Study Finds “privacy-preserving” Tracking Alternatives May Still Expose Users

Paper Receives ICISSP 2026 Best Student Paper Award

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

CSD Ph.D. candidate Saranya Vijayakumar is the lead author of the recently published paper “Sequential Pattern Recognition Attacks against Deployed Topic-Based Mechanisms", which raises broader concerns about whether many emerging privacy-preserving technologies are truly safeguarding users.

As major technology companies race to replace traditional online tracking tools with systems marketed as more privacy-conscious findings, detailed in the recently published paper “Sequential Pattern Recognition Attacks against Deployed Topic-Based Mechanisms,” raise broader concerns about whether many emerging privacy-preserving technologies are truly safeguarding users, or simply repackaging surveillance in a less obvious form.

Saranya Vijayakumar, a Ph.D. candidate in Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department and lead author, presented the paper at the 12th International Conference on Information Systems Security (ICISSP 2026)in Marbella, Spain, where it received the ICISSP 2026 Best Student Paper Award.

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