Lena Habtu - Research Intern

Lena Habtu is a recent graduate of Swarthmore College, where she studied Political Sociology, Computer Science, and Arabic, earning Highest Honors. Her work focuses on security, consent, and privacy, and she has researched age assurance technologies in collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne, Princeton University, and Carnegie Mellon University; biometric data collection of vulnerable populations supported by the Aydelotte Foundation; and worked to secure HIPPA-compliant and cybersecure data practices for the Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health department. Lena is also passionate about ethical and political questions that emerge at the nexus of state and corporate authority, particularly with regards to digital identity systems, platform governance and content moderation, and internet regulation in various international contexts.