Alex Alben

  • Affiliate Instructor

Contact

Email: aalben77@uw.edu

Alex Alben

Education

A.B. with distinction, Stanford University J.D., Stanford Law School

Alex Alben teaches Privacy, Cybersecurity and Internet Law at the UCLA School of Law. He has previously taught Internet Law and Privacy courses at both the UCLA School of Law and the University of Washington School of Law. For most of his career, Alex served as a senior executive for pioneering internet companies RealNetworks and Starwave Corporation, where he created new digital media products that enabled the distribution of video and music on the internet and worked with industry groups to devise new content distribution models. From 2015–19, he served as Washington State's first Chief Privacy Officer.

Alben is engaged in both research and policy development relating to cybersecurity, antitrust issues relating to Big Tech and the ethical conundrums created by artificial intelligence. He is also working on implementation of state laws affecting privacy rights.

Alben has represented the high-tech industry in national and global policy groups and testified before the U.S. House, Senate and Copyright Office on copyright and media issues resulting from the growth of the internet and online networks. In 2004, he ran for the U.S. Congress from Washington's 8th district.

He has worked for an alternative energy company founded by Bill Gates, raised an early-stage venture fund for start-up companies emerging from the University of Washington and authored a study for the UW and City of Seattle on developing incubators and attracting start-up companies.

Alben received his A.B. with distinction from Stanford University and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. His publications have appeared in the Seattle University Law Review, the Stanford Law & Policy Review, the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times and the New York Times, among others. He is the author of "Analog Days: How Technology Rewrote Our Future."