CyLab Seminar: Florian Schaub

Speaker: Florian Schaub Associate Professor of Information, School of Information and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering University of Michigan Talk Title: The Policy–Practice Gap in Privacy: Why Legal Protections Fall Short and How to Make Them More Effective Abstract: Around the world, data protection and privacy laws are proliferating as policymakers seek to protect consumers from harms arising in a data ecosystem fueled by the extensive collection, use, and sale of personal information. Yet these laws often fail to produce meaningful improvements in consumers’ privacy in practice. Dr. Schaub’s research investigates how public policy and legal requirements affect consumers’ privacy in practice. His empirical findings show that privacy notices rarely provide meaningful transparency into companies’ data practices; cookie banners do not support informed consent; despite the availability of privacy rights and controls, consumers often permit more data collection and third-party sharing than they expect; and effective identity-theft protections, such as credit freezes, continue to have low adoption rates. In this talk, Dr. Schaub will discuss his group’s empirical research on these issues and identify factors that create and sustain the privacy policy–practice gap. He will also discuss how human-centered privacy design and research-informed policymaking can help turn formal rights and requirements into effective protections for consumers. Bio: Dr. Florian Schaub is an associate professor of information and of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. His interdisciplinary research spans privacy, human-computer interaction, emerging technologies, and public policy. He studies people’s privacy decision-making and behavior, investigates the privacy implications of emerging technologies, and develops human-centered privacy and security solutions that help people better manage their pr