ACM US Technology Policy Committee

March 31, 2026

ACM USTPC has issued a response to NIST RFI: Towards Best Practices for Automated Benchmark Evaluations. The response is divided into four separate questions covering subjects such as the usefulness and relative importance of the included practices and principles, emerging practices vs. existing best practices, and more—with each question approached in two sections: "General Feedback" and "Specific Areas to Address."

March 4, 2026

The US government’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) was established in a 2021 Executive Order to investigate complex cybersecurity failures and translate their lessons into recommendations to improve the nation’s cyber safety. In early 2025, the Administration dismissed all Board members. The ACM US Technology Policy Committee strongly urges that the CSRB be reactivated. This could be done administratively. However, it is recommended that a legislative basis for the organization be created for long-term stability.

February 24, 2026

ACM USTPC has responded to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) request for information on support from big data and ad tech providers. USTPC argues that this effort would go against the best practice of minimizing data collection as a safeguard against misuse and advocates for the importance of preserving personal privacy.

February 16, 2026

ACM USTPC has joined a group of civil rights, civil liberties, and professional organizations to comment on proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 707 concerning admissibility of machine-generated evidence. USTPC urges the Advisory Committee to reconsider the text of the proposed rule and to reach out to solicit additional input from a broader range of stakeholders. 

ACM has deep concerns regarding the ethics of chatbots and other interfaces that engage in interactions of a sensual, sexual, or suggestive nature with minors. As the premier global association of computing professionals, this action violates our organization’s Code of Ethics and our mission statement, which emphasizes “promoting the highest professional and ethical standards.” ACM urges the investigation and oversight of any such design or deployment until an independent analysis can be done, and an appropriate, informed, and transparent public consensus reached

ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has released a “Statement on Mass Cybersecurity Incidents Likely to Recur.” On July 18, 2024, CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, released a sensor configuration update which caused a global outage affecting an estimated 8.5 million computers. Several critical infrastructure sectors including airlines, 911 emergency systems, banks, government agencies, healthcare, and hospitals around the world were impacted. ACM USTPC urges that all the details be thoroughly and publicly investigated.

ACM's US Technology Policy Committee filed a friend of the court brief with the US Supreme Court in the landmark case of Van Buren v. United States—the first time it has reviewed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 law that was originally intended to punish hacking. USTPC notes that the questions posed in this case have broad implications for data and computing scientists, as well as other professionals who use the internet and computing technology, particularly to access information posted online.

ACM's US Technology Policy Committee has called for “an immediate suspension of the current and future private and governmental use of facial recognition (FR) technologies in all circumstances known or reasonably foreseeable to be prejudicial to established human and legal rights” in its “Statement on Principles and Prerequisites for the Development, Evaluation and Use of Unbiased Facial Recognition Technologies.”