Stanford Seminar - How Can Privacy Exist in a Data-Driven World?

May 24, 2024
Blase Ur, University of Chicago

Huge amounts of personal data underpin the algorithms that drive modern life. How can privacy exist in such a world, and what does privacy even mean in this context? In this talk, I will partially answer these questions by discussing how our group employs data-driven methods to help users understand how their data is collected and used. In particular, I will present tools we have developed both to provide transparency about online tracking and to help users engage with the personal data companies hold about them. To further contextualize the meaning of privacy, I will describe user studies investigating how privacy is perceived. I will conclude by describing our ongoing collaborations with artists to recenter privacy as a societal value.

About the speaker:
Blase Ur is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, where he researches computer security, privacy, human-computer interaction, and ethical AI. His lab, the UChicago SUPERgroup, uses data-driven methods to make complex computer systems more usable and to help users make better security and privacy decisions. He has received an NSF CAREER Award, Quantrell Award for Undergraduate Teaching, five best/distinguished paper awards, and five honorable mention paper awards. He has also received the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence, SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award, IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice, and a Fulbright scholarship to Hungary. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (PhD and MS) and Harvard University (AB). He also likes bicycles, photography, punk rock, and cacti/succulents.

More about the course can be found here: https://hci.stanford.edu/seminar/

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