Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology

Better web browser privacy using automation
Umesh Shankar

Citation
Umesh Shankar. "Better web browser privacy using automation". Talk or presentation, 7, March, 2006.

Abstract
Many existing computer security systems often have powerful policy languages that allow great flexibility and control, but are hard to use. A real-world analogy is a home alarm system with sophisticated sensors but with an inscrutable control panel. In each case, the result is the same: users become frustrated and bypass the security mechanism: functionality wins over privacy. The causes of the usability failures are manifold; policies may be complicated, and people are not supplied relevant information to make their decisions.

I will be talking about ongoing work in a visible area: web browser privacy. We propose a new set of automation mechanisms for handling browser cookies that attempts to simultaneously decrease the burden on users and increase the accuracy and precision of the resulting cookie policy. We also have implemented a single-click error recovery mechanism. We tackle several challenging subproblems on the way.

Electronic downloads

Citation formats  
  • HTML
    Umesh Shankar. <a
    href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/35.html"
    ><i>Better web browser privacy using
    automation</i></a>, Talk or presentation,  7,
    March, 2006.
  • Plain text
    Umesh Shankar. "Better web browser privacy using
    automation". Talk or presentation,  7, March, 2006.
  • BibTeX
    @presentation{Shankar06_BetterWebBrowserPrivacyUsingAutomation,
        author = {Umesh Shankar},
        title = {Better web browser privacy using automation},
        day = {7},
        month = {March},
        year = {2006},
        abstract = {Many existing computer security systems often have
                  powerful policy languages that allow great
                  flexibility and control, but are hard to use. A
                  real-world analogy is a home alarm system with
                  sophisticated sensors but with an inscrutable
                  control panel. In each case, the result is the
                  same: users become frustrated and bypass the
                  security mechanism: functionality wins over
                  privacy. The causes of the usability failures are
                  manifold; policies may be complicated, and people
                  are not supplied relevant information to make
                  their decisions. <p>I will be talking about
                  ongoing work in a visible area: web browser
                  privacy. We propose a new set of automation
                  mechanisms for handling browser cookies that
                  attempts to simultaneously decrease the burden on
                  users and increase the accuracy and precision of
                  the resulting cookie policy. We also have
                  implemented a single-click error recovery
                  mechanism. We tackle several challenging
                  subproblems on the way. },
        URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/35.html}
    }
    

Posted by Christopher Brooks on 7 Mar 2006.
Groups: trustseminar
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