Modern society depends on computer systems being highly reliable. However, in recent years, we have seen a growing number of severe privacy and security failures due to human factors issues, including: hard-to-use interfaces, incorrect mental models, and the overall burden of high security.
The goal of Usable Privacy and Security is to make these systems more reliable in practice by designing, building, and evaluating systems that consider the human element, drawing on ideas from cognitive psychology, social psychology, interaction design, and more. We work closely with campus-wide initiatives such as CyLab in designing for and studying privacy and security.
Students who want to learn more about this HCI research area might be interested in the following HCII courses: 05-436/05-836: Usable Privacy and Security, 05-437/05-837: Ubiquitous Computing, 05-499 D/05-899 D: Special Topics: Building Technologies for the Resistance (fall 2024)
