Main content start

Elizabeth M. Renieris

Elizabeth M. Renieris
2021 Digital Civil Society Lab Practitioner Fellow
Project Title:
Deconstructing Digital Identity for Civil Society

Elizabeth M. Renieris is the Founding Director of the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, the applied research and development arm of the University of Notre Dame’s Technology Ethics Center, where she helps develop and oversee projects to promote human values in technology. She is also a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Elizabeth’s work is focused on cross-border data governance frameworks, as well as the ethical challenges and human rights implications of digital identity, blockchain, and other emerging technologies. As the Founder & CEO of HACKYLAWYER, a consultancy focused on law and policy engineering, Elizabeth has advised the World Bank, the U.K. Parliament, the European Commission, and a variety of international organizations and NGOs on these subjects. She’s also working on a forthcoming book about the future of data governance through MIT Press.

What is your research focus?
The civil and human rights implications of digital identity systems; preventing enclosure of the digital public sphere via privatized digital identity solutions.

How do you plan to change the world?
By challenging the assumptions that gave rise to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg.

What is an interesting fact about yourself?
Mark Zuckerberg was my classmate. 

What is music/film/art that represents who you are?
Hungarian Rhapsody No 2.