As social media and cloud services become more pervasive in people's daily life, a huge amount of detailed personal information and activity data are recorded and stored on the SNS platforms. This poses a risk of unwanted tech abuse in various formats, especially on vulnerable Intimate Partner Violence(IPV) victims. Technological abuses on IPV victims come in various forms from primitive ones such as sending hurtful messages to harass victims and tracking victims' locations with dual-use apps, to more advanced ones like trojan and spyware.
As a developer and case lead at CETA, the Clinic to End Tech Abuse, I had been working on offering consultation for victims of IPV to protect their accounts, their devices, and their private information. (Learn more about our clinic here.) During the pandemic, I participated and was acknowledged in the study that analyzes computer mediated intervention in IPV during COVID-19. Checkout the publication in CHI'21:
A Digital Safety Dilemma: Analysis of Computer-Mediated Computer Security Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence During COVID-19 (link)
Moreover, I also conducted a study focusing on the account security of IPV victims. In our research, we explored and evaluated the account security features of major social networking services (SNS). By making use of the downloadable account data, our project aims to help people understand and take control of their account security from existing or potential intimate partner violence. Using ReactJS and Electron, we implemented a desktop app that analyzes and visualizes one’s security information of their Facebook account to combat account compromisation.
This is a video demo of our work. More details of our study can be found in our paper.