Bart Knijnenburg

Researcher on privacy decision-making and recommender systems.

Our online lives are full of small but difficult decisions. Which app should I install? Should I post this on Facebook or not? Which YouTube video should I watch? What will this e-commerce website do with my personal information? In my research I try to understand the psychological principles behind these online decisions. Using Big Data and Machine Learning principles, I try to make these decisions a little easier with better user interfaces and “smart defaults”.

Personal details

Info for students

I am currently teaching HCC8410: Advanced Measurement & Evaluation of HCC Systems (syllabus).

If you want me to help on your project, be your advisor, or do an internship with me, please read this.

Highlights / Latest news:

• I am serving as the Family co-chair of the ACM conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) 2027.
• I am serving as the Workshop co-chair of the ACM conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys) 2026.
• My student Oluwafemi Osho has succesfully defended his dissertation!
• Our “Networks and Pathways of Violent Extremism” team has published a paper titled “An Overview of Media Coverage Shifts Before and After the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election” in the Journal of Political Marketing (https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2026.2667146).
• A paper with former student Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky titled “Bridging the Age Gap: Do Privacy Literacy, Self-efficacy, and Concerns Explain the Effects of Age on Privacy Decisions?” has been published in the ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (https://doi.org/10.1145/3803008).
• Our “Characterizing Inclusive Strategies that Retain Black Students in Computer Science” team has published a paper titled “Gender Differences in Grit and Programming Experience Across Course Levels on Undergraduate Students' Intention to Complete their Computer Science Degree” in the Computer Science Education journal (https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2026.2649867).
• Our “Maximizing Data Utility and Participant Privacy” team is presenting a paper titled “SampleSavvy: A Web Tool for Guiding Research Sample Size Decisions” at the 2026 HFES International Annual Meeting (ASPIRE).
• Our “Maximizing Data Utility and Participant Privacy” team has presented a paper titled “Who are the Humans in HCAI? Systematic Review of Demographic Reporting Practices in AI Research with Recommendations for Transparency and Accountability” at the 2026 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) (https://doi.org/10.1145/3805689.3812246).
• Our “Characterizing Inclusive Strategies that Retain Black Students in Computer Science” team has presented a paper titled “Different Ways of ‘Being a CS Student’: Latent Profiles of Identity and Need Satisfaction, and Their Links to Attitudes and Persistence Intentions” at the 2026 ACM SIGCSE Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) (https://doi.org/10.1145/3796496.3811806).
• I was an invited seminar speaker at the Jeronimus Bosch Academy of Data Science, Summer 2026.
• I was an invited plenary speaker at the Clemson University AI Research Symposium, Spring 2026.
• I was elected to be the next Chair of the ACM IUI Steering Committee.
• I am serving as the Workshop co-chair of the ACM conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys) 2026.
• I served as the Doctoral Consortium co-chair of the ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) 2026.