Privacy Engineering & Digital Identity Systems

Yasodara
Córdova

I build privacy-preserving digital identity infrastructure at government scale—from W3C international standards to systems serving millions across 100+ countries.

01

Education & Recognition

Harvard Kennedy School
MPA, Full Scholarship (2020-2022) • Mason Fellow • Berkman Klein Center Fellow (2016-2018)
Carnegie Mellon University
Privacy Engineering Certificate (2021) • School of Computer Science
W3C Standards Leadership
First Brazilian to Chair W3C Working Group • Data on the Web Best Practices (2013-2016)
MIT Sloan Management Review
Named Panelist on AI Governance Research
Co-Develop Fund
Investment Committee Member (2023-Present)
Vladimir Herzog Award
2x Winner (2008, 2009) • Journalism & Human Rights
02

Speaking

International conferences and executive events — delivering technical talks on privacy, digital identity, and AI governance in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French.

Jun 2026
Synthetic Humans, Real Harm: Trust & Safety in Identity Systems
Identity Week Europe • Amsterdam
Mar 2025
Protecting Digital Identity When Disasters Strike
SXSW • Austin, TX
Mar 2024
Privacy and AI: Taking Back Control Of Our Data
SXSW • Austin, TX • Room at capacity, encore session same day
Nov 2024
Global Business Outlook — Risks & Opportunities for 2025
World Economic Forum • Strategic Intelligence Outlook • Geneva
2017
Architecture for AI Transparency: The Serenata de Amor Operation
MIT Media Lab • AI Ideas Exchange
03

Selected Work

2024–Present
Brazil's National Verifiable Credentials Infrastructure

Deputy Director at Dataprev, Brazil's federal social security IT agency. Architected national shift from biometric surveillance to W3C standards-based verifiable credentials for age verification.

200M+ potential users impacted
Designed eIDAS 2.0-compatible architecture
Reporting directly to company president
2021–2024
Privacy Transformation at Unico IDtech

Principal Privacy & Digital ID Researcher at Latin America's 2nd largest identity SaaS. Led company-wide privacy strategy, PETs research, threat modeling.

Transformed biometrics company into privacy-first enterprise
Established academic research partnerships
2013–2016
W3C Data Standards Leadership

First Brazilian to chair W3C Working Group. Led Data on the Web Best Practices, coordinating 30+ international contributors to published W3C Recommendation.

60% growth in Latin American W3C participation
Global standards adopted worldwide
2019–2021
World Bank Digital Infrastructure

Delivered privacy-by-design frameworks for digital ID systems across 5+ countries. Coordinated COVID-19 digital response and AI fraud detection guidelines.

100+ countries implementation experience
Accelerated digital transformation in developing nations
2016–2020
Harvard Research & NYT Partnership

Berkman Klein Fellow and Harvard Kennedy School MPA (full scholarship). Led YouTube/elections research with New York Times. Investigated algorithmic fairness and digital identity for indigenous citizens.

Research directly impacted YouTube services
Published findings in major media
2016–2018
Serenata de Amor — Civic AI Leadership

CEO of civic AI project auditing Brazilian congressional expenses. Transformed experiment into certified B-Corp, secured funding, managed acquisition by Open Knowledge Foundation.

National AI accountability agenda
Presented at Brazilian Congress
04

Expertise

Privacy Engineering
Privacy-enhancing technologies, threat modeling, differential privacy, GDPR/LGPD compliance. Implementation at government scale with W3C standards deployment.
Digital Identity Systems
W3C Verifiable Credentials, ISO 18013-5, eIDAS alignment, MOSIP. Cross-functional coordination across engineering, legal, and policy teams.
International Standards
W3C Working Group chair experience. Multi-stakeholder consensus building in international bodies. Open standards development and policy translation.
AI Governance
Algorithmic fairness, AI transparency, data ethics. Translating research into policy and product decisions for responsible AI implementation.
Government Digital Transformation
Translating international standards into implementable government architecture. Experience across 100+ countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Trust & Safety
Product leadership for systems where trust is the core design problem. From civic AI fraud detection to privacy-as-product strategy at scale.

Let's build trust
together.

Available for speaking engagements, advisory work, and consulting on privacy engineering, digital identity systems, and AI governance.

Open to select engagements

Speaking at international conferences and executive events. Advisory roles in privacy engineering, digital identity, and AI governance. Consulting on standards strategy and policy translation. Research partnerships welcome.