Research led by Associate Professor Masooda Bashir played a central role in one of the most significant consumer privacy settlements in recent history.
Bashir's co-authored study, "Privacy as Pretense: Empirically Mapping the Gap between Legislative & Judicial Protections of Privacy," became a key authority in Lopez v. Apple Inc., a case addressing the intrusive recording of private conversations by Apple's Siri voice assistant. The lawsuit claimed data collected during these conversations was shared with third-party advertisers. Some users said they later saw ads related to things they had only spoken about out loud. Others said Siri listened even when they never tried to turn it on. The litigation concluded in late 2025 with a landmark $95 million settlement, with payments to millions of affected users beginning in January 2026.
The research was conducted in collaboration with Bashir's former PhD student Christopher Muhawe, now an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois Chicago.
"We wanted to better understand whether privacy protections promised by law in the U.S. actually hold up in practice," Bashir said. "While I am not a legal scholar, our approach used data-driven analysis of how courts interpret and apply privacy laws in real-world cases. We found that although there is a strong focus on creating privacy legislation, far less attention is given to how those laws function in practice. This was one of the first empirical studies of its kind to systematically examine that gap, and I'm especially proud that this work was conducted with Christopher."
Their findings revealed a striking pattern that, despite strong legislative intent, privacy protections are often weakened in the courts. Specifically, 60 percent of data privacy violation cases are dismissed in federal court, which plaintiffs' counsel successfully cited as authority to demonstrate the "extraordinary complexity and litigation risk" inherent in holding tech giants accountable for privacy violations.
"This work is important because it shifts the conversation from what privacy laws promise to how they actually function in practice," Bashir said. "Its relevance is reflected in cases like Lopez v. Apple Inc., where questions about everyday technologies and user expectations of privacy are central."
Looking ahead, Bashir emphasizes the need for stronger alignment between legislation, judicial interpretation, and technological design.
"As AI-driven and always-on systems become more embedded in daily life, ensuring that privacy protections remain meaningful in practice not just in theory will become increasingly critical," she said.
Bashir's research focuses on the interface of information technology, human psychology, and society, especially how privacy, security, and trust intersect from a psychological point of view with information systems. She received degrees in mathematics, computer science, and psychology and earned her PhD in psychology from Purdue University.