Research

Interests

My research is inspired by practical problems, and often interdisciplinary in nature. My main area of research is privacy by design. There I focus on methods to translate vague legal data protection norms into more concrete engineering design principles, and tools that help engineers implement privacy into the systems they develop. Apart from that the following research topics are of interest to me: privacy and the Internet of Things, advanced use of smart-cards, and privacy and identity management. I also started studying blockchain / distributed ledger technology, mostly to counter the hype surrounding it... I am of course interested in cryptography [:-}] and information security in general .

I am also interested in the social and legal aspects of technology, and like to engage in the public debate about security and privacy. I explore these issue on my blog.

Privacy Design Startegies

I have developed eight privacy design strategies that make privacy by design more concrete. They translate vague (legal) privacy norms into more concrete design goals that engineers are more comfortable to work with.

More information can be found in the 'The Little Blue book' / 'Het Blauwe Boekje'.

The icons for each of the strategies and other graphics are also available in pdf and SVG (icons only) format.

People

I currently (co)supervise or advise the following PhD students.

• Nina Hartmann (Radboud University)
• Yelyzaveta Markova (Radboud University)
• Mahdi Akil (Karlstad Universitet)

See also this list of former students and postdocs.

If you are interested and motivated to become a PhD student or a postdoc, and my area of research appeals to you, please contact me, and we can discuss possibilities. See also this page with student guides.

Projects

None at the moment. See also these older projects.

Journals

• Member of the advisory board of the Weizenbaum Journal of Digital Society (2021-now).
• Member of the editorial board of the Journal of Data Protection and Privacy (2016-now).

Conferences, workshops, summer schools

• PC Chair positions: International Conference on Data Protection Regulations, Compliance, and Innovative Technologies (PrivIno2024) / The 31th IFIP TC-11 SEC 2016 International Information Security and Privacy (IFIP SEC 2016) / The 8th IFIP Summerschool on Privacy and Identity Management 2013 / The 8th Workshop On Rfid Security And Privacy (RFIDSec 2012) / 3rd Workshop in Information Security Theory and Practices 2009: Smart Devices, Convergence and Next Generation Networks (WISTP 2009).
• Lead organiser: Co-curator of the dedicated computer science track of CPDP, May 21, 2025 / 7th Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2025), July 6 - 11, 2025 / 6th Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2023), June 25 - 30, 2023 / 5th Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2020), August 30 - September 4, 2020 / 4th Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2019), September 1-6, 2019 / 3rd Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2018), July 9-13, 2018. / 2nd Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2017), June 19-23, 2017 / 1st Interdisciplinary Summerschool on Privacy (ISP 2016), July 10-15, 2016, Berg-en-Dal, The Netherlands.
• Steering and other committee memberships:: Co-organiser Lorentz workshop on Privacy by Design Beyond the Screen: (How) Is it Possible?, from April 24 through April 28, 2017 at the Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. Mentoring chair of the 3rd International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2017) / Mentoring chair of the 2nd International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2016) / Workshop On Rfid Security And Privacy (RFIDSec) - 2012 / 4th Workshop in Information Security Theory and Practices 2010: Security and Privacy of Pervasive Systems and Smart Devices (WISTP 2010).
• Summerschools: Intensive Programme on Information & Communication Security (IPICS 2017), June 23 - July 3, 2017, Corfu, Greece. / Intensive Programme on Information & Communication Security (IPICS 2015), July 6 - july 17, 2015, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
• Recent PC Memberships: Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2025 (FC 2025) / The 29th Nordic Conference on Secure IT systems (NordSec 2024) / 2024 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2024) / 1st International Workshop on Privacy and Security in Augmented, Virtual, and eXtended Realities (SePAR 2024) / Annual Privacy Forum (APF 2024) / 16th International conference Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP 2023) / 2023 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2023) / 2022 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2022) / 22nd Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2022) (senior PC member) / 15th International conference Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP 2022) / 20th Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES 2021) / (Future of PI 2021): Challenges and Perspectives of Personal Identification / 2021 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2021) / Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2021 (FC 2021) / 21st Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2021) / 2020 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2020) / Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2020 (FC 2020) / 12th International conference Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP 2019) / 2019 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2019) / 2018 International Workshop on Privacy Engineering (IWPE 2018) / 18th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2018) / Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2017 (FC 2017) / 17th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2017)

See also these previous activities.