David Choffnes All Experts

Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science

Expertise

Contact

choffnes@ccs.neu.edu

617.373.4239

David Choffnes In the Media

David Choffnes for Northeastern

We can’t get enough of FaceApp. But should we be giving away the rights to our faces?

“The obvious privacy concern is it’s your face that is now in the hands of a company that can go and use that face however they want, according to their terms and conditions,” says David Choffnes, an assistant professor at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences who designs solutions to internet security and privacy.
- by Khalida Sarwari July 19, 2019
The new iPhone is here. Is Apple slowing down your old device to make you buy the new one?

The new iPhone XR comes out today, and conspiracy theorists want to know whether Apple will slow down customers’ old iPhones to make them buy new ones. But “when it comes to slow operating speed,” said Northeastern professor David Choffnes, “the biggest culprits are usually apps that run in the background and use up a lot of battery power.”
- by Emily Arntsen October 26, 2018
Is your refrigerator spying on you?

Are smart devices collecting data on us while they’re supposed to be off? That’s what Northeastern assistant professor David Choffnes and his colleagues are studying. And the answer, so far, appears to be yes.
- by Molly Callahan September 25, 2018
New research shows that, post net neutrality, internet providers are slowing down your streaming

YouTube resolution down again? Through a collaboration with another Massachusetts university, this Northeastern team unveils exactly who’s responsible.
- by Aria Bracci and Lia Petronio September 10, 2018
Is your smartphone spying on you?

New research by Northeastern faculty and students shows that popular smartphone apps can secretly take screenshots of your phone activity and send it to third parties without your permission.
- by Bill Ibelle July 6, 2018
Worried about your Facebook data? Read this.

Last weekend, The New York Times revealed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica misused data from as many as 50 million Facebook profiles to aid messaging tied to the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election. We spoke with assistant professor David Choffnes to see what social media users should learn from this, and what steps they can take to keep themselves safe online.
- by Shannon Nargi March 26, 2018
Cambridge Analytica, Facebook data collection a ‘breach of trust’ not security

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that voter-profiling company Cambridge Analytica had obtained data on 50 million Facebook users—information it used in the 2016 presidential campaign. We spoke to three computer and information scientists about what exactly happened, and how it’s helping shine a light on some of the murkier areas of data collection.
- by Molly Callahan March 20, 2018
Northeastern professor scores a victory for detecting net neutrality

Wehe is a mobile app that can detect when an internet service provider is violating net neutrality rules. The app, created by assistant professor David Choffnes and a team of his students, has been available for Android users since 2015. But it was blocked from the Apple App Store earlier this month, unfolding a chain of events that ended with tech giant reversing course.
- by Allie Nicodemo January 25, 2018
What loss of net neutrality could mean for consumers, content providers

Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of other websites participated in a virtual protest to protect net neutrality last week. “The internet is critical infrastructure. So much of our daily lives depend on it,” says assistant professor David Choffnes, a mobile systems expert.
- by Jason Kornwitz July 17, 2017
This message will ‘self-destruct’ in 3, 2…

Some members of the Trump administration have begun using Confide, an encrypted messaging app that deletes chats once they are read. We asked assistant professor David Choffnes, a mobile systems expert, to explain how self-destructing messaging apps—such as Snapchat—work and whether you should trust them to keep your conversations confidential.
- by Jason Kornwitz February 22, 2017

David Choffnes All Experts

David Choffnes In the Media

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David Choffnes for Northeastern

We can’t get enough of FaceApp. But should we be giving away the rights to our faces?

The new iPhone is here. Is Apple slowing down your old device to make you buy the new one?

Is your refrigerator spying on you?

New research shows that, post net neutrality, internet providers are slowing down your streaming

Is your smartphone spying on you?

Worried about your Facebook data? Read this.

Cambridge Analytica, Facebook data collection a ‘breach of trust’ not security

Northeastern professor scores a victory for detecting net neutrality

What loss of net neutrality could mean for consumers, content providers

This message will ‘self-destruct’ in 3, 2…

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