Hello! I’m Smirity
Thank you for visiting my page. If you find my work interesting, feel free to reach out. I am always happy to connect and chat more :)
I am a postdoctoral research associate at the George Washington University, Dept. of Computer Science. I am very fortunate to work with Dr. Adam Aviv and the amazing lab members in the GW-Usable Security and Privacy (GWUSEC) lab.
I graduated with a Ph.D. in Information Sciences in August 2025 from the School of Information Sciences, at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, advised by Dr. Yang Wang and Dr. Madelyn Sanfilippo. During this time I also worked closely with Dr. Yixin Zou at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) in Bochum, Germany. Previously, I had a wonderful opportunity to work as a research intern at the MPI-SP, for the Spring and Summer 2024, and Summer 2023. My research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, user privacy and security, and tech policy. I use both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer the question: How can we ensure that people’s experiences with emerging technologies are safe, trustworthy, and empowering? I am interested in multiple research topics in human-centered security and privacy:
- Global Perspectives of AI
- Accessibility Computing (Privacy and Security)
- Technology and Sociocultural norms
- Online Safety and Scams
- Privacy and Security for Majority World
Read more about my research interests here.
I am CIPP/US certified, with an interdisciplinary background in law and technology, which informs my research work from both policy and social computing dimensions. Previously I worked as a Privacy Consultant at Ernst & Young (EY), focusing on developing, managing, and auditing privacy programs for tech sector clients in the silicon valley and greater seattle area. My CV is available here.
Selected Honors and Awards
- Google Academic Research Award on Trust and Safety (2024)
- Meta Research Award on Global South Citizens’ Privacy Perceptions (2021)
- IAPP Best Privacy Paper Award (2021, 2019)
- John R. Weitzel Memorial Award Scholar 2019 for Information Systems Research
Updates:
- Oct 2024 We received a Google Academic Research Award on "Safeguarding Emerging Adults from Scams on Short-Form Video Platforms"! This is a joint proposal with Yixin Zou at MPI-SP and Mainack Mondal at IIT Kharagpur. Very excited to work on this passion project :)
- Aug 2024 I will be presenting my latest paper on GenAI and fraudulent ads at 6th Annual Symposium on Applications of Contextual Integrity (PrivaCI). Come say hi! :)
- Aug 2024 Aawarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Student Grant to attend 6th Annual Symposium on Applications of Contextual Integrity (PrivaCI)
- July 2024 I am attending CISPA Summer School 2024 for Usable Security and Privacy and also presenting my work on online trust and safety for under-represented populations
- July 2024 I was invited by the Law & Tech Lab at Maastricht University, for a talk about my work on online trust and safety for at-risk and under-represented populations
- May 2024 Attending ACM CHI 2024 conference to present late breaking work about cross-country percpetions of targeted ads on social media [Paper link]
- Apr 2024 Recieved President's Diversity Travel Assistance award to attend the ACM CHI 2024 conference
- Apr 2024 Recieved Gary Marsden Travel award to attend the ACM CHI 2024 conference
- Jan 2024 Re-visiting Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) in Bochum to continue working with Dr. Yixin Zou
- Dec 2023 Successfully defend dissertation proposal on "Exploring online privacy, safety, and trust perceptions of at-risk users towards targeted and deceptive ads on social media platforms."
- Sep 2023 Virtually attending Grace Hopper Conference, 2023
- Sep 2023 Received NSF PrivaCI Fellow grant award to attend 2023 PrivaCI Symposium held at York University in Toronto
- Aug 2023 Finished 3-month summer internship at Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) with Dr. Yixin Zou
- Aug 2023 Presenting two papers at the Nineteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2023)
- July 2023 Attended my first PETS conference in person at Lausanne, Switzerland
- May 2023 Started summer research internship at Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) with Dr. Yixin Zou