Managing security and privacy in our hyper-connected world is increasingly difficult. Our research aims to understand people’s mental models, perceptions and practices online and help them manage their privacy and security. We use both HCI and AI methods for this. We apply HCI methods to study users’ perceptions, mental models, and preferences regarding security and privacy. We also apply AI models and technologies to support users when managing their security and privacy online, for instance, by learning what their privacy preferences are and automatically applying them online.
We have applied our human-centred privacy and security research across different domains and systems, from the web, to social media, to the cloud, to the smart home and to GenAI tools. We also considered different stakeholders that play a crucial role for protecting users’ security and privacy online, including developers, moderators and tool creators. We also considered different user groups, including potentially vulernable or disadvantaged ones. See below some selected publications we contributed over the years.
Related Projects
Context and Personality in Privacy Choices (Google) - link
@inproceedings{he2026privacy,title={Privacy Perspectives and Practices of Chinese Smart Home Product Teams},author={He, Shijing and Lei, Yaxiong and Zhan, Xiao and Zhang, Chi and Ye, Juan and Abu-Salma, Ruba and Such, Jose},year={2026},month=sep,day={9},booktitle={IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S\&P)},}
CHI
Privacy Perceptions of Custom GPTs by Users and Creators
Rongjun Ma, Caterina Maidhof, Juan Carlos Carrillo, Janne Lindqvist, and Jose Such
In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025
@inproceedings{ma2025privacy,author={Ma, Rongjun and Maidhof, Caterina and Carrillo, Juan Carlos and Lindqvist, Janne and Such, Jose},title={Privacy Perceptions of Custom GPTs by Users and Creators},booktitle={Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems {(CHI)}},pages={237:1--237:18},publisher={{ACM}},year={2025},}
IEEE S&P MAg
Grand Challenges in Human-Centered Privacy
Ruba Abu-Salma, Pauline Anthonysamy, Zinaida Benenson, Benjamin Berens, Kovila P. L. Coopamootoo, Andreas Gutmann, Adam Jenkins, Sameer Patil, Sören Preibusch, Florian Schaub, William Seymour, Jose Such, Mohammad Tahaei, Aybars Tuncdogan, Max Van Kleek, and Daricia Wilkinson
@article{abu-salma2025grand,author={Abu-Salma, Ruba and Anthonysamy, Pauline and Benenson, Zinaida and Berens, Benjamin and Coopamootoo, Kovila P. L. and Gutmann, Andreas and Jenkins, Adam and Patil, Sameer and Preibusch, Sören and Schaub, Florian and Seymour, William and Such, Jose and Tahaei, Mohammad and Tuncdogan, Aybars and Kleek, Max Van and Wilkinson, Daricia},journal={IEEE Security \& Privacy},title={Grand Challenges in Human-Centered Privacy},year={2025},volume={23},number={4},pages={103-110},}
CHI
Exploring the Privacy and Security Challenges Faced by Migrant Domestic Workers in Chinese Smart Homes
Shijing He, Xiao Zhan, Yaxiong Lei, Yueyan Liu, Ruba Abu-Salma, and Jose Such
In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025
@inproceedings{he2025exploring,author={He, Shijing and Zhan, Xiao and Lei, Yaxiong and Liu, Yueyan and Abu{-}Salma, Ruba and Such, Jose},title={Exploring the Privacy and Security Challenges Faced by Migrant Domestic
Workers in Chinese Smart Homes},booktitle={Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems {(CHI)}},pages={920:1--920:18},publisher={{ACM}},year={2025},}
Usenix SEC
Voice Application Developer Experiences with Alexa and Google Assistant: Juggling Risks, Liability, and Security
William Seymour, Noura Abdi, Kopo Ramokapane, Jide Edu, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil, and Jose Such
@inproceedings{seymour2024voice,author={Seymour, William and Abdi, Noura and Ramokapane, Kopo and Edu, Jide and Suarez-Tangil, Guillermo and Such, Jose},title={Voice Application Developer Experiences with Alexa and Google Assistant: Juggling Risks, Liability, and Security},booktitle={{USENIX Security Symposium (SEC)}},year={2024},pages={5035--5052},}
CSCW
Healthcare Voice AI Assistants: Factors Influencing Trust and Intention to Use
Xiao Zhan, Noura Abdi, William Seymour, and Jose Such
In PACM on Human-Computer Interaction - ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), 2024
@inproceedings{zhan2024healthcare,author={Zhan, Xiao and Abdi, Noura and Seymour, William and Such, Jose},title={Healthcare Voice AI Assistants: Factors Influencing Trust and Intention to Use},year={2024},booktitle={PACM on Human-Computer Interaction - ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)},volume={8},number={CSCW1},articleno={62},numpages={37},}
CHI
Legal Obligation and Ethical Best Practice: Towards Meaningful Verbal Consent for Voice Assistants
William Seymour, Mark Coté, and Jose Such
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023
@inproceedings{seymour2023legal,author={Seymour, William and Cot{\'{e}}, Mark and Such, Jose},title={Legal Obligation and Ethical Best Practice: Towards Meaningful Verbal
Consent for Voice Assistants},booktitle={Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ({CHI})},pages={166:1--166:16},year={2023},}
TOPS
What Users Want From Cloud Deletion and the Information They Need: A Participatory Action Study
Kopo Ramokapane, Jose Such, and Awais Rashid
ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS), 2023
@article{ramokapane2023what,author={Ramokapane, Kopo and Such, Jose and Rashid, Awais},title={What Users Want From Cloud Deletion and the Information They Need:
{A} Participatory Action Study},journal={{ACM} Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS)},volume={26},number={1},pages={5:1--5:34},year={2023},}
CHI
Truth or Dare: Understanding and Predicting How Users Lie and Provide Untruthful Data Online
Kopo M Ramokapane, Gaurav Misra, Jose Such, and Sören Preibusch
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021
@inproceedings{ramokapane2021truth,title={Truth or Dare: Understanding and Predicting How Users Lie and Provide Untruthful Data Online},author={Ramokapane, Kopo M and Misra, Gaurav and Such, Jose and Preibusch, S{\"o}ren},booktitle={Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)},year={2021},pages={557:1--557:15},}
SOUPS
More than smart speakers: security and privacy perceptions of smart home personal assistants
Noura Abdi, Kopo Ramokapane, and Jose Such
In Usenix Fifteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), 2019
@inproceedings{abdi2019more,title={More than smart speakers: security and privacy perceptions of smart home personal assistants},author={Abdi, Noura and Ramokapane, Kopo and Such, Jose},booktitle={Usenix Fifteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS)},year={2019},pages={451--466},}
See more related publications in our Publications page.
