Postdoc Position: Legal Aspects of Online Tracking and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

1. Introduction

Are you a lawyer with a strong interest in privacy, data protection and emerging technologies? Join the REAL-PETS project, a European research collaboration bringing together researchers from nine partner institutions. As a postdoctoral researcher, you will work at the intersection of law and computer science to address privacy challenges and contribute to the development of innovative privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).

2. Job description

REAL-PETS will generate long-lasting technological, societal and industrial impact: strengthening EU's technological sovereignty, enabling regulators to enforce privacy rules through empirical evidence, technology standardisation, fostering privacy-resilient products and services, and empowering citizens with usable, transparent and trustworthy privacy protections.

As a postdoctoral researcher in law in the interdisciplinary REAL-PETS project, your main tasks within this larger project objective are the following.

Analysing the legal landscape regarding privacy and online tracking. Applying the GDPR and related regulation to newly discovered tracking techniques. Analysing legal requirements for the privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) developed in this project. Cooperating with computer scientists who detect known and new tracking techniques and develop privacy-enhancing technologies.

You will work under the supervision of Professor Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius and Assistant Professor Christine Utz . There will be no teaching or student supervision obligations.

3. Profile

• You hold a PhD degree in law and technology, data protection law, or a related legal field in Europe, or will obtain such a degree within a few months from now.
• You have a strong interest in data protection law and privacy.
• You have expertise on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ideally also on other EU regulations relevant for privacy and personal data, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), Digital Markets Act (DMA) and ePrivacy Directive.
• You are interested in – and ideally have experience in – interdisciplinary work with computer scientists or researchers from other disciplines.
• You are proficient in English (Dutch is not required) and have good communication, presentation and writing skills.

If you do not meet all the above-mentioned requirements, please feel free to reach out to ask whether you should apply anyway.

4.

We are

You will join the Digital Security (DiS) group at the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) at Radboud University’s Faculty of Science. The Digital Security group is one of the leading groups in computer security and privacy in the Netherlands and Europe.

You will also be part of iHub, Radboud University’s interdisciplinary research hub on Digitalisation and Society. iHub brings together researchers from computer science, social sciences, humanities, law and other disciplines to address societal challenges arising from digitalisation. iHub provides a collaborative environment for research at the intersection of technology, security, privacy and society, fostering collaboration across disciplines and the development of value-driven digital technologies.

5.

We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract of 2 year(s).
• Your salary within salary scale 10 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application. We will not consider applications that were generated by AI. We look forward to receiving your application.

The first interviews will take place on Wednesday 18 November. Any second interview will take place on Tuesday 1 December. You will preferably start your employment on 1 March 2027.

We can imagine you're curious about our  application procedure . It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.

Do you already work at Radboud University and have questions about making an internal move? Learn more about internal applications .