Hi, I’m Maritza. I believe in the power and promise of data and build things that allow people to enjoy technological advancements safely.
I am an expert on human-centered security and privacy with industry, teaching, and research experience. As the founding director of the Center for Digital Civil Society at the University of San Diego and a partner at Good Research, I am forging a new social contract between builders and users, one where people are empowered to advocate for and participate in a data-centric future.To learn more about my work, check out my publications or Data Curious, a new project I'm leading that aims to stoke your curiosity about your relationship with data and how it's used in our world.
Expertise
- Human factors
- Privacy
- Security
Education
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PhD in Computer Science, 2012
Columbia University
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MS in Computer Science, 2008
Columbia University
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BA in Computer Science, 2005
University of San Diego
Select Publications
Improving Verifiability in AI Development
While a growing number of organizations have articulated ethics principles to guide their AI development process, it can be difficult for those outside of an organization to verify whether the organization’s AI systems reflect those principles in practice. This report grapples with approaches to mitigate these concerns.
What Can’t Data Be Used For? Privacy Expectations about Smart TVs in the U.S.
Smart TVs have rapidly become the most common smart appliance in typical households. We surveyed 591 U.S. Internet users about their current understanding and expectations about how smart TVs collect and use data. We found a wide range of assumptions and opinions among our respondents, and a good deal of uncertainty about what’s collected and how it is used.
A study of privacy settings errors in an online social network
Access control policies are notoriously difficult to configure correctly, even people who are professionally trained system administrators experience difficulty with the task. With the increasing popularity of online social networks (OSN) users of all levels are sharing an unprecedented amount of personal information on the Internet. We present the results of a study that measures sharing intentions to identify potential violations in users' real Facebook privacy settings. Our results indicate a serious mismatch between intentions and reality: every one of the 65 participants in our study had at least one confirmed sharing violation. In other words, OSN users' are unable to correctly manage their privacy settings. Furthermore, a majority of users cannot or will not fix such errors.
