privacy-tech-lab logo.

Our Work

Privacyflash-pro logo.
OptMeowt logo.
Global Privacy Control logo.
GPC Privacy Choice logo.
Privacy Pioneer logo.
An overview of how Global Privacy Control works.
June 1-2, 2022

In Arlington, Virginia at the NSF's 2022 Security and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) Principal Investigators' Meeting.

privacy-tech-lab team members in a group portrait outside of Exley Science Center at Wesleyan University.
May 13, 2022

Farewell Chunyue, Kuba, and Owen! All the best at Microsoft, Princeton, and Amazon! (at Exley Science Center; from left to right: Chunyue, Kuba, Owen, Sebastian, Eliza, Bella, Daniel; not pictured: Logan, Oliver, Justin, Sophie)

A picture of Aram Zucker-Scharff presenting code to implement GPC at the California Privacy Protection Agency stakeholder Zoom call.
May 5, 2022

Together with Aram Zucker-Scharff of the Washington Post and other collaborators we present GPC at the stakeholder meeting of the California Privacy Protection Agency.

A screenshot of the Security Now YouTube show featuring Global Privacy Control in episode 869.
May 3, 2022

"For me, I am liking the new add-on OptMeowt."
Steve Gibson features OptMeowt on Security Now!

A statue of the Greek philosohper Herodotus in a thinking pose.
April/May 2022

Thinking and debating. Sebastian participates in an NSF panel reviewing funding proposals at the Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate.

Privacy Pioneer logo.
April 1, 2022


I'm Feeling Lucky! We are grateful for receiving funding from Google for our work on Privacy Pioneer! Right on!

The logo of the Privacy + Security Academy.
March 24, 2022

Sebastian weighs in on Emerging State Privacy Laws: Are They Working for Consumers and Businesses?

A picture of Justin Casler.
March 8, 2022

Welcome, Justin!
Justin Casler joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A picture of Sophie Eng.
March 8, 2022

Welcome, Sophie!
Sophie Eng joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A very new age looking picture showing the sun behind a purple background.
January 18, 2022

New DRP blog post: "The Digital Rights Protocol: Threading Privacy Rights into the Internet".

The logo of Consumer Reports.
January 13, 2022

As many people ask, Sebastian explains the similiarities and differences of the Data Rights Protocol (DRP) and Global Privacy Control (GPC).

A picture of the Connecticut State Senate building in Hartford.
December 20, 2021

Sebastian presented GPC at the Connecticut Senate Data Privacy Working Group Meeting (via Zoom from Germany :) ).

A message in a bottle lying on a beach.
November 8, 2021

Sebastian writes a Comment on the Proposed Rulemaking under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020 (Proceeding No. 01-21) to the California Privacy Protection Agency.

Announcement of the Data Rights Protocol roundtable event showing pictures of Sebastian Zimmeck, Rebecca Weiss, and Daza Greenwood.
October 19, 2021

Sebastian participated in the Data Rights Protocol roundtable of Consumer Reports and hosted by the MIT Media Lab.

October 5, 2021

Bye Bye, Stanley!

We farewell Stanley. Thank you for all your contributions to GPC. Excellent work!

A picture of buildings on the Wesleyan University campus to advertise the poster session of the 2021 summer research program.
July 29, 2021

Mesdames et messieurs, Eliza and Owen are presenting our work at Wesleyan's Summer Research Poster Session!

A picture of Oliver Wang sitting in a building with sunlight coming through overhead windows.
July 19, 2021

Welcome, Oliver!
Oliver Wang joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A illustration of a female influencer in front of various social media company logos
July 17, 2021

New blog post: Opting Out May Not Prevent Websites From Collecting Your Data. (Image credit Social Ninja.)

A picture of the Time magazine cover from December 27, 1926 showing Alfred P. Sloan.
June 28, 2021

We are thrilled to receive funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop a generalizable active privacy choice mechanism. In other words, let's make it easier for Internet users to express their privacy choices. More to come ... .
(Time magazine cover in the public domain.)

A stylized picture of a feedback form on with three choices and the top choice marked.
June 2021

Sebastian participates in an NSF panel reviewing funding proposals for the Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate. Quite fun and lots of good ideas! (Image credit Internet Reputation Management.)

Banner for Wesleyan's commencement in 2021.
May 26, 2021

Raf and David are graduating! Thank you for your hard work all these years and making PrivacyFlash Pro the success it became! It was a pleasure. All the best for your future! We also farewell Daniel K. Thank you for all your contributions to GPC. Excellent work!

A picture of Chunyue Ma sitting on the stairs in front of a Wesleyan building.
May 18, 2021

Welcome, Chunyue!
Chunyue Ma joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A picture of Stanley Markman standing in front of a house with some trees.
March 19, 2021

Welcome, Stanley!
Stanley Markman joins the privacy-tech-lab.

March 15, 2021

Welcome, Kiryl!

Kiryl Beliauski joins the privacy-tech-lab for the remainder of the semester.

The banner ad for the Shasha seminar 2021 showing blurry technology and reading Truth (and Lies) in Our Time.
March 12, 2021

A busy Friday with a talk at Sepideh Ghanavati's privacy group at the University of Maine and Wesleyan'sShasha Seminar: Truth (and Lies) in Our Time moderating Mitali Thakor's great talk on deep fakes.

A picture of Logan Brown inside a car.
March 10, 2021

Welcome, Logan!
Logan Brown joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A portrait picture of Daniel Goldelman.
March 8, 2021

Welcome, Daniel!
Daniel Goldelman joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A picture of Bellas Tassone standing in front of a skyscraper.
February 11, 2021

Welcome, Bella!
Bella Tassone joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A picture of Eliza Kuller standing in front of a wall.
February 9, 2021

Welcome, Eliza!
Eliza Kuller joins the privacy-tech-lab.

Announcement of Rise of Privacy Tech event showing pictures of Sebastian Zimmeck, Robin Berjon, and Pete Snyder.
February 06, 2021

Together with collaborators Robin Berjon and Pete Snyder, Sebastian discussed Global Privacy Control at Rise of Privacy Tech.

Picture of a building of the National Science Foundation.
January 23, 2021

We received NSF funding! For our work on Global Privacy Control.

Logos of PrivacyFlash Pro and the Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium.
January 7, 2021

PrivacyFlash Pro goes to NDSS 2021! February 21-24, 2021. Check out the paper!

A picture of Owen Kaplan standing in front of a bookshelf.
December 8, 2020

Welcome, Owen!
Owen Kaplan joins the privacy-tech-lab.

An illustration of a Zoom video conference.
December 3 and 8, 2020

Sebastian gives Zoom talks on Global Privacy Control at UC Davis and Northeastern University.

Screenshot of the landing page for the Global Privacy Control project.
October 11, 2020

We launched Global Privacy Control (GPC). Yeah! Gilad Edelman provided most excellent coverage over at Wired. Others did, too!

An announcement for a panel discussion on cybersecurity.
October 8, 2020

October is Cybersecurity month! Sebastian is participating in an online discussion at SUNY Canton.

Logo for OptMeowt Do Not Sell browser extension showing a stylized cat.
September 13, 2020

Check out our short WPES paper on Do Not Sell featuring our OptMeowt browser extension. Our talk is here.

A picture of Abdallah Salia in front of the National Mall in Washington DC.
August 19, 2020

Welcome, Abdallah!
Abdallah Salia joins the privacy-tech-lab for the Fall semester.

A picture of Daniel Knopf making the victory sign.
August 18, 2020

Welcome, Daniel!
Daniel Knopf joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A thumbnail of iOS YouTuber Brian Advent introducing PrivacyFlash Pro.
May 25, 2020

iOS YouTuber extraordinaire Brian Advent features PrivacyFlash Pro! Check it out! (Brian's take and Q&A's are also available.)

A diagram showing that Covid-19 apps are collecting personal data, location data, and Bluetooth data.
May 18, 2020

New blog post on the privacy of contact tracing apps: The Privacy of COVID-19 Apps -- Reopening Alphaville.

A picture with the first paragraphs of a blog post.
April 18, 2020

Privacy Beat did a short story on our current CCPA work.

A picture of the Chrysler Building in New York at night.
February 24, 2020

We had a great discussion with the good folks at iOSoho - New York City's largest iOS Engineer Meetup.

A picture of Kuba Alicki standing in front of a pine tree.
January 23, 2020

Welcome, Kuba!
Kuba Alicki joins the privacy-tech-lab.

January 23, 2020

Welcome, Phil!

Phil Kaelbling joins the privacy-tech-lab for the Spring semester.

A giraffe asking 'Does your app need a privacy policy'?
January 8, 2020

New blog post: The CCPA is here! Now what?

December 30, 2019

Fresh! PrivacyFlash Pro. Developed by David, Rafael, Sarah, and Sebastian. (Video narrated by Rafael.)

Sebastian discusses the California Consumer Privacy Act at Samba TV's .
October 30, 2019

Sebastian discusses the California Consumer Privacy Act at Samba TV's Data Protection in the 2020's in San Francisco.

September 4, 2019

Welcome, Sarah!

Sarah Jin joins the privacy-tech-lab for the Fall semester.

Sebastian presents our MAPS paper at PETS in Stockholm.
July 18, 2019

Sebastian presents our MAPS paper at PETS in Stockholm.

New blog post: How Mobile App Permissions (Don't) Protect Privacy
June 6, 2019

New blog post: How Mobile App Permissions (Don't) Protect Privacy.

A picture of David Baraka standing in front of a pine tree.
January 24, 2019

Welcome, David!
David Baraka joins the privacy-tech-lab.

An illustration of a man shocked by a bill he owes.
January 20, 2019

New blog post: Social Debt: Why Software Developers Should Think Beyond Tech.

A picture of Rafael Goldstein in a blue hoodie in front of a blue wall.
October 15, 2018

Welcome, Rafael!
Rafael Goldstein joins the privacy-tech-lab.

A collage of Wesleyan University pictures.
July 1, 2018

Wesleyan, here we go!
Sebastian joins Wesleyan. (Picture courtesy Wesleyan University.)