Narseo Vallina Rodriguez

I am an Associate Research Professor at IMDEA Networks where I lead the Internet Analytics Group (IAG). I am also a co-founders of AppCensus, a US-based startup focused on the development of technologies for analysing the privacy risks of mobile applications at scale. Before joining IMDEA, I was a research scientist at ICSI at Berkeley (USA) and I obtained my Ph.D in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Prof.Jon Crowcroft. I also worked at industry research labs such as Vodafone R&D, T-labs Berlin, and Telefonica Research in Barcelona.

My research falls in the areas of (1) network measurements, and (2) online privacy and security, unifying technical and regulatory perspectives. I received best paper awards at the 2020 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), USENIX Security’19, ACM IMC’18, ACM HotMiddlebox’15, and ACM CoNEXT’14. For my research contributions, I have been selected as ACM Senior Member in 2021 and I received the medal to “Young Investigators” awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain in 2023.

The societal value of my research contributions has been recognized also by European Data Protection Agencies and key industry players. My work has influenced policy changes and triggered security improvements in the Android platform and the Linux kernel. In 2020, I have been selected as a Ramón y Cajal Senior Research Fellow by the Spanish Ministry of Science. I also received multiple distinctions such as the AEPD Emilio Aced Award (2019, 2020 and 2021), the CNIL-INRIA Privacy Protection Award (2019 and 2021), the Caspar Bowden PETS Award (2020), and the IETF/IRTF Applied Networking Research Award. Additionally, I am the recipient of industry grants such as the 2018 Google Faculty Research Awards, DataTransparencyLab Grant in 2016, and Qualcomm’s Innovation Fellowship in 2012. International media outlets like The Washington Post, The Markup, The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Wired, ArsTechnica, NPR, and El Pais have covered my research findings.