The Archives

Jim Harper

Jim Harper is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on privacy, as well as legal and constitutional-law issues. His research centers on the intersection of technology, public policy, and individual rights, including surveillance, data security, telecommunications, and cryptocurrencies.

Harper previously served as executive vice president and vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He was also director of information policy studies and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Earlier in his career, he worked as global policy counsel for the Bitcoin Foundation and as webmaster for WashingtonWatch.com. He founded and led PolicyCounsel.com and edited Privacilla.org.

On Capitol Hill, Harper served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law and as counsel to the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. Early in his career, he worked in public affairs at Goddard Claussen Public Affairs and represented companies such as PayPal and VeriSign before Congress.

Harper was a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. He has authored "Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood" and co-edited "Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It."

He earned a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and a bachelor’s from the University of California, Santa Barbara.