Lillie Coney
Lillie Coney is Associate Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research organization in Washington, DC. EPIC was established to focus public attention on civil liberties issues. Ms. Coney joined EPIC in 2004 to head up the organization's voting and privacy project. In 2005, she was named Associate Director.
Ms. Coney's work encompasses original research and writing on topics that impact civic participation. In 2004, she contributed the chapter "Mobilize Underrepresented Voters," to the New York Times Bestseller, 50 Ways to Love Your Country. In 2005, she co-authored, along with computing technologists and researchers, the paper, Toward a Privacy Measurement Criterion for Voting Systems. In 2006, Ms. Coney was the organizing force behind the first research conducted in a polling location to measure the usability of optical-scan and touch screen voting systems resulted in the report, Voting Technology, Election Administration, and Voter Performance, published by Stein, Vonnahme, Byrne, and Wallach (2008). In October 2008, EPIC's voting project published E-Deceptive Campaign Practices Report: Internet Technology and Democracy 2.0, the first report to review technology as a tool for online deceptive campaign practices. The report reviewed the potential for abuse of Internet technology in an election context, and made recommendations for steps that could be taken by Election Protection, Election Administrators, and voters to protect the integrity of the upcoming election. She has written and spoken extensively on the subject of voting technology and privacy. She has published several law and policy journal articles on elections and voting systems.
Ms. Coney serves in an advisory capacity to several voting and technology organizations, which include Verified Voting, ACCURATE, Voting System Performance Rating, and Open Voting Consortium. She is also a member of the Association for Computing Machinery's Public Policy Committee.
In 2005, her work at EPIC expanded to include coalition development and civil rights in the digital information age. She arrived in Washington, DC with an extensive background in coalition building and development. She serves as the Coordinator for the Privacy Coalition, an EPIC project. The Privacy Coalition has over 40 organizations and affiliates, representing a broad political spectrum, committed to freedom and privacy rights. She manages monthly meetings of the Privacy Coalition as well as one annual conference held in January of each year. Guest speakers from previous administrations included: Chairs of the Federal Trade Commission, the Civil Liberties Protection Officer for the Office of National Intelligence, and the former Executive Director and Vice Chair of the Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Ms. Coney has coordinated several major Internet Privacy advocacy campaigns; most notable are the "Stop REAL ID Campaign" and the "Stop Digital Strip Searches" efforts.
She has testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Privacy and Cybercrime Enforcement and the House Committee on Homeland Security on the topic of Watchlists. She also testified several times before the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee on domestic surveillance, CCTV Surveillance, and "Fusion Centers". Ms. Coney has testified before the Election Assistance Commission on the subject of voter registration database privacy, electronic voting system standards development, and developing reliable measures for voting administration and equipment management.
Ms. Coney was the former Public Policy Coordinator for the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). The ACM is the largest and oldest organization of computing professionals in the world. Prior to that, Ms. Coney served as special assistant to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) on a variety of issues ranging from energy and information technology policy, election reform, to education policy. Her background includes extensive work in computer systems and technology policy. She has over 18 years of experience working on science and technology issues. She also has worked with civil rights and grassroots organizations on issues of voting and civil rights.
Ms. Coney received a B.A. in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. She is a former Systems Administrator who has designed and developed web sites for Congressional offices.
Contact Information:
Electronic Privacy Information Center1718 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20009
coney@epic.org
+1 202 483-1140 x 111 (office)
+1 202 483 1248 (fax)
Education
Lamar University Public Administration M.A. 2000; Political Science B.A. 1982Research Assistant Dr. James True, Jack Brooks Chair in Government and Public Service (1999-2000)
Testimony and Comments to Federal Agencies:
House Committee on Homeland Security (September 9, 2008)
Election Commission on New Voting Guidelines (April 24, 2008)
House Judiciary Committee (December 18, 2007)
Department
of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee (September 19, 2007)
Department
of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee (June
7, 2006)
Congressional
Oversight of EAC's Enforcement of HAVA (October 4, 2005)
EAC
Hearing on New Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (August 23, 2005)
EPIC
Comments to the DOJ on Georgia Voting ID Preclearance (July 29,
2005)
EAC
Agency Rulemaking on Statewide Centralized Voter Registration (May
25, 2005)
EAC
Hearing on Statewide Centralized Voter Registration (April
28, 2005)
EAC
Comments on Survey of States on Voter Registration: (March
1, 2005)
FTC
Comments on the Children's Online Privacy (February 14, 2005)
NIST
Federal Employee IDs (February 14, 2005)
EAC's
TGDC on Voter Privacy (September 22, 2004)
Papers, Reports, and Articles:
"e-Deceptive Campaign Practices Report." EPIC Publication, October 20, 2008
"e-Data Breaches and Privacy Protection Statues: State v. Federal," 2nd Annual ABA Cyber Law Conference, June 18-20, 2008
“Race & Ethnicity Implications on the
Right to Vote in Public Elections” [PPT
Slides], The Revealed I Conference Ottawa October 27, 2007
Why Audit for Transparency?, [PPT
Slides] 2007 Post Election Audit Summit, October 26, 2007
Election Reform: Auditing, House Committee on
Administration, Submitted Statement, (March 20, 2007)
Statewide Database of Registered
Voters, Association for Computer Machinery, USACM (February 2006)
Towards a Privacy Measurement Criterion
for Voting Systems (April 2005)
MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country,
Chapter, Mobilize Underrepresented
Voters (2004)
Presentations:
Privacy Issues and Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportation Research Board, January 12, 2009
Federal Secrecy in State and Local Governments’ Fusion Centers, American Association of Access Professionals (December 2, 2008)
Privacy and Civil Liberties Roundtable, House Committee on Homeland Security (December 3, 2008)
Roundtable Discussion on E-Deceptive Campaign Practices Report: Technology and Democracy 2.0, Press Briefing (October 20, 2008)
Privacy Symposium 2008, Havard University (August 18-21, 2008)
Second Annual Institute on CyberLaw: Expanding the Horizons, ABA, Washington DC June 18, 2008
ACLU 2008 Membership Conference, Washington DC, June 2008
Tutorial on e-Deceptive Campaign Practices: Elections 2.0, May 20, 2008
The 21st Century Panopticon, Computers Freedom and Privacy 2008 May 22, 2008
Where People and the Surveillance Society Collide, Computing Freedom and Privacy Montreal May 1-4, 2007
Moderate: Data Mining Panel American
Society of Access Professionals Annual Meeting, September 27, 2007
National Network to End Domestic Violence Trainer,
August 14. 2007
Instructor: American
Bar Association Computing and the Law: From Steps to Strides into the New
Age, June 25, 2007
Moderated Panel: Where the Surveillance Society and People Collide, Computers,
Freedom and Privacy, May 2007 Lecture: Constructing a Surveillance
Society: Unintended Consequences,
West Point Military Academy, February 20, 2007
Safety Net's Training for Trainers: Coalitions
and Collaboration, August
14-17, 2006
Privacy that is Assured Through Transparency, June 6-7, 2006
Technology, Democracy and Privacy Impacts
on Hurricane Evacuees, May 4, 2006
Computers Freedom
and Privacy: The Color Coded Society, April 12, 2005
National
Academy Seminar on Concealed Threat Detection, March 2, 2005
Electoral Flashpoints, American University, October 14, 2004
Justice for All Civil Rights 2004 Conference, October 9-10, 2004
Symposium "Election 2004: Is e-voting
ready for prime time?" October 1,
2004
