SoK: Safer Digital-Safety Research Involving At-Risk Users

TL;DR

This paper analyzes 196 studies to identify risks and safety practices in digital-safety research involving at-risk users, providing guidance to improve safety and ethical standards in this sensitive research area.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of existing safety practices, identifies research risks, and provides pragmatic guidance for conducting safer digital-safety research involving at-risk users.

Findings

14 research risks identified

36 safety practices documented

Guidelines for safer research implementation

Abstract

Research involving at-risk users -- that is, users who are more likely to experience a digital attack or to be disproportionately affected when harm from such an attack occurs -- can pose significant safety challenges to both users and researchers. Nevertheless, pursuing research in computer security and privacy is crucial to understanding how to meet the digital-safety needs of at-risk users and to design safer technology for all. To standardize and bolster safer research involving such users, we offer an analysis of 196 academic works to elicit 14 research risks and 36 safety practices used by a growing community of researchers. We pair this inconsistent set of reported safety practices with oral histories from 12 domain experts to contribute scaffolded and consolidated pragmatic guidance that researchers can use to plan, execute, and share safer digital-safety research involving at-risk users. We conclude by suggesting areas for future research regarding the reporting, study, and funding of at-risk user research