Curriculum Vitae and Publications Francesca Pichierri

Francesca Pichierri is a research associate in the Intellectual Property Law Department at FIZ Karlsruhe. She holds a B.A. in International Relations (summa cum laude) and a M.A. in Diplomacy and Security (summa cum laude and "dignità di stampa" special mention) from the University of Perugia, Italy. Since 2014 she is working on issues related to surveillance, technology, privacy and data protection. She was at the Tampere Peace Research Institute in Finland in 2014 and at the COSIC research group (Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography), KU Leuven in 2015.

Francesca joined FIZ Karlsruhe in early 2016, bringing her interdisciplinary and versatile approach to the team. Her research interests include data protection law, human rights law, international law, security studies, surveillance studies, political sociology and sociology of communications and information technologies, contemporary history, ethics, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, affecting computing, and health.

Francesca´s research focuses on state surveillance for the purpose of manipulating individuals via the use of information and information technologies and explores ways to protect, from a human right point of view, the mental sphere of individuals from external interferences.  

From September 2020 to present, she is involved in the EU-Project ITFLOWS, bringing her expertise on privacy and data protection law in the context of data-driven migration flow prediction.

Previously, Francesca was involved in the STARR project (2016-2019), an H2020 EU project developing a decision support and self-management system for stroke survivors based on predictive models for stroke risks and targeting the self-management of stroke risk factors; she worked in the project to ensure a legal and privacy-friendly approach to the design of the technology.

Apart from academia, Francesca is also a singer, songwriter and poet. She is currently focusing on screenwriting and specializing to become a certified CVT vocal coach.

• T. Tietz, F. Pichierri, M. Koutraki, D. Hallinan, F. Boehm, H. Sack, Digital Zombies - the Reanimation of our Digital Selves, in: Proceedings of Re-Coding Black Mirror Workshop 2018; in Companion Proceedings of the The Web Conference 2018 (WWW '18). International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, Republic and Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, 1535-1539. DOI: 10.1145/3184558.3191606 [local copy]
• F. Pichierri, D. Dimitrova, Smart environments in the health context, self-management and data protection in the STARR project, in: International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 2018

• “Emotion surveillance for security purposes and the risk of manipulative uses of emotion insights” – Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar – Queen´s University, Kingston, Ontario – 2017
• “Smart environments in the health context, self-management and data protection in the STARR project” – Bileta conference 2017 – with Diana Dimitrova
• “Healthcare applications, smart homes and the purpose limitation principle” – Bileta conference 2018 – with Diana Dimitrova
• “Online manipulative practices and the danger to democracy: opening a discussion on regulation” – Bileta conference 2019
• “Online Manipulative Practices: New Technologies and Fundamental Rights Infringements“ - KIT Seminar 2020 –  with Prof. Boehm