July 20, 2020

Privacy in Action: Laura Brandimarte, University of Arizona

Laura Brandimarte, Associate Professor at University of Arizona

Privacy in Action is a series of interviews with privacy-minded Startpage users from diverse backgrounds. The goal of the series is to explore different perspectives on privacy, how privacy takes action in their lives, and provide recommendations for people with similar backgrounds.

Laura Brandimarte is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. She joined the department after a PhD in Public Policy and Management and a post-doc at Carnegie Mellon University. She also holds a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics, which she obtained after her undergraduate degree in Economics at Sapienza Università di Roma. Her research focuses on behavioral aspects of privacy and security decision making.

Interview with Laura Brandimarte:

Startpage: Fill in the blank: Privacy is _____.

Privacy is the ability to regulate the flow of information about us: what goes out, to whom, for which purposes, for how long.

Startpage: One a scale of 1 to 10, how private are you? Probably 7. How private do you think the general public is?

Probably 5.

Startpage: Why are data privacy and private search important to you? In your line of work? In your personal life?

Being able to maintain control over personal information means being able to also limit the inevitable influences that others (people as well as systems and corporations) have on us. It increases independence and autonomy. If information is power, then controlling what others know about us means controlling the power they can exert on our thoughts, choices, and behaviors.

Startpage: What measures do you take to protect your personal data online and offline?

We all naturally do things to protect our privacy in the physical world, and we hardly have to think about it: from carefully choosing who to share a secret with to closing/locking doors to protect us or our belongings from the outside world.

Online, our choices seem to be more complex, as we have a hard time understanding all the risks and benefits associated with digital information sharing. Some of the things I personally do to manage my privacy online include using private search; setting strong passwords, different from site to site; keeping my identity theft insurance active; blocking cookies/ads with simple tools, such as the ones embedded in my browser; log out of websites once I’m done browsing (especially social media sites); avoid to use my social media credentials for other sites.

Startpage: How do you envision data privacy in the future? 1 year, 10 years, lifetime?

I do not agree with those who say that privacy is dead, that people do not care enough to protect themselves and their personal data, because they prefer to trade their privacy for convenience or small monetary rewards. I think that people do care a lot about privacy – but sometimes, beyond self-censoring or avoiding using certain services, they are not sure how to really protect it. I think that privacy enhancing technologies, such as private search engines, anonymous browsing tools, secure/encrypted messaging services, are becoming more and more user-friendly, allowing all of us to take full advantage of the powerful tools offered by the Internet but staying safe, private and secure, without necessarily getting a degree in computer science.

Startpage: For anyone new to Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), what would you recommend as first steps to protecting their personal data?

There are many companies such as Startpage nowadays offering services with privacy by default and privacy by design. You can send encrypted emails easily with Tutanota, you can connect to the Internet securely with VPN services such as ProtonVPN, you can use maps without being constantly tracked with Qwant/OpenStreetMap, you can establish encrypted communication with Signal… explore privacy enhancing technologies, many of them are just as easy to use as their more privacy intrusive counterparts!

Startpage: What are your favorite privacy tools?

- Search Engine
- Browser
- Email
- Messaging
- VPN

All of the above ?

Startpage: Would you rather: Share your search history or teach in your PJs for 5 years?

Great question! my students will have probably gotten used to seeing teachers in the PJs these last few months anyway, so I pick that latter option ?

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We’d like to thank Laura for taking the time to answer these questions. If you are interested in participating in the Privacy in Action or would like to nominate someone to be interviewed by us, reach out to us at [email protected].

The views expressed in this Q&A are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect those of Startpage.