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.

Exploration of Internet of Things (IoT) security often focuses on threats posed by external and technically-skilled attackers. While it is important to understand these most extreme cases, it is equally important to understand the most likely risks of harm posed by smart device ownership. In this paper, we explore how smart devices are misused — used without permission in a manner that causes harm — by device owners’ everyday associates such as friends, family, and romantic partners. In a preliminary characterization survey (n = 100), we broadly capture the kinds of unauthorized use and misuse incidents participants have experienced or engaged in. Then, in a prevalence survey (n = 483), we assess the prevalence of these incidents in a demographically-representative population. Our findings show that unauthorized use of smart devices is widespread (experienced by 43% of participants), and that misuse is also common (experienced by at least 19% of participants). However, highly individual factors determine whether these unauthorized use events constitute misuse. Through a focus on everyday abuses, this work sheds light on the most prevalent security and privacy threats faced by smart-home owners today.

At-risk users are people who experience risk factors that augment or amplify their chances of being digitally attacked and/or suffering disproportionate harms. In this systematization work, we present a framework for reasoning about at-risk users based on a wide-ranging meta-analysis of 95 papers. Across the varied populations that we examined (e.g., children, activists, people with disabilities), we identified 10 unifying contextual risk factors —such as marginalization and access to a sensitive resource —that augment or amplify digital-safety risks and their resulting harms. We also identified technical and non-technical practices that at-risk users adopt to attempt to protect themselves from digital-safety risks. We use this framework to discuss barriers that limit at-risk users’ ability or willingness to take protective actions. We believe that researchers and technology creators can use our framework to identify and shape research investments to benefit at-risk users, and to guide technology design to better support at-risk users.