About Maggie

Maggie Oates is an independent researcher focused on technology policy and digital safety. Her B.S. in Computer Science and M.S. in Societal Computing form a strong technical foundation for all of her work. Her past research project include an investigation of sharing on health data sites with Consumer Reports, studies on the usability of passwords at Carnegie Mellon, explorations in teaching technology ethics through theater with Bricolage Productions, and data analysis of policing trends with For Safer Sex Work. She's interested in widening the definition of computing research to include playful, reflective, and emotional experiences. [Currently, she…]

Maggie Oates is an independent researcher-artist focused on experience design, online privacy, sex, and technology. By day she works in technology policy, testing, drafting, and generating evidence on US privacy laws. By night, she codes for OnlyBans, a game about online censorship and sex work that has been internationally exhibited in museums that include Science Gallery Detroit, Ars Electronica, and Cleveland MOCA. [Currently, she…]

Maggie Oates is a cluster of balloons filled with warm stale air, cat hair, iced peach tea, the energy of prison abolition, overfamiliarity, question marks, and bursts of elation. I'm a technologist-caregiver wading around to anyplace that smells like experience design, sex, online safety or computing. From vorarephilia theater to walking tours of surveillance infrastructure, my work centers on the importance of weird intimacies. I fight for the right of people to be close to each other, free from shame, in their own peculiar way. I am based indefinitely in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.