Hello! I research how users interact with technology and how inequalities impact those interactions, making them vulnerable. I am a doctoral researcher in the Human-Computer Interaction Research Group at the University of Luxembourg. My current research understands the experiences of user vulnerability towards manipulative designs to define interventions that empower users, improve the design of interfaces and, ultimately, inform policymaking. I draw on perspectives from critical human-computer interaction, socio-digital inequalities and critical design. I have further research interests in usable privacy and security, and the societal impact of technology.
I hold an MSc in Media and Communications Governance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, in which I focused on the relationship between privacy behaviours and the usage of electronic voting systems. I also have a double BA in Political Sciences and Law from the University Carlos III (Madrid, Spain), in which I explore the relationship between economic development and national cybersecurity measures. Prior to my academic career, I worked for five years as a cybersecurity and privacy consultant in different sectors -telecommunications, banking and insurance, among others.
I work with civil society groups to defend Digital Rights. I am a board member of the Internet Society Spanish Chapter and a former member of Interferencias, with whom I conduct research and activism for a better digital world. I collaborate with several initiatives, here you can see the response to the Spanish Digital Rights Chart with Trackula Association and the initiative about the European Copyright Directive application in Spain with Wikimedia. I recently published a book about the socio-technical aspects of electronic voting.
*Communities of colour are asking us not to use the term “dark patterns” for their problematic connotations. I use the term manipulative designs instead, which I find more accurate. Discover why here!
I truly thank Marelisa Blanco for her fantastic drawing in black and white, and Romain Toebosch for the coloured version!