Is a theoretically-secure system any good if it doesn’t address users’ real-world threat models? Is the security community today meeting the needs of a mass, global audience, or simply building tools and features for itself? Do we know how to understand what people really need?
We asked a group of straight-talking New Yorkers about the data-security threats they face. Their answers indicate a significant gap between their lived experience and the way our community thinks about security. To bridge this gap and get privacy-preserving systems into the hands of real people, we need more foundational research to understand user needs, not only late-stage usability studies in a lab.
