Mary Stone Ross

Background

About Mary Stone Ross

Mary Stone Ross is a nationally recognized expert in consumer privacy, cybersecurity and data security. She was president of Californians for Consumer Privacy, a committee that put a statewide initiative on the 2018 California ballot. In that role, she coauthored the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), an initiative to safeguard Californians’ privacy while balancing businesses’ need to collect and use data. The initiative led to the unanimous passage by the California legislature of AB 375, the CCPA, to date, the most comprehensive consumer privacy law in the United States. Ross provides an interesting and unique perspective as both a privacy advocate and also a privacy practitioner. Since the campaign ended last summer, Ross founded MSR Strategies to help technology, consumer, financial services, and other businesses navigate the complexities of the new privacy regulatory landscape—including GDPR, CCPA, and other international and domestic frameworks—and, implement forward thinking privacy practices. Ross is also a frequent public and private commentator on proposed changes to the CCPA as well as debates over possible U.S. federal privacy regulatory frameworks. Her comments have been published in the New York times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wired Magazine, National Public Radio, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and other media outlets. Prior to her work in California, Ross was the founder and CEO of an EdTech startup. Earlier in her career, she served in high-level government roles in security, intelligence and privacy including as Counsel to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the U.S. House of Representatives, at the Central Intelligence Agency, and at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She received her J.D. from the University of Virginia and her B.A. from Yale University.