Security, Privacy, and Human

Overview

Abstract

Security and privacy systems are often composed of complex components and details. However, users’ experience shouldn’t be as complex. In this seminar, Eman will discuss the human factor in the security and privacy chain. While human privacy perceptions and behaviors have been investigated in Western societies, little is known about these issues in non-Western societies. Eman will share research results and lessons learned from conducting in-depth interviews with 30 Google personal account holders in Saudi Arabia about their privacy perceptions (awareness, attitudes, preferences, and concerns) regarding the activity data that Google saves about them, as well as any steps they take to control Google’s collection or use of this data. She will conclude with insights about future directions in usable privacy and security research.

Brief Biography

Eman Alashwali is an Assistant Professor at the College of Computing & IT at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). She is also a Collaboration Visitor at the Usable Privacy and Security Institute (CyLab) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), US. She obtained her DPhil. (PhD) degree in Cybersecurity from the University of Oxford, UK, and MSc. in Information Security from University College London (UCL). Eman research is in web security and privacy, with interests in both usable privacy and security and web measurement studies. She has published in reputable journals and conferences (Computers & Security, Child-Computer Interaction, ARES, and SecureComm). Eman received the IEEE Clementina Saduwa Award for Women in Engineering, the Best Paper award at the SecureComm conference, and the IEEE Exemplary Student Branch Counselor award. Eman has worked in academia since 2007 and is the founding Head of the Labs and Technical Support Unit in the College of Computing & IT, KAU. She also worked as an IT professional between 2004 and 2007, and she is a Microsoft-certified MCSA and CompTIA A+, Network+, and I-Net+ certified professional.