Visiting Researchers
Fatima Ezzeddine
Fatima Ezzeddine is our visiting researcher from January to April 2025. She is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the Università della Svizzera Italiana and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland in Lugano, Switzerland. Fatima is funded by the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship and works under the supervision of Prof. Silvia Giordano and Prof. Marc Langheinrich.
Her research interests lie primarily in the areas of privacy-preserving machine learning and explainable Artificial Intelligence. Fatima also has an interest in the ethics and responsibility of AI, particularly concerning their impact on human rights.
During her research stay, Fatima is particularly interested in the topic of individual and group privacy rights, including the rights of collectives and mutual rights. She aims to explore the topic in-depth and bridge the gap between technical and non-technical researchers in the field.
Dr. Anastasija Collen
Anastasija Collen is our visiting researcher from October to November 2024. She earned her Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Geneva in April 2022, specialising in automated risk assessment.
Currently, she is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Geneva, a member of the Director Board for the InfoSec continuous education program in information security, and co-director of the Information Security Group at the University of Geneva.
She is actively engaged in multiple EU-funded projects, including GHOST, nIoVe, ULTIMO, OPEVA, ENFLATE and AutoTRUST, integrating research findings on cybersecurity, risk assessment and data privacy within IoT-enabled ecosystems, ranging from smart homes and automated vehicles to the overarching smart cities infrastructure.
During her visit, Dr. Collen will lay the groundwork for exploring human factors influencing privacy and risk perception, particularly in areas such as children's education and adopting emerging technologies like automated vehicles.
Dr. Nina Gerber
Nina Gerber has been our visiting researcher from July to August 2024. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Work and Engineering Research Group (FAI) at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of user-centered privacy & security, focusing on social aspects of privacy and security, UX design, and persuasion.
She worked as a researcher in several privacy& security-related projects at the Technical University of Darmstadt within CASED, CRISP, and ATHENE, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Within the projects, she focused on the human aspects of privacy & security, such as the development of usable privacy protections for IoT-equipped environments, user acceptance and security perception of different authentication schemes, psychological aspects of the privacy paradox, and privacy support for mobile users.
During her research stay, she pursued several ongoing collaboration projects with Prof. Verena Zimmermann, including research on privacy visualizations, cybersecurity conversations, psychological needs, and persuasive mechanisms.
Alexandra von Preuschen
Alexandra von Preuschen has been our visiting researcher from July to August 2024. She is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Chair of Technology, Innovation, and Start-up Management at Justus Liebig University Giessen since October 2021. Prof. Verena Zimmermann is her Co-Supervisor.
In her current research, Alexandra aims to challenge the common belief of humans as „the weakest link“ in organizational cybersecurity and emphasizes viewing them as opportunities. By exploring factors such as perceptions, attitudes, and emotions towards cybersecurity (and privacy), her research aims to create a positive approach, understanding human factors to enhance capabilities and contribute to more resilient human capabilities in cyber defense. During her research stay, she explored potential future research directions that build upon the findings of the recent paper “Beyond Fear and Frustration - Towards a Holistic Understanding of Emotions in Cybersecurity” published in the SOUPS 2024 Conference Proceedings.
Xiaowei Chen
Xiaowei Chen was our visiting researcher from March to May 2024. He is a doctoral researcher working on the “Achieve Effective and Sustainable Anti-phishing Solutions” (AES anti-phishing) project, funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Luxembourg since January 2022.
Xiaowei explores user-oriented information security solutions for organizations. He examines whether group discussion and role-playing training can be effective anti-phishing training approaches, what motivates and discourages employees from engaging with phishing interventions, and how users interact with emerging technologies. During his stay, he will survey what drives employees to respond more securely in collaboration with the Security, Privacy, and Society group. His recent two papers will appear in ACM CHI ’24 conference proceedings.
Jennifer Klütsch
Jennifer Klütsch was our visiting researcher for August and September 2023. She is a PhD-Student at the Teaching and Research Area of Work and Engineering Psychology at RWTH Aachen University since November 2021 and supports the BMBF-funded project A-DigiKomp.
Jennifer Klütsch examines users’ decision-making processes in privacy and cybersecurity. Her dissertation investigates how social and developmental benefits affect young adults’ privacy trade-offs as well as their phishing susceptibility online. During her research stay, she will examine an intervention approach towards informed privacy decisions in collaboration with the ‹Security, Privacy and Society group›.
Alina Stöver
Alina Stöver has been our visiting researcher for January and February 2023. She was a PhD-Student at the Research Training Group 2050 Privacy and Trust for Mobile at TU Darmstadt and completed her dissertation in March 2023. Coming from psychology, Alina Stöver is looking at the human factors in privacy. Her research deals with user perceptions (e.g., personal privacy assistants) and the perspective of privacy responsible parties (e.g., website owners). In her dissertation, she investigated how website owners contribute to privacy risks on websites.
Alina Stöver published in journals and conferences related to research at Privacy, such as PoPETs, Security, such as USENIX Security, and Human-Computer-Interaction, such a NordiCHI.