Areas of Research

Our research covers a wide range of topics which are essential to the development of technology that can be deployed while minimizing harms on individuals and society at large. These are our main lines of research (see our publications page for more details)

Engineering harm-preventing systems from the lens of privacy

Digitalization increases the surface of harms for users and collectives. The digital traces users leave can be used to create profiles, to find ways to manipulate them, or to cause them physical harm, among others.

At the SPRING Lab we work on improving our understanding on how privacy technologies can be used to build systems that minimize potential harm to users and societies. We work both on the development of building blocks that allow engineers to build privacy-systems, as well as on methodologies that enable them in a systematic way about how to combine these building blocks and evaluate their impact on harm prevention.

Understanding the limits of protection in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies

At the SPRING Lab we try to understand the impact that emerging technologies, and especially machine learning, has on society, and how it changes security and privacy problems. We research how and when machine learning can be used without creating new harm surfaces. We also study how machine learning could be used to help designers evaluate their systems design, and try to find principled ways to design defenses against attacks on privacy using machine-learning.

Improving web and network privacy

A key part of our digital life happens on the web. At the SPRING lab, we develop technologies to improve the privacy of users when interacting with webpages, both at the applicaiton and network layers.