Abstract Although Tor has state-of-the art anticensorship measures, users in heavily censored environments will not be able to connect to Tor if they cannot configure their connections. We perform the first usability evaluation of Tor Launcher, the graphical user interface (GUI) that Tor Browser uses to configure connections to Tor. Our study shows that 79% (363 of 458) of user attempts to connect to Tor in simulated censored environments failed. We found that users were often frustrated during the process and tried options at random. In this paper, we measure potential usability issues, discuss design constraints unique to Tor, and provide recommendations based on what we learned to help more users connect to Tor while reducing the time they take to do so. Tor Browser incorporated the changes proposed by this study.

Although Tor has state-of-the art anticensorship measures, users in heavily censored environments will not be able to connect to Tor if they cannot configure their connections. We perform the first usability evaluation of Tor Launcher, the graphical user interface (GUI) that Tor Browser uses to configure connections to Tor. Our study shows that 79% (363 of 458) of user attempts to connect to Tor in simulated censored environments failed. We found that users were often frustrated during the process and tried options at random. In this paper, we measure potential usability issues, discuss design constraints unique to Tor, and provide recommendations based on what we learned to help more users connect to Tor while reducing the time they take to do so. Tor Browser incorporated the changes proposed by this study.

Wearable devices, or "wearables," bring great benefits but also potential information disclosure risks that could expose users' activities without their awareness or consent.We surveyed 1,782 Internet users about various data associated with the capabilities of popular wearable devices on the market to identify the data disclosure scenarios that users find most concerning.Our study relatively ranks potential data capture scenarios enabled by wearables and investigates the impact of the recipient of the data on the perceived risk of data disclosure.We conclude with a brief survey of users' perception of general risks associated with wearable devices, which includes factors such as safety, changes in social behaviors, and impact on fashion.To our knowledge, this is the largest user-based experiment concerning information disclosure surrounding wearables.We hope that this work will aid in the design of future user notifications, permission management, and access control schemes for wearables.

Most laptops and personal computers have webcams with LED indicators to notify users when they are recording. Because hackers use surreptitiously captured webcam recordings to extort users, we explored the effectiveness of these indicators under varying circumstances and how they could be improved. We observed that, on average, fewer than half of our participants (45%) noticed the existing indicator during computer-based tasks. When seated in front of the computer performing a paper-based task, only 5% noticed the indicator. We performed a followup experiment to evaluate a new indicator and observed that adding onscreen glyphs had a significant impact on both computer-based and non-computer-based tasks (93% and 59% noticed the new indicator, respectively). We discuss how our results can be integrated into current systems, as well as future ubiquitous computing systems.

Wearable devices, or "wearables," bring great benefits but also potential risks that could expose users' activities with- out their awareness or consent. In this paper, we report findings from the first large-scale survey conducted to investigate user security and privacy concerns regarding wearables. We surveyed 1,782 Internet users in order to identify risks that are particularly concerning to them; these risks are inspired by the sensor inputs and applications of popular wearable technologies. During this experiment, our questions controlled for the effects of what data was being accessed and with whom it was being shared. We also investigated how these emergent threats compared to existent mobile threats, how upcoming capabilities and artifacts compared to existing technologies, and how users ranked technical and nontechnical concerns to sketch a concrete and broad view of the wearable device landscape. We hope that this work will inform the design of future user notification, permission management, and access control schemes for wearables.