Abstract:
The Internet underscores so much of our daily lives enabling us to connect, learn, and enhance our activities. Yet, being online is not without challenges, such as knowing what content to trust, how to manage our data, or finding services that cater to our unique needs. Addressing these issues around online trust, privacy, and inclusivity are pervasive problems that require us to deeply understand a variety of Internet users' needs and to develop creative solutions to these problems.

In this talk, I will present a set of case studies from my research lab where we strive to create a more trustworthy and inclusive Internet for all. I will describe various projects geared at understanding a wide variety of Internet users’ needs for online privacy and security in different contexts from children to older adults. I will also describe work to help users manage misleading interfaces and screen time and finally, outline a project for leveraging sensors to improve urban responses to climate change. These case studies will demonstrate how important it is to study people beyond an assumed "average” user mold as well as implications for design.

Bio:

Marshini Chetty is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago where she directs the Amyoli Internet Research Laboratory (AIR lab). She specializes in human-computer interaction and usable privacy and security. Her work has won best paper and honorable mention awards at SOUPS, CHI, and CSCW, and she was a co-recipient of the Annual Privacy Papers for Policymakers award. Her research has been featured in the NYTimes, CNN, Washington Journal, BBC, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, WIRED, and Slashdot. She has received generous funding from the National Science Foundation, through grants and an NSF CAREER award, as well as the National Security Agency, Facebook, and multiple Google Faculty Research Awards. Most importantly, she is a loud and proud UCT alum from the Department of Computer Science.