Analysis of Real-World Systems

A large part of my research is dedicated to the analysis of real-world systems. Examples of this are our comparative analysis of the privacy and security risks of digital proximity tracing systems (a DP-3T contribution) and our analysis of the potential harms of the LUCA tracing system (Stadler et al., 2021).

Analysing the privacy properties of novel complex systems is a challenging task as there are no standardised ways to conduct such an analysis. The analysis process itself is thus an important part of our research. It helps us to understand how we reason about privacy in different types of systems and enables us to improve guidelines for practitioners.

Beyond informing our research, our work has had a considerable impact on the design of digital aids for pandemic containment.

Impact

Our work on the LUCA tracing system has (Stadler et al., 2021) received a lot of attention by the German media. Upon request, I have given interviews on the national news of both German public broadcasting stations (tagesthemen, ARD and heute journal, ZDF) and a long-format podcast.

Warum wollen plötzlich alle LUCA?. Eva Wolfangel, Die Zeit (2021)

Luca vs. Datenschutz. SheLikesTech, NDR Podcast (2021)