Justin Brookman

Director, Consumer Privacy Project

Justin Brookman was the Director of CDT’s Consumer Privacy Project until June of 2015.  He coordinated CDT’s advocacy on corporate collection, use, and retention of personal information, including efforts to enact comprehensive privacy legislation in the United States and to strengthen privacy law in Europe.  Justin has testified before House and Senate Committees on location privacy and data security, as well as the general need for stronger consumer privacy protections.  He also leads CDT’s work on behavioral advertising and the development of a “Do Not Track” setting for web browsers, and serves as editor of the compliance specification in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standardization process.  Under Justin’s direction, CDT has filed formal complaints with the Federal Trade Commission against companies that violate users’ privacy and free expression rights.  He also runs the Internet Privacy Working Group, a diverse set of privacy stakeholders including industry participants and other advocates, to formulate best practices guidance and inform CDT’s own views on emerging privacy issues.

Prior to joining CDT in January 2010, Justin was Chief of the Internet Bureau of the New York Attorney General’s office.  Under his leadership, the Internet Bureau was one of the most active and aggressive law enforcement groups working on Internet issues, and Justin brought to court several groundbreaking cases to protect the rights of online consumers. He brought the first regulatory actions against spyware and adware companies, as well as against the advertisers who funded those companies.  He also litigated several privacy cases against companies who misused or misappropriated consumers’ personal information, including the first enforcement of Gramm-Leach-Bliley’s restrictions on the use of consumer financial data.  In 2009, Justin brought the first case against a company for “astroturfing,” the act of seeding Internet message boards and blogs with fake positive reviews.  He also brought important actions to preserve free speech online and to preserve network neutrality.

Justin received his J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1998 and his B.A. in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in 1995. He began his career as a litigation associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in both its New York and Washington offices.