Help-seeking and coping strategies for technology-facilitated abuse experienced by youthTechnology provides youth (ages 10--17) with near-constant opportunities for learning, communication, and self-expression. It can also expose them to technology-facilitated abuse: harassment, coercion, fraud, and more. The ability of youth to navigate such abuse is crucial for their well-being and development. A recent advisory by the U.S. Surgeon General called for better support of youth, including that youth should ``reach out for help.'' However, little is known about how youth seek help or otherwise cope with technology-facilitated abuse. Through a qualitative study in the U.S., we examine how youth engage in self-reliance, seek help from others, and how others seek help on a youth's behalf. We discuss these strategies and outline opportunities for how the HCI community can better support youth who experience technology-facilitated abuse.2025DFDiana Freed et al.Supporting YouthCSCW
Achieving Resilience: Data Loss and Recovery on Devices for Personal Use in Three CountriesRecovery from adverse incidents, such as accidents or cyber attacks, is a cornerstone of cyber resilience. Backups are essential in facilitating systems recovery. We have limited understanding of how devices for personal use are backed up, and of how data loss and recovery occur, including which factors might be helpful to afford resilience. To gain insights, we surveyed almost representative (in age and gender) samples of German, UK and USA populations, 1423 in total. Almost half of the participants (656, 46%) experienced at least one data loss incident. Whereas 42% of 656 participants recovered using backups, over half of them had outdated or incomplete backups. High levels of stress were reported, especially by those recovering without backups or with problematic backups. In the full sample, 86% of participants created full or partial backups of at least one of their devices, the most important trigger being prior data loss experiences.2025JWJulia Wunder et al.Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, IT Security Infrastructures LabPasswords & AuthenticationPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingCHI
Understanding Digital-Safety Experiences of Youth in the U.S.The seamless integration of technology into the lives of youth has raised concerns about their digital safety. While prior work has explored youth experiences with physical, sexual, and emotional threats---such as bullying and trafficking---a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the myriad threats that youth experience is needed. By synthesizing the perspectives of 36 youth and 65 adult participants from the U.S., we provide an overview of today's complex digital-safety landscape. We describe attacks youth experienced, how these moved across platforms and into the physical world, and the resulting harms. We also describe protective practices the youth and the adults who support them took to prevent, mitigate, and recover from attacks, and key barriers to doing this effectively. Our findings provide a broad perspective to help improve digital safety for youth and set directions for future work.2023DFDiana Freed et al.Cornell UniversityPrivacy by Design & User ControlCyberbullying & Online HarassmentCHI
Toward a More Inclusive Gig Economy: Risks and Opportunities for Workers with DisabilitiesLittle is known about whether and how workers with disabilities participate in the many on-demand labor platforms that make up the growing gig economy, yet, this understanding is a vital step towards developing a more inclusive gig economy. Through interviews with 24 workers and observational fieldwork, we present a rich, in-depth picture of the opportunities and challenges presented by four main types of gig work (ridesharing, delivery, crowdwork, and freelancing) for workers with a wide range of disabilities. We identify a key tension: gig work can be a vital source of needed income for workers who have been excluded from traditional workplaces, but at the same time, the structure of gig platforms present workers with a host of new disability-related challenges, including around algorithmic control and performance evaluation. We discuss how this tension plays out in terms of how workers engage in gig work and protect themselves from risk. We also call attention to how many workers can face complicated, intersectional challenges based on multiple, marginalized identities in addition to disability, such as race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Our work contributes to research on the gig economy by centering the perspectives of workers who are marginalized based on disability and other identities. We show how workers face several penalties based on disability, including shouldering extensive invisible labor to mitigate the challenges they face. To address these issues, we represent workers' voices in the design suggestions we put forth around how labor platforms could be more inclusive and equitable for workers with a range of disabilities.2022SSShruti Sannon et al.Gig Economy; Gig EconomyCSCW
Privacy, Surveillance, and Power in the Gig EconomyThis paper addresses calls for more research on privacy in the gig economy across a range of work platforms. To understand privacy risks, behaviors, and consequences from the perspective of workers, we analyzed workers' posts about privacy and surveillance from 12 Reddit forums representing four main types of work (crowdwork, freelancing, ridesharing, and delivery). We found that workers perceive both platform companies and customers as sources of unnecessary and opaque data collection and surveillance that can threaten their privacy, safety, and economic outcomes. Workers also engage in many risk mitigation strategies, including self-protective surveillance behaviors such as video recording themselves and customers, as a costly but necessary response to power imbalances created by surveillance. Based on our multi-platform analysis, we present a guiding set of questions that workers, designers, and researchers can use to assess the privacy implications of current and future gig work platforms.2022SSShruti Sannon et al.University of MichiganPrivacy by Design & User ControlPasswords & AuthenticationPrivacy Perception & Decision-MakingCHI
Exploring the Weak Association between Flow Experience and Performance in Virtual EnvironmentsMany studies conducted in non-virtual activities have shown that flow significantly influences performance, yet studies in virtual activities often reveal only a weak association. This paper begins by building a theoretical explanatory model, and then conducts 3 empirical studies to explore this question. Study 1 exams the mechanism of weak association in two virtual activities. Study 2 tests the effectiveness of a potential approach to strengthen this association. In Study 3 we applied our proposed model and design approach to optimize a VR tennis game. Results show that the influence of flow on performance was not significant in those virtual activities where the primary task and the operation of interactive artifacts were less congruent such that the artifacts can lead to flow experience that is independently of the primary task. Our research offers a theoretical and empirical basis on how to optimize virtual environment design and maximize positive effect of the flow experience.2018YBYulong Bian et al.Shandong UniversityImmersion & Presence ResearchSerious & Functional GamesCHI