Events Calendar

CS Colloquium: Aleksandra Korolova (Google) - Scalable Algorithms for Protecting User Privacy

Speaker: Aleksandra Korolova, Google

Talk Title: Scalable Algorithms for Protecting User Privacy

Series: CS Colloquium

Abstract: THIS TALK WILL BE BROADCAST / STREAMING VIA THE FOLLOWING LINK. (Right click-open link in new tab or window.)

Ubiquitous use of the Internet and mobile technologies combined with dropping data storage and processing costs have enabled new forms of communications and data-driven innovations. However, they have also created unprecedented challenges for privacy, with companies, policy makers, and individuals struggling in their search for approaches that could enable innovation while avoiding privacy harms.

In this talk, I will present algorithmic and data-mining research that demonstrates how these seemingly conflicting goals may be achieved, even when the data being collected about individuals is constantly changing and expanding. I will first demonstrate that merely restricting data sharing is insufficient to protect privacy via a novel attack exploiting Facebook's ad targeting system to reveal users’ secrets. I will then present algorithms that enable useful search data releases and social advertising computations while provably protecting privacy. Finally, I will show how data mining techniques used to improve web search and advertising quality can be effectively applied towards improving privacy policies and building tools for safer user experiences.

Biography: Aleksandra Korolova is a research scientist at Google, where she works on developing and implementing approaches for privacy-preserving data mining and for data-driven understanding of user privacy preferences. Aleksandra received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford, where she was a Cisco Systems Stanford Graduate Fellow. Aleksandra's thesis, "Protecting Privacy when Mining and Sharing User Data", was awarded the Arthur L. Samuel Award for the best 2011-2012 CS Ph.D. thesis at Stanford, and her work on "Privacy Violations Using Microtargeted Ads" was a co-winner of the 2011 PET Award for Outstanding Research in Privacy Enhancing Technologies. Prior to joining Google, Aleksandra has interned at PARC, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Research. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from MIT with a B.S. degree in Mathematics with Computer Science.

Host: Shanghua Teng

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Assistant to CS chair