João P. Vilela, Security and Privacy Prof. @ University of Porto

Assistant Professor - Security and Privacy

Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Porto
Director of the Master's Degree in Information Security
Coordinator of the CRACS research center at INESC TEC
Research collaborator at CISUC

Contact:

Departamento de Ciência de Computadores, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto
Rua Campo Alegre 1055, 4169-007 Porto

Office: 1.28
Email: jvilela arroba fc dot up dot pt

News

[Nov 2025] My student Ana Catarina Gomes (co-advised with Ricardo Mendes) received the Outstanding MSc Thesis Award from IEEE Portugal for her thesis on privacy in federated learning. Her thesis resulted in this Euro S&P Paper.
[Jun 2025] Mariana Cunha has defended her PhD thesis on "Privacy-Preserving Mechanisms for Heterogeneous Data Types". Congratulations! Also check the privacy toolkit Mariana has developed as part of the process.
[Apr 2025] My student Catarina Gomes had a paper accepted at the prestigious Euro S&P conference with a novel Active Attribute Inference attack over FL and corresponding defence mechanisms. Check it here!
[Jan 2025] Our contribution with an entry on Geo-Indistinguishability to the Springer Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy is out. Happy to have contributed to this project!
[Jun 2024] We have hosted the ACM CODASPY conference at the University of Porto. Great program and discussions! Some highlights pictured here: https://x.com/acmcodaspy
[Sep 2023] I gave a research talk of our work on mobile privacy at the Seminar of the Post-Graduate Program of the Department of Informatics at PUC-Rio, Brazil
[Aug 2023] I gave a research talk on the Seminar Series of UNICAMP - Instituto de Computação, Brazil, of our work on mobile privacy
[Apr 2023] I presented our mobile privacy work at the ERCIM Workshop on Privacy, Transparency, Sovereignty and Security
[Jan 2023] Ricardo Mendes has defended his PhD thesis on Automated Privacy Protection for Mobile Devices summa cum laude. Congratulations!
[Dec 2022] I presented the results of the COP-MODE project to the radio show/podcast 90 segundos de ciência (in Portuguese)
[Dec 2022] I participated in the Dagstuhl Seminar on Inter-Vehicular Communication. Great environment and discussions!
[Nov 2022] My student André Brandão has received the merit award from AP2SI with his work on using federated learning for privacy in mobile devices
[Apr 2022] Best Paper Award for ACM CODASPY paper on prediction of mobile app privacy preferences via federated learning
[Apr 2022] ESORICS paper accepted with mechanisms for predicting answers to permission requests in smartphones. Avoid having to answer 35 permission requests per hour for optimal privacy
[Mar 2022] PerCom (A*) paper with the results of a field study on the Effect of User Expectation on Mobile Privacy. Highlights: nearly 50% unexpected permission requests and 15% privacy violations on Android 9. Check the teaser video
[Feb 2022] I was a moderator for the 2nd webinar of the AIDA Webinar Series on Improving 5G Risk Management
[Jan 2022] Saulo Queiroz (co-advised with Edmundo Monteiro) has defended his PhD thesis summa cum laude. Congrats!
[Jun 2021] Mariana has presented our work on location privacy at C-Days. Video (in PT) available here
[May 2021] I've presented COP-MODE along with other NGI Trust projs at the NGI Forum 2021. Slides available here
[Apr 2021] Read about the MIT-Portugal SNOB-5G project by Pedro Diogo, from Ubiwhere, and myself
[Oct 2020] My student Mariana Cunha has received the merit award from AP2SI with her work on location privacy
[Aug 2019] I'm an associate editor for the new IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. Submit your work!
[Oct 2018] Bruno Dalmazo (co-advised with Marilia Curado) has defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations!
[Jun 2018] I gave talks on Security and Privacy for IoT Communications at C-Days and RTCM
[May 2018] Our paper on Quantifying Equivocation for Finite Blocklength Wiretap Codes was selected for the IEEE ComSoc Best Readings in Physical-layer Security
[Apr 2018] I participated as project review expert for the CHIST-ERA projects seminar in Paris, France
[Mar 2018] I gave a talk on Wireless Physical-layer Security at the Security Seminar of the University of Cambridge, UK
[Sep 2017] Our Privacy-Preserving Data Mining paper (IEEE Access) is featured in the Top 100 IEEE Articles
[Jul 2016] Our work on wireless security is featured in some national newspapers: Negócios, Público, Exame Informática