Generalizing to Understudied Populations Through the Lens of Key Privacy Challenges
Abstract
Much human-centered security and privacy work centers on affluent Western populations; designing for these populations may not meet the needs of under-resourced or vulnerable communities or other subpopulations with unique security and privacy needs. Recent efforts to explore security and privacy needs of specific understudied communities have been limited in scope (and often strictly qualitative) in large part because of the difficulty establishing relationships in understudied communities and recruiting study participants. The key insight driving this proposal is that while different understudied communities each have unique barriers and needs, many of these needs arise from a set of sometimes-overlapping key challenges. For example, both people experiencing homelessness and people in developing countries may be forced to rely on old or outdated devices. People in certain authoritarian countries may not have a similar device constraint. However, they may show high levels of stress similar to those of people experiencing homelessness, which can impede cautious decisionmaking. Building on this insight, we propose to improve generalizability of specific-communities research by developing and evaluating a comprehensive taxonomy of the key challenges that appear (in differing combinations) across understudied groups. Identifying these component challenges will enable design and evaluation of reusable, modular security and privacy approaches that can be combined to fit different communities. Researchers can use the taxonomy to organize new studies (even with small samples) with understudied populations, to extend results from easier-to-reach populations to more vulnerable populations, and as a rubric for evaluating new security and privacy designs. This will allow more and faster innovation to support secure messaging, authentication, and other critical needs for under-resourced populations, empowering them with more independence and security.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 08, 2021
- Source ID
- HR00112010011
Entities
People
- Michelle Mazurek
Organizations
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- University of Maryland