Last year, for the first time, we offered a research award for academics that focuses on experiences and expectations with digital privacy. We have received great responses from the global community and we look forward to resuming this initiative with the launch of a new call for proposals in the same area.
View tender
To find out more about this new call, we contacted Liz Keneski, Head of Privacy Research at Facebook. In this Q&A, Keneski talks about her team, the impact of working with science, and what this year’s RFP is about.
Q: What is your role on Facebook and what is your team doing?
Liz Keneski: I have the privilege of leading and supporting the privacy research team. We study privacy from a number of angles, including understanding people’s privacy needs on issues such as content controls, how to access and download their data, and privacy settings and data permissions. Because Facebook’s global user base is so diverse, we need to consider the different data protection needs across cultures and populations in our research.
Q: What was the tender about last year? What is the goal of this year’s RFP?
LK: Both this year’s and last year’s call for tenders is about expanding research on two important topics for the further development of data protection science: data protection measurement and integrative data protection. To further improve our privacy functions, we need detailed survey tools to best understand how privacy expectations and attitudes change over time in response to the changes we make. Also, to build privacy controls and transparency for people around the world, we must deeply understand the unique privacy needs of different populations.
Q: How does this tender fit into the overall picture of data protection work on Facebook? Why is it important to work with science?
LK: Our goal is to expand knowledge in data protection science as a whole. This means we support high quality privacy research – both inside and outside of Facebook – that we can all learn from as a broader privacy community. Academics can often delve deep into specific topics or areas over the course of many years, and we would like to leverage that expertise into developing privacy products for people.
Q: Where can people stay up to date and learn more?
LK: Visit the Security and Privacy research page to learn more and to find the latest publications and team member profiles. On our research award page you will find our open research award options. To receive email notifications about our new research awards and application deadlines, subscribe to our email newsletter.
Comments are closed.