A Survey of User Experience in Usable Security and Privacy Research

• Published in: HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust pp. 154 - 172
• Main Authors: Jacobs, Danielle, McDaniel, Troy
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Cybersecurity; Human factors; Information security; Privacy; Usability
• ISBN: 9783031055621; 3031055624
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-05563-8_11

Today people depend on technology, but often do not take the necessary steps to prioritize privacy and security. Researchers have been actively studying usable security and privacy to enable better response and management. A breadth of research focuses on improving the usability of tools for experts and organizations. Studies that look at non-expert users tend to analyze the experience for a device, software, or demographic. There is a lack of understanding of the security and privacy among average users, regardless of the technology, age, gender, or demographic. To address this shortcoming, we surveyed 47 publications in the usable security and privacy space. The work presented here uses qualitative text analysis to find major themes in user-focused security research. We found that a user’s misunderstanding of technology is central to risky decision-making. Our study highlights trends in the research community and remaining work. This paper contributes to this discussion by generalizing key themes across user experience in usable security and privacy.