Jim Harper

Jim Harper is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, focusing on privacy, technology, and information policy. Harper's research addresses the intersection of technology, public policy, and individual rights, including surveillance, data security, telecommunications, and cryptocurrencies. As a trained lawyer, Harper has served as counsel for the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary and as counsel for the Senate Committee on Government Affairs.

Harper has contributed to the adaptation of law and policy for the information age in areas such as privacy, cybersecurity, telecommunications, intellectual property, counterterrorism, government transparency, and digital currency. Early in his career, he represented companies including PayPal and Verisign before Congress. Harper previously served as executive vice president and vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, as director of information policy studies and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, as global policy counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation, and as webmaster for WashingtonWatch.com. He founded and led PolicyCounsel.com and edited Privacilla.org.

Harper is the co-editor of "Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It" and the author of "Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood." His book "Identity Crisis" established him as a prominent critic of a U.S. national identity system. Harper has written several amicus briefs in Fourth Amendment cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has published scholarly articles in law journals, including Administrative Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, and Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.

A founding member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, Harper has provided expertise on personal data and civil liberties at the highest levels of government. He has testified in Congress and in state legislatures nationwide. Harper's commentary on privacy, Internet policy, and technology has reached broad audiences through major media outlets, contributing to the ongoing national conversation on privacy in the digital age.