Our research on web-based threats to privacy and security involves performing human subjects experiments to examine how people respond to current mitigations, such as web browser security warnings and various privacy tools. We are also performing research to discover new threats to privacy, such as new ways for companies to perform online tracking, web-browser fingerprinting, and managing the disclosure of information on social networking websites.

We’re broadly interested in answering the following questions:

• Why do users choose to ignore web browser security warnings?
• Can we improve online security systems by catering risk communication to specific personas?
• Can we subconsciously help people make better security decisions?
• What methods can be used to fingerprint a web browser (thereby allowing online tracking) and how can these be mitigated?
• What innate factors influence users’ online privacy preferences and behaviors?
• How can we build systems that infer users’ online privacy preferences?

Current Projects

The list of currently active projects can be found here.

Related Publications

• A Promise Is A Promise: The Effect Of Commitment Devices On Computer Security Intentions (CHI ’19)
• The Accuracy of the Demographic Inferences Shown on Google’s Ad Settings (WPES ’18)
• Better Late(r) than Never: Increasing Cyber-Security Compliance by Reducing Present Bias (WEIS ’18)
• Quantifying Users’ Beliefs about Software Updates (USEC ’18)
• An Experience Sampling Study of User Reactions to Browser Warnings in the Field (CHI ’18)
• A Usability Evaluation of Tor Launcher (PETS ’17)
• Let’s Go in for a Closer Look: Observing Passwords in Their Natural Habitat (CCS ’17)
• Personalized Security Messaging: Nudges for Compliance with Browser Warnings (EuroUSEC ’17)
• The Teaching Privacy Curriculum (SIGCSE ’16)
• Do or Do Not, There Is No Try: User Engagement May Not Improve Security Outcomes (SOUPS ’16)