Conference & Journal Paper
SoK: Safer Digital-Safety Research Involving At-Risk Users
Rosanna Bellini, Emily Tseng, Noel Warford, Alaa Daffalla, Tara Matthews, Sunny Consolvo, Jill Palzkill Woelfer, Patrick Gage Kelley, Michelle L. Mazurek, Dana Cuomo, Nicola Dell, Thomas Ristenpart
Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P '24), San Francisco, CA, 2024
May 2024
Part ofAt-Risk Users →
Abstract
Research involving at-risk users—that is, users who are more likely to experience a digital attack or to be disproportionately affected when harm from such an attack occurs—can pose significant safety challenges to both users and researchers. Nevertheless, pursuing research in computer security & privacy (S&P) is crucial to understanding how to meet the digital-safety needs of at-risk users and to design safer technology for all. To standardize and bolster safer research involving such users, we offer an analysis of 196 academic works to elicit 14 research risks and 36 safety practices used by a growing community of researchers. We pair this inconsistent set of reported safety practices with oral histories from 12 domain experts to contribute scaffolded and consolidated pragmatic guidance that researchers can use to plan, execute, and share safer digital-safety research involving at-risk users. We conclude by suggesting areas for future research regarding the reporting, study, and funding of at-risk user research.
- at-risk users
- research methods
- safety
- researcher safety
- experts
Cite this paper
@misc{bellini2024sok,
title = {SoK: Safer Digital-Safety Research Involving At-Risk Users},
author = {Bellini, Rosanna and Tseng, Emily and Warford, Noel and Daffalla, Alaa and Matthews, Tara and Consolvo, Sunny and Woelfer, Jill Palzkill and Kelley, Patrick Gage and Mazurek, Michelle L. and Cuomo, Dana and Dell, Nicola and Ristenpart, Thomas},
year = {2024},
eprint = {2309.00735},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.00735},
}