felten, what does a chief technologist do? >> guest: well, i do a bunch of things. i'm senior adviser to the chairman and the other commissioners at the ftc, i'm an internal consultant on technology and policy issues, i do some liaison and ambassador to the technical community and to the tech industry, and i help the other technologists within the agency to be more effective. >> host: why does the ftc need a chief technologist? >> guest: well, the ftc is doing an increasing amount of work in areas like online privacy and competition and so on, so the leadership in the agency decided that they wanted to have more access to technical advice. and if you're going to be working in this area as a government agency, it helped to have people in house who speak the language. >> host: what's your background when it comes to online privacy, and what's your general philosophy? >> guest: well, my background, i'm a computer scientist. i've been a computer science professor at princeton for 17 years. and my technical research and teaching has been largely in online security and pr

joining us now is edward felten, the chief technologist at the federal trade commission. >> i am seniorisor to the chairman and commissioners at the ftc. i am an internal consultant on technology in policy issues. i do some liaison and an ambassador to the technical community and the tech industry and the help the other technologists within the agency to be more effective. >> but as the ftc needed chief technologist? >> the ftc is doing an increasing amount of work in areas like online privacy and competition and so on. the leadership in the agency decided they wanted to have more access to technical advice. if you are going to be working in this area, and helps to have people in house to speak the language. >> what is your background when it comes to on-line privacy and what is your general philosophy? >> i am a computer scientist. i have been a computer science professor at princeton for 17 years. my technical research in teaching has been largely in online security and privacy. i come from a long background in the technical aspects of this. i have also worked on some public policy is

. >> host: ed felten, chief technologist of the federal trade commission. thanks for spending a few minutes on "the communicators." >> guest: my pleasure. >> to watch these or other interviews again, go to our "communicators" web site at c-span.org. >> ahead on c-span2, a look at how private school voucher programs are being used in the foreign educational systems. >> today, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius and agriculture secretary tom vilsack reviews new dietary guidelines promoting health and nutrition and reducing obesity. the guidelines are published by their respective agencies every five years. this news conference can be seen live this morning at 10 eastern. >> jay carney will be the new white house press secretary. he worked as a correspondent for time magazine. watch c-span coverage of his other appearances online at the c-span video library with every c-span program since 1987, all searchable and free. washington your way. >> next, a discussion examining different education systems around the world. speakers from sweden and c