Dr
Harshvardhan
Pandit
Academic biography
Harsh is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing in Dublin City University. His research interests are focused on the application of semantics towards solving real-world challenges associated with privacy, legal and regulatory compliance, and consent. His PhD (Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin) explored the application of linked data and semantic web technologies towards GDPR compliance, with a particular focus on consent and provenance. He currently co-chairs the W3C Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group (DPVCG) – which develops interoperable vocabularies for privacy and data protection activities based on legal and practical requirements. He is a member of the National Standards Authority of Ireland and contributes to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 standardisation activities regarding privacy and consent.Research interests
PrivacyI'm interested in the exploration of issues regarding privacy, especially those related to use of technology and data protection. My primary motivation in this area is to facilitate discovery and consolidation of existing work in identification and mitigation of risks, and applying existing knowledge to future technologies and innovations.
ConsentConsent is a broad mechanism for agreement in the society and is also an essential aspect of freedom based on choice. My primary interest regarding consent relates to its connection with privacy and data protection issues, where it is used as the legal justification for collecting and using personal data. My research revolves around quantification and representation of information regarding consent towards identifying and mitigating issues regarding transparency, accountability, and comprehension.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)The GDPR and other recent data protection/privacy laws such as the CCPA provide legal regulation of collecting, using, sharing personal data based upon the principles of privacy and data protection. My research interest revolves around quantification of the requirements and concepts of such laws and its representation for evaluating compliance of processes and activities involving personal data.
Semantic Web and Data Modeling The Semantic Web standards, particularly RDF, provide a way for modeling and querying information based on the web infrastructure, permits creation of schemas and ontologies to represent concepts and relationships. My interest lies in using these for the representation, documentation, and modeling of information from other research interests.