Context-Sensitive Inquiry Through the Lens of Stakeholders: Privacy and Security Problems with Emerging Technologies

<p dir="ltr">Human-centered research on emerging technological applications can inform the development of secure, privacy-preserving, products and procedures that align with social and legal standards. Directly engaging with stakeholders situated in particular contexts can provide detailed perspectives that reveal limitations, problems, or unmet needs in security approaches, data collection, data use, and accuracy of technologies. </p><p dir="ltr">This thesis demonstrates how direct engagement with stakeholders illuminates crucial problems and perspectives, consisting of four research studies consulting potential users or data subjects of technologies with broad social implications, fo cusing on four emerging technological applications: 1) AR glasses with advanced sensor capabilities, 2) AI analysis of voice data for decision-making in employment and education, 3) the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) in energy grid infrastructure, and 4) patient-facing medical trans lation tools. We first consider current AR users’ context-sensitive privacy attitudes, preferences, and concerns regarding how future hypothetical AR glasses could col lect and use data. Second, we report on how speakers of four US English dialects perceived potential benefits and harms of AI-enabled voice analysis in high-stakes employment and educational contexts. Third, we compare approaches to vulnerabil ity impact assessment among experts in critical infrastructure and computer security, identifying notable differences in the self-reported approaches to assessing risk in en ergy systems between these two groups. Finally, we present attitudes, preferences, and concerns of Mandarin- and Spanish-speaking individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) towards existing and emerging translation services and technologies in medical contexts. </p><p dir="ltr">We contribute an interdisciplinary approach to eliciting and analyzing firsthand stakeholder insights about privacy and security problems with emerging technologies. We use human-computer interaction methods to obtain rich, qualitative data and apply thematic coding, discourse analysis, and sociocultural anthropological considerations to contextualize participants’ responses. Our approach elucidates context-sensitive and socially situated perceptions and attitudes regarding the pri vacyandsecurity of various technologies, highlighting social dimensions often over looked in usable privacy and security literature and revealing broader implications for policy and technology design.</p>