Trial lecture
“Spi calculus”
Time and place: September 17, 2025 11:15 AM. Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus.
Main research findings
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Privacy is a fundamental right, yet modern digital systems often mishandle personal data not due to malicious issues, but because current software lacks a built-in understanding of privacy laws like the GDPR. This thesis investigates how we can ensure data privacy compliance-by-construction. Where technical solutions to handle data privacy are embedded directly in the design of software systems, especially those that are distributed and interact with many actors. The key idea is to build a formal way of interpreting GDPR. Instead of relying on ad-hoc audits or user consent checkboxes, this research introduces new ways to embed GDPR principles such as user consent, purpose limitation, data subject rights, etc, directly into programming languages. This way, software can automatically reject non-compliant operations. The work brings together legal privacy principles and technical solutions, showing how we can formally define and enforce data privacy compliance in software systems. This helps organisations to showcase their accountability and build systems that are privacy-compliant by default, not by accident.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Thomas Troels Hildebrandt, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Associate Professor Viviana Bono, University of Torino, Italy
- Associate Professor Ana Ozaki, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
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Associate Professor Silvia Lizeth Tapia Tarifa, University of Oslo, Norway
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Professor Nils Gruschka, University of Oslo, Norway
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Professor Olaf Owe, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
- Associate Professor Ellen Munthe Kaas, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat