Companion Publication of the 2022 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Automated Decision Systems (ADS) are being used to inform important decisions in government servi... more Automated Decision Systems (ADS) are being used to inform important decisions in government services. Concerns regarding discrimination in ADS have led to the rise of bias mitigation techniques, or data science practices that measure and adjust for disparities based on protected class data. These techniques often require demographic or sensitive category data to both measure discrimination in ADS and process data to mitigate the discriminatory bias. The collection of sensitive category data increases privacy concerns. This preliminary study includes nine semi-structured interviews with data practitioners working in government. The analysis explores what considerations data practitioners in the public sector make when determining best practices for sensitive category data collection and how they engage with the tradeoff between privacy and right to freedom from discrimination. Themes pertinent to social services emerged including the importance of accessibility, reasons for data minimization and the role of reporting structures and historical norms.
Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 2021
The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. De... more The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. Devices like smart speakers, cameras, thermostats, and vacuums promise to save consumers time and energy and to make tasks easier. Many devices also provide significant benefits through accessibility features that offer hands-free options, voice commands, and management through smartphone apps. At the same time, however, researchers and the media have documented a number of vulnerabilities in these devices, which raises concerns about what and how much data is being collected, how that data is used, and who has access to the data. In this one-day workshop, participants will work together to brainstorm potential solutions for making smart device data more visible and interpretable for consumers. Through rotating breakout sessions and full-group discussions, participants will identify data-based threats in popular smart home technologies, select data flows that are most concerning, and generate design ideas for tools or other artifacts that can help consumers make more informed decisions about using these devices. Opportunities for networking and future collaborations will also be incorporated. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy→Human and societal aspects of security and privacy Privacy protections
When to Collect Sensitive Category Data? Working Towards a Participatory Framework for Balancing Privacy and Freedom from Discrimination in Automated Decision Systems in the Public Sector
Online content moderation has become the subject of intense debate as policymakers and platform d... more Online content moderation has become the subject of intense debate as policymakers and platform developers aim to balance values such as freedom of expression and community safety. Despite the impact of content moderation on public discourse and online experiences, the debate surrounding content moderation regulation rarely involves those impacted by these decisions. To explore how to engage individuals in learning opportunities that deepen understanding of social and technical aspects of online content moderation, we designed and tested an educational game: CONTENTR. The game gives participants experience debating and making decisions about platform governance. We used the Values at Play (VAP) game design framework to discover and translate social values into game elements, and then verified both values translation and learning outcomes using qualitative feedback from three phases of testing. We found that gameplay facilitated collaborative discussion and decision-making regarding the challenges of designing an online platform for mass appeal. Both tabletop and online versions of the game are available on our project website. Our findings highlight how gameplay can create a deeper understanding of the challenges involved in developing and enforcing online content policies, and challenge participants' pre-existing values and assumptions through both game elements and exposure to other participants' perspectives. We believe the game will be useful in courses ranging from civics and technology policy to information and computer science. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Computer supported cooperative work; • Social and professional topics → Informal education.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Fueled by Internet-of-Things technologies and spanning a wide range of sensors, speakers, and cam... more Fueled by Internet-of-Things technologies and spanning a wide range of sensors, speakers, and cameras, smart homes promise to make our lives easier and automate routine tasks. From speakers to security cameras, smart home devices (SHDs) answer our questions, monitor our home environment, and conserve energy. They also collect significant data, ranging from on/off commands to audio and video data, and they do this in some of our most private spaces. In this paper, we explore the privacy risks associated with SHDs by focusing on privacy-conscious smart home power users--those who spend significant time and money to research, install, and integrate devices throughout their homes and engage in advanced device and network management strategies to mitigate privacy concerns. Drawing on data from 10 focus groups with 32 privacy-conscious power users, we identify the key privacy risks they perceive from this technology, as well as how they mitigate those risks through increasingly complex st...
CSCW '21: Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing , 2021
The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. De... more The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. Devices like smart speakers, cameras, thermostats, and vacuums promise to save consumers time and energy and to make tasks easier. Many devices also provide significant benefits through accessibility features that offer hands-free options, voice commands, and management through smartphone apps. At the same time, however, researchers and the media have documented a number of vulnerabilities in these devices, which raises concerns about what and how much data is being collected, how that data is used, and who has access to the data. In this one-day workshop, participants will work together to brainstorm potential solutions for making smart device data more visible and interpretable for consumers. Through rotating breakout sessions and full-group discussions, participants will identify data-based threats in popular smart home technologies, select data flows that are most concerning, a nd generate design ideas for tools or other artifacts that can help consumers make more informed decisions about using these devices. Opportunities for networking and future collaborations will also be incorporated. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy; • Human and societal aspects of security and privacy; • Privacy protections;
Companion Publication of the 2022 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
Automated Decision Systems (ADS) are being used to inform important decisions in government servi... more Automated Decision Systems (ADS) are being used to inform important decisions in government services. Concerns regarding discrimination in ADS have led to the rise of bias mitigation techniques, or data science practices that measure and adjust for disparities based on protected class data. These techniques often require demographic or sensitive category data to both measure discrimination in ADS and process data to mitigate the discriminatory bias. The collection of sensitive category data increases privacy concerns. This preliminary study includes nine semi-structured interviews with data practitioners working in government. The analysis explores what considerations data practitioners in the public sector make when determining best practices for sensitive category data collection and how they engage with the tradeoff between privacy and right to freedom from discrimination. Themes pertinent to social services emerged including the importance of accessibility, reasons for data minimization and the role of reporting structures and historical norms.
Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 2021
The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. De... more The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. Devices like smart speakers, cameras, thermostats, and vacuums promise to save consumers time and energy and to make tasks easier. Many devices also provide significant benefits through accessibility features that offer hands-free options, voice commands, and management through smartphone apps. At the same time, however, researchers and the media have documented a number of vulnerabilities in these devices, which raises concerns about what and how much data is being collected, how that data is used, and who has access to the data. In this one-day workshop, participants will work together to brainstorm potential solutions for making smart device data more visible and interpretable for consumers. Through rotating breakout sessions and full-group discussions, participants will identify data-based threats in popular smart home technologies, select data flows that are most concerning, and generate design ideas for tools or other artifacts that can help consumers make more informed decisions about using these devices. Opportunities for networking and future collaborations will also be incorporated. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy→Human and societal aspects of security and privacy Privacy protections
When to Collect Sensitive Category Data? Working Towards a Participatory Framework for Balancing Privacy and Freedom from Discrimination in Automated Decision Systems in the Public Sector
Online content moderation has become the subject of intense debate as policymakers and platform d... more Online content moderation has become the subject of intense debate as policymakers and platform developers aim to balance values such as freedom of expression and community safety. Despite the impact of content moderation on public discourse and online experiences, the debate surrounding content moderation regulation rarely involves those impacted by these decisions. To explore how to engage individuals in learning opportunities that deepen understanding of social and technical aspects of online content moderation, we designed and tested an educational game: CONTENTR. The game gives participants experience debating and making decisions about platform governance. We used the Values at Play (VAP) game design framework to discover and translate social values into game elements, and then verified both values translation and learning outcomes using qualitative feedback from three phases of testing. We found that gameplay facilitated collaborative discussion and decision-making regarding the challenges of designing an online platform for mass appeal. Both tabletop and online versions of the game are available on our project website. Our findings highlight how gameplay can create a deeper understanding of the challenges involved in developing and enforcing online content policies, and challenge participants' pre-existing values and assumptions through both game elements and exposure to other participants' perspectives. We believe the game will be useful in courses ranging from civics and technology policy to information and computer science. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Computer supported cooperative work; • Social and professional topics → Informal education.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Fueled by Internet-of-Things technologies and spanning a wide range of sensors, speakers, and cam... more Fueled by Internet-of-Things technologies and spanning a wide range of sensors, speakers, and cameras, smart homes promise to make our lives easier and automate routine tasks. From speakers to security cameras, smart home devices (SHDs) answer our questions, monitor our home environment, and conserve energy. They also collect significant data, ranging from on/off commands to audio and video data, and they do this in some of our most private spaces. In this paper, we explore the privacy risks associated with SHDs by focusing on privacy-conscious smart home power users--those who spend significant time and money to research, install, and integrate devices throughout their homes and engage in advanced device and network management strategies to mitigate privacy concerns. Drawing on data from 10 focus groups with 32 privacy-conscious power users, we identify the key privacy risks they perceive from this technology, as well as how they mitigate those risks through increasingly complex st...
CSCW '21: Companion Publication of the 2021 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing , 2021
The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. De... more The internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies are pervasive in the U.S. and abroad. Devices like smart speakers, cameras, thermostats, and vacuums promise to save consumers time and energy and to make tasks easier. Many devices also provide significant benefits through accessibility features that offer hands-free options, voice commands, and management through smartphone apps. At the same time, however, researchers and the media have documented a number of vulnerabilities in these devices, which raises concerns about what and how much data is being collected, how that data is used, and who has access to the data. In this one-day workshop, participants will work together to brainstorm potential solutions for making smart device data more visible and interpretable for consumers. Through rotating breakout sessions and full-group discussions, participants will identify data-based threats in popular smart home technologies, select data flows that are most concerning, a nd generate design ideas for tools or other artifacts that can help consumers make more informed decisions about using these devices. Opportunities for networking and future collaborations will also be incorporated. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy; • Human and societal aspects of security and privacy; • Privacy protections;
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Papers by Anna Lenhart