered AI Initiative brings together researchers from across the University of Maryland to place social and human values at the center of AI design. Through interdisciplinary research, education and collaboration with community stakeholders, the initiative explores how artificial intelligence can be developed and deployed in ways that better serve society. Activities include seminars, roundtables, tutorials and collaborative research that advance new approaches to responsible and human-centered AI. More details are available here.
Online platforms face growing challenges in balancing free expression, community standards and protections against harmful content. This project explores how AI-powered tools can support content moderation while reflecting the values and norms of the communities they serve. Working directly with moderators, the research seeks to develop more flexible approaches to content governance, improve moderation practices and foster healthier online communities. More details are here, and a summary slide is available here.