"Who decides?": security and privacy in the wild

  • Authors:
  • Kenneth Radke;Colin Boyd;Juan Gonzalez Nieto;Laurie Buys

  • Affiliations:
  • Queensland University of Technology, Australia;Norwegian University of Science and Technology;BAE Systems Detica;Queensland University of Technology, Australia

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 25th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference: Augmentation, Application, Innovation, Collaboration
  • Year:
  • 2013

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Even though web security protocols are designed to make computer communication secure, it is widely known that there is potential for security breakdowns at the human-machine interface. This paper examines findings from a qualitative study investigating the identification of security decisions used on the web. The study was designed to uncover how security is perceived in an individual user's context. Study participants were tertiary qualified individuals, with a focus on HCI designers, security professionals and the general population. The study identifies that security frameworks for the web are inadequate from an interaction perspective, with even tertiary qualified users having a poor or partial understanding of security, of which they themselves are acutely aware. The result is that individuals feel they must protect themselves on the web. The findings contribute a significant mapping of the ways in which individuals reason and act to protect themselves on the web. We use these findings to highlight the need to design for trust at three levels, and the need to ensure that HCI design does not impact on the users' main identified protection mechanism: separation.