Paderborn University’s Empirical Software Engineering research group presented new research on how to make digital security and privacy easier for users.
The group led by Prof. Dr. Yasemin Acar had a strong presence at the Twenty-Second Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) between August 23 - 26 at Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany. Thirteen researchers, including visiting researchers Prof. Dr. Camille Cobb from UIUC (USA) and Angelina Gargano from Columbia University (USA), presented two research papers, ten posters, and delivered two lightning talks in the research area usable security.
Two of the group’s research papers were among the 38 papers presented at the conference, ranked A by ICORE, with an acceptance rate of 16.2% this year.
PhD students Harshini Sri Ramulu and Rachel Gonzalez Rodriguez co-presented their work, “Reproductive Security & Privacy Advice on TikTok after the Overturn of Roe”. Their research highlights how security and privacy advice disseminated on social media can be fragmented, oversimplified, and impractical. Such advice may be of little help—or even harmful—when provided to vulnerable users who navigate changing legislative landscapes and geopolitical situations. They make recommendations for how to change the advice landscape for the better by combining the strengths of social networks – reach and entertainment formats – with credible information tailored to mitigating threats towards users.
PhD student Darya Zarkalam presented her first paper titled, “From Thrift Stores to Digital Storefronts: Users' Perspectives on Privacy and Security of Online Second-Hand Shopping in Germany”. Her work identifies users’ key security and privacy concerns with second-hand shopping platforms such as eBay, Kleinanzeigen, and Facebook Marketplace, including scams, personal safety risks, and the misuse of personal information. She makes recommendations for improvements, for example how platforms can make their security features more usable and respect users’ concerns regarding cost and privacy.
The poster presentations included two already published and eight ongoing works, sparking many interesting discussions at the conference. PhD student Annette Irungu won the Best Poster Presentation Award for her ongoing work on security advice provided during the 2024 Kenyan Finance Bill protests. “SOUPS was a great opportunity to share my work and exchange ideas with international researchers in our field”, said Annette Irungu after receiving the award.
Visiting researcher Prof. Dr. Camille Cobb from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign gave a lightning talk titled “How do we encourage students (and ourselves) to take meaningful action against dystopian technologies?”, where she focused on pedagogical strategies that help students to critically think about technological harms.
Incoming PhD student Nicole Dirksen together with Prof. Dr. Yasemin Acar delivered a lightning talk on their research, which examines how the general public and security professionals evaluate ethical dilemmas in security research. This work will be further developed with PhD student Anna Lena Rotthaler, Prof. Dr. Yasemin Acar, and Prof. Dr. Tadayoshi Kohno from Georgetown University – supported by a Google Academic Research Award. This research creates new avenues into ethical security research, as well as communicating this research to the public.
We thank our friends and organizers in Hannover and beyond for an inspiring conference!
