Olivia Figueira

About

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley. I work with Camille Crittenden in the CITRIS Tech Policy Initiative.

My research focuses on privacy and safety, technology policy, and human-centered computing. I am particularly interested in studying youth privacy and safety across emerging technologies, most recently among AI systems.

I received my PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine, advised by Athina Markopoulou and Scott Jordan. During my PhD, I was a member of ProperData and ProperAI. I also served as President of the Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) student chapter, and I interned at Common Sense Media as a Privacy Engineer. I received my BS in Computer Science and Engineering from Santa Clara University and my MS in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.

Recent News

Apr. 2026: I successfully defended my dissertation, "Auditing and Improving Children's Online Privacy and Safety." Thank you to my doctoral committee, Profs. Athina Markopoulou, Scott Jordan, and Habiba Farrukh!

Dec. 2025: Our paper "VR ProfiLens: User Profiling Risks in Consumer Virtual Reality Apps" was accepted for publication at the Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC) 2026, co-located with the NDSS Symposium 2026.

Sept. 2025: I was selected for the Division of Teaching Excellence & Innovation's (DTEI) Summer Graduate Scholars Fellowship Program. As the deliverable for this fellowship, I developed a GenAI Guide for CS Educators to assist UCI instructors, including guidance on GenAI for course development and assessment as well as on academic integrity and AI literacy.

See all news here.

Selected Awards

• UCI ICS Steckler Family Endowed Fellowship, 2025-2026

• ARCS and Danaher Foundation Scholar Fellowship, 2024-2026

• UCI Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation Graduate Scholars Fellowship, 2025

• Best Student Paper Award, ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) 2024

• PrivaCI Symposium NSF Student Travel Grant Awardee, 2024

• Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Conference Student Scholarship, 2024

• Mentoring Excellence Certificate, UCI Graduate Division, 2024

• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Honorable Mention, 2023