Data Privacy and Sociotechnical Cybersecurity

Examining the human context of privacy and cybersecurity to develop real-world solutions.

Research Projects

RERC on Universal Access to ICT
Principal Investigator(s): J. Bern Jordan Hernisa Kacorri Amanda Lazar
Funder: HHS / ACL / National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research Other
Research Areas: Accessibility and Inclusive Design > Data Privacy and Sociotechnical Cybersecurity > Human-Computer Interaction
Exploring and developing strategies to individualize generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems to make them provide better results tailored to each individual with a disability (starting with AI systems for visual question answering for blind people); identifying and more deeply understanding the failures in technology use by people who are older and developing design strategies to allow more seniors to understand products out of the box -- especially those technologies that are critical to independent living and engagement.
Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Supporting Privacy Negotiation Among Multiple Stakeholders in Smart Environments
Principal Investigator(s): Jessica Vitak
Funder: National Science Foundation
Research Areas: Data Privacy and Sociotechnical Cybersecurity
Internet-of-Things devices are increasingly used in shared spaces (e.g., homes, apartments, schools, hospitals, workplaces), and different stakeholders in these environments have unique privacy needs and expectations. This project investigates privacy negotiation behaviors in smart environments by designing, developing, and deploying an interactive system to collect people’s real-world privacy negotiation behaviors.
Heal Us: Reimagining and co-developing curricula for maternal health professionals
Principal Investigator(s): Amelia Gibson
Funder: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Other
Research Areas: Data Privacy and Sociotechnical Cybersecurity > Health Informatics > Information Justice, Human Rights, and Technology Ethics
BELIEVE (which stands For “Building Equitable Linkages With Interprofessional Education Valuing Everyone) is a multi-institutional project focused on developing and testing interprofessional curricular interventions for the purpose of reducing Black maternal mortality and morbidity and improving birth experiences in the United States.