Anne Toomey McKenna

Anne Toomey McKenna is a licensed attorney, researcher, and Law Professor - a woman leader for over two decades working at the interdisciplinary intersection of technology, privacy, and law. Anne is the Chair of the AI Policy Committee for the world’s largest technical professional organization, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Co-Chair of IEEE’s Privacy, Equity, and Justice in AI Subcommittee. Anne is a Visiting Law Professor at Richmond Law and teaches Evidence, Cyberlaw in Practice (a course she developed), and Information Privacy Law. She is Affiliated Faculty with ICDS - Penn State University’s Institute for Computational & Data Sciences and was formerly Penn State Dickinson Law’s Distinguished Scholar of Cyber Law & Policy.

Anne’s published works on law and surveillance, privacy, data, evidence, and emerging technologies are regularly cited in published opinions by federal and state courts across the U.S., and relied upon by judges, attorneys, businesses, and policy makers in navigating these complex and evolving areas of law.

As part of her work - teaching, educating, researching, and advising about cutting edge legal and societal issues surrounding privacy, data, artificial intelligence, and surveillance - Anne collaborates regularly with agency, business, institution, and policy leaders at the highest levels.

Anne brings uncommon depth and understanding to her work in these interdisciplinary subjects. That depth flows from her work as an trial attorney advising clients and litigating these complex matters in federal and state courts. Anne does not just research and write about data, privacy, and surveillance law, she has extensive litigation and client experience on matters involving:

  • Electronic Communications Privacy Act

  • Computer Fraud & Abuse Act

  • Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

  • Digital Millennium Copyright Act

  • Video Voyeurism and Video Privacy laws

  • state data privacy, surveillance, and tracking laws

  • data practices, data privacy laws, and data breach

  • online content and speech, website policies, and compliance

  • geodata, geolocation, GPS and cellular tracking

  • tort and contract based privacy claims

Anne is the lead faculty creator of Principles of Cyber Law & Policy, an open access course developed via grant from the National Security Agency to improve U.S. citizens’ resiliency in the cyber era. Anne also served for two years as the Principal Legal Consultant for the Department of Justice-COPS’s initiative: the Use of UAVs (drones) in Community Policing.

Publications:

  • Jones on Evidence, 7th Ed., (Fishman & McKenna), cited by the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh Circuits, and the District of Columbia Circuit 

  • Wiretapping & Eavesdropping: Surveillance in the Internet Age, (McKenna & Fishman), cited by the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits 

  • The Role of Satellites and Smart Devices: Data Surprises and Security, Privacy, and Regulatory Challenges, 123 Penn State L. Rev. 591 (2019), McKenna, Anne Toomey; Gaudion, Amy C.; Evans, Jenni L. 

  • Pass Parallel Privacy Standards or Privacy Perishes, McKenna, Anne T., 65 Rutgers L. Rev. 1041 (2013)

  • Pending: Cyberlaw in Practice, McKenna, Anne Toomey (forthcoming Wolters Kluwer casebook) 

Her work has also appeared in Fast Company, Ars Technica, Yahoo News, CNN, BRINK (an Atlantic publication), The Conversation, and Science Node. Professor McKenna’s news media interviews and quotes include NPR’s Morning Edition, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, the New York Post, Vice, Bloomberg Law/Radio, and NBC, FOX, and CBS News. She is also one of the lead interviewees in the 2020 documentary, Interference: Democracy at Risk. Among her pro bono work, Professor McKenna has represented victims of revenge porn and online stalking, and she helped obtain a published First Amendment victory in Connecticut’s Supreme Court for a murder victim’s family’s right to post missing posters.

Specialties:

  • Emerging Technologies & the Law: Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems, & Biometric Systems

  • Electronic Surveillance

  • Data Laws & Practices: Health, Financial, & PII Privacy Compliance & Breaches

  • School & Workplace Privacy

  • Website Practices & Terms

  • Geolocation Tracking & Geodata

  • Social Media & Online Content Speech & Tort Issues: Mis- and Disinformation & National Security

  • Statutory Claims, including ECPA & CFAA

  • Electronic Evidence