Eran Toch
@eranto.bsky.social
I invent new technologies and user experiences for privacy & human-AI interaction. Prof of Engineering at TAU.
We were awarded a very exciting new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) with colleagues Adam Aviv from The George Washington University and Oshrat Ayalon from the University of Haifa. >>
October 21, 2025 at 1:53 PM
We were awarded a very exciting new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) with colleagues Adam Aviv from The George Washington University and Oshrat Ayalon from the University of Haifa. >>
It is time to wrap up my term as Head of the School of Industrial & Intelligent Systems Engineering at Tel Aviv University.
A lot has happened during this time: first and foremost, our department became a school with a new name that reflects our broadaning research and teaching interests >>
A lot has happened during this time: first and foremost, our department became a school with a new name that reflects our broadaning research and teaching interests >>
October 12, 2025 at 10:05 AM
It is time to wrap up my term as Head of the School of Industrial & Intelligent Systems Engineering at Tel Aviv University.
A lot has happened during this time: first and foremost, our department became a school with a new name that reflects our broadaning research and teaching interests >>
A lot has happened during this time: first and foremost, our department became a school with a new name that reflects our broadaning research and teaching interests >>
I would adjust my settings asap on Venmo if I don't want to get phished by the whole world.
September 30, 2025 at 6:21 AM
I would adjust my settings asap on Venmo if I don't want to get phished by the whole world.
I was very happy to give a Cybersecurity Colloquium seminar at the The Data Science Institute at Columbia University, presenting with this stunning view. I was talking about: When Differential Privacy Meets Human Decision-Making.
September 19, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I was very happy to give a Cybersecurity Colloquium seminar at the The Data Science Institute at Columbia University, presenting with this stunning view. I was talking about: When Differential Privacy Meets Human Decision-Making.
In the course, we’ll tackle challenges such as uncertainty, sharing control, and the difficulty of building a mental model for systems based on language models and machine learning. Practically, we’ll design interactions for such systems and build chatbots powered by language models >>
September 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
In the course, we’ll tackle challenges such as uncertainty, sharing control, and the difficulty of building a mental model for systems based on language models and machine learning. Practically, we’ll design interactions for such systems and build chatbots powered by language models >>
Everyone is working on AI, but how can we design AI-based systems that are actually friendly and usable? Bidding closes soon at TAU. so it’s a good time to remind that I'll be teaching the graduate course “Human–AI Interaction” (2 hours, open to the entire campus). Here is a short explanation >>
September 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Everyone is working on AI, but how can we design AI-based systems that are actually friendly and usable? Bidding closes soon at TAU. so it’s a good time to remind that I'll be teaching the graduate course “Human–AI Interaction” (2 hours, open to the entire campus). Here is a short explanation >>
The preprint of our paper, “Differential Privacy Configurations in the Real World: A Comparative Analysis,” by (brilliant) student Michael Khavkin and myself, has been published on the IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering website. Read it here: www.computer.org/csdl/journal...
September 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
The preprint of our paper, “Differential Privacy Configurations in the Real World: A Comparative Analysis,” by (brilliant) student Michael Khavkin and myself, has been published on the IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering website. Read it here: www.computer.org/csdl/journal...
We propose standardized ways to frame and report on DP configuration processes and suggest a framework for an "Epsilon Registry", a public database of DP implementations to guide applications, inform regulators, and improve transparency to users. >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
We propose standardized ways to frame and report on DP configuration processes and suggest a framework for an "Epsilon Registry", a public database of DP implementations to guide applications, inform regulators, and improve transparency to users. >>
Often, these choices aren’t clearly explained. 59% of academic papers and most of commercial deployments provided NO justification for their ε choices. This lack of transparency makes it hard to reproduce results or understand privacy guarantees. >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Often, these choices aren’t clearly explained. 59% of academic papers and most of commercial deployments provided NO justification for their ε choices. This lack of transparency makes it hard to reproduce results or understand privacy guarantees. >>
Our findings show that privacy guarantees (e.g., epsilon ε values) provided in theoretical academic research are rarely matched in commercial and governmental deployments, which adopt way looser guarantees >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Our findings show that privacy guarantees (e.g., epsilon ε values) provided in theoretical academic research are rarely matched in commercial and governmental deployments, which adopt way looser guarantees >>
But how is it actually deployed in the real world? And most importantly, how strong are the privacy guarantees provided to actual users? We conducted the first systematic review of real-world DP deployments (n=140), comparing commercial, governmental, and academic uses >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
But how is it actually deployed in the real world? And most importantly, how strong are the privacy guarantees provided to actual users? We conducted the first systematic review of real-world DP deployments (n=140), comparing commercial, governmental, and academic uses >>
Differential Privacy is the gold standard for data anonymization as it provides mathematically provable privacy guarantees for individuals. It’s already used in products from Apple, Microsoft, and even the U.S. Census. Also the basis of privacy-preserving machine learning >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Differential Privacy is the gold standard for data anonymization as it provides mathematically provable privacy guarantees for individuals. It’s already used in products from Apple, Microsoft, and even the U.S. Census. Also the basis of privacy-preserving machine learning >>
Exciting news: our paper “Differential Privacy Configurations in the Real World: A Comparative Analysis” was just accepted to IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. Another great paper of Michael Khavkin’s Ph.D.! Here is a short thread about the study >>
August 28, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Exciting news: our paper “Differential Privacy Configurations in the Real World: A Comparative Analysis” was just accepted to IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. Another great paper of Michael Khavkin’s Ph.D.! Here is a short thread about the study >>
Hundreds of thousands gathered yesterday in Tel Aviv calling the government to return the hostages and end the war. By the way, the demonstration happened about two hours after a Houthi ballistic missile had cleared people off the streets.
August 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Hundreds of thousands gathered yesterday in Tel Aviv calling the government to return the hostages and end the war. By the way, the demonstration happened about two hours after a Houthi ballistic missile had cleared people off the streets.
Demonstrating tonight at Tel Aviv to put an end to the war and return the hostages immediately.
August 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Demonstrating tonight at Tel Aviv to put an end to the war and return the hostages immediately.
I’m happy to see the presidents of Tel Aviv Univeristy, the Hebrew Univeristy, Weizmann Institute and others higher eds, join the call to end the Cabinet’s criminal policies in Gaza. It’s easy to be cynical about these types of letters, but remember that 80% of the uni budget come from the state.
July 28, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I’m happy to see the presidents of Tel Aviv Univeristy, the Hebrew Univeristy, Weizmann Institute and others higher eds, join the call to end the Cabinet’s criminal policies in Gaza. It’s easy to be cynical about these types of letters, but remember that 80% of the uni budget come from the state.
Excited to share that I’ve received an ISF grant to study deep analysis of deceptive user interface design patterns. Casual games, I'm coming for your dark patterns.
July 17, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Excited to share that I’ve received an ISF grant to study deep analysis of deceptive user interface design patterns. Casual games, I'm coming for your dark patterns.
It’s hard to communicate, or even to process, what it means to live and work in Israel right now. The contrast is surreal: spending the night under the threat of ballistic missiles, exploding in a random neighbourhood, and waking up to a morning everyday work >>
June 18, 2025 at 6:49 PM
It’s hard to communicate, or even to process, what it means to live and work in Israel right now. The contrast is surreal: spending the night under the threat of ballistic missiles, exploding in a random neighbourhood, and waking up to a morning everyday work >>
The country in which the experiment was carried out didn’t have a significant effect on the results. As in previous studies, people’s privacy behavior is less different than imagined >>
June 11, 2025 at 5:56 AM
The country in which the experiment was carried out didn’t have a significant effect on the results. As in previous studies, people’s privacy behavior is less different than imagined >>
We found that differentially private guarantees strongly influenced people’s choices after monetary rewards. On average, an increase of 1 unit in the privacy guarantees resulted in a decrease of 14% in the conjoint preference and 8% in the compensation >>
June 11, 2025 at 5:56 AM
We found that differentially private guarantees strongly influenced people’s choices after monetary rewards. On average, an increase of 1 unit in the privacy guarantees resulted in a decrease of 14% in the conjoint preference and 8% in the compensation >>
This is the paper that *they* don’t want you to read! "Investigating the Impact of Differential Privacy Obfuscation on Users' Data Disclosure Decisions" by Michael Khavkin and me was published (as a pre-proof) by the Decision Support Systems journal. Here is a short thread about it >>
June 11, 2025 at 5:56 AM
This is the paper that *they* don’t want you to read! "Investigating the Impact of Differential Privacy Obfuscation on Users' Data Disclosure Decisions" by Michael Khavkin and me was published (as a pre-proof) by the Decision Support Systems journal. Here is a short thread about it >>
*Privacy Engineering for NGOs*
@birnhack.bsky.social, Noa Diamond (Privacy Clinic at Tel Aviv University), and I are delighted to launch a two-year research project on Privacy Engineering for NGOs. The project is funded by a competitive grant from an Israeli Class Action settlement against Meta >>
@birnhack.bsky.social, Noa Diamond (Privacy Clinic at Tel Aviv University), and I are delighted to launch a two-year research project on Privacy Engineering for NGOs. The project is funded by a competitive grant from an Israeli Class Action settlement against Meta >>
January 28, 2025 at 2:32 PM
*Privacy Engineering for NGOs*
@birnhack.bsky.social, Noa Diamond (Privacy Clinic at Tel Aviv University), and I are delighted to launch a two-year research project on Privacy Engineering for NGOs. The project is funded by a competitive grant from an Israeli Class Action settlement against Meta >>
@birnhack.bsky.social, Noa Diamond (Privacy Clinic at Tel Aviv University), and I are delighted to launch a two-year research project on Privacy Engineering for NGOs. The project is funded by a competitive grant from an Israeli Class Action settlement against Meta >>
It's kind of funny that the only way to change the default mail application on a mac is through Apple's own Mail app
January 23, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It's kind of funny that the only way to change the default mail application on a mac is through Apple's own Mail app
I was summoned yesterday to Channel 12 News to comment on AI and the war in Gaza, and talked about how operational challenges in controlling AI can be handled to make it safer to citizens on the ground. Short clip here (in Hebrew).
January 3, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I was summoned yesterday to Channel 12 News to comment on AI and the war in Gaza, and talked about how operational challenges in controlling AI can be handled to make it safer to citizens on the ground. Short clip here (in Hebrew).