Abusability: Designing for Human-Centred Security

Each year, tech-facilitated abuse make millions of people vulnerable worldwide, particularly those who are already disadvantaged by discrimination due to gender, race, disability, poverty or other forms of marginalisation. Many have called for technology developers to be more proactive in addressing this problem. However, existing approaches, which often start by developing new apps or guides for survivors, are limited in that this solution shifts “safety work” onto survivors who already face significant cognitive, emotional and financial strains. One way to resolve this would be to start instead with “abusability” – the extent to which existing products, platforms, and features facilitate or enable abuse. In this workshop, we will brainstorm how product development teams could anticipate and mitigate abuse of their products, as well as potential obstacles. This session will be facilitated by researchers and practitioners from the Oxford Internet Institute and IBM’s Coercive Control Resistant Design project.