My current research interests are primarily in the area of usable security and privacy, with a focus on the interactions between this area and psychology, law, and political science. My work investigates new approaches to understanding, expressing, and enforcing security and privacy informed by connections to other fields. Current projects include exploring how patterns in human cognition impact interactions with security and privacy mechanisms, evaluating the impact of privacy regulations on Internet privacy, and investigating people's perceptions of privacy threats.

I will be hiring summer research assistants for Summer 2024. If you are interested in doing summer research with me, you should apply through the Pomona CS Summer Research application (available January 2024).

Publications

  • C. Moremen, J. Hoogsteden, and E. Birrell. Generational Differences in Understandings of Privacy Terminology. In submission
  • E. Birrell, J. Rodolitz, A. Ding, E. McReynolds, J. Hutson, and A. Lerner. Technical Implementation and Human Impact of Internet Privacy Regulations. In submission.
    Tech Report
  • J. Charatan and E. Birrell. Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: The Right to Opt-out of Sale under CPRA. To appear in Privacy Enhancing Technologies Sympoisum (PETS), 2024.
    Tech Report
  • Y. Lin, J. Juneja, E. Birrell and L. Cranor. Data Safety versus App Privacy: Comparing Usability of iOS and Android Privacy Labels. To appear in Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS), 2024.
    Tech Report
  • J. Amador, Y. Ma, S. Hasama, E. Lumba, G. Lee, and E. Birrell. Prospects for Improving Password Selection. In Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), 2023.
    Proceedings Version    Tech Report
  • E. Bouma-Sims, M. Li, Y. Lin, A. Sakura-Lemessy, A. Nisenoff, E. Young, E. Birrell, L. Cranor, and H. Habib. A US-UK Usability Evaluation of Consent Management Platform Cookie Consent Interface Design on Desktop and Mobile. In Proceedings of CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023.
    Proceedings Version
  • J. Tang, E. Birrell, and A. Lerner. How Well Do My Results Generalize Now? The External Validity of Online Privacy and Security Surveys. In Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), 2022.
    Proceedings Version   Tech Report
  • Y. Ma and E. Birrell. Prospective Consent: The Effect of Framing on Cookie Consent Decisions. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2022.
    Extended Abstract
  • A. Siebel and E. Birrell. The Impact of Visibility on the Right to Opt-out of Sale under CCPA. 2022.
    Tech Report
  • J. Tang, H. Shoemaker, L. Teffera, E. Birrell, and A. Lerner. Buying Privacy: User Perceptions of Privacy Threats from Mobile Apps. 2022.
    Tech Report
  • S. O'Connor, R. Nurwono, and E. Birrell. (Un)clear and (In)conspicuous: The Right to Opt-out of Sale under CCPA. In Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society (WPES), 2021.
    Proceedings Version   Tech Report
  • A. DeGiulio, H. Lee, and E. Birrell. "Ask App Not to Track": The Effect of Opt-in Tracking on Mobile Privacy. In Workshop on Emerging Technologies for Authorization and Authentication (ETAA), 2021.
    Proceedings Version    Tech Report
  • J. Tang, H. Shoemaker, A. Lerner, and E. Birrell. Defining Privacy: How Users Interpret Technical Terms in Privacy Policies. In Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS), 2021.
    Proceedings Version
  • K. Katevas, E. Bagdasaryan, J. Waterman, M. Safadieh, E. Birrell, H. Haddadi, and D. Estrin. Policy-Based Federated Learning. 2021.
    Tech Report
  • W. Guo, J. Rodolitz, and E. Birrell. Poli-See: A Visualization Tool for Privacy Policies. In Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society (WPES), 2020.
    Proceedings Version
  • E. Bagdasaryan, G. Berlstein, J. Waterman, E. Birrell, N. Foster, F. B. Schneider, and D. Estrin. Ancile: Enhancing Privacy for Ubiquitous Computing with Use-Based Privacy. In Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society (WPES), 2019.
    Proceedings Version
  • E. Birrell, A. Gjerdrum, H. Johansen, D. Johansen, R. van Renesse, and F. B. Schneider. SGX Enforcement of Use-based Privacy. In Workshop on Privacy in Electronic Society (WPES), 2018.
    Proceedings Version
  • E. Birrell and F. B. Schneider. A Reactive Approach for Use-based Privacy. 2017.
    Tech Report
  • H. Johansen, E. Birrell, R. van Renesse, F. B. Schneider, M. Stenhaug, and D. Johansen. Enforcing Privacy Policies with Meta-Code. In Asia-Pacific Workshop on Systems (APSys), 2015.
    Proceedings Version
  • E. Birrell and F. B. Schneider. Fine-Grained User Privacy from Avenance Tags.
    Tech Report
  • E. Birrell and F. B. Schneider. Federated Identity Management Systems: A Privacy-based Characterization. In IEEE Security & Privacy, Sept/Oct 2013.
    Magazine Version    Tech Report
  • E. Birrell, K.-M. Chung, R. Pass, and S. Telang. Randomness-Dependent Message Security. In Tenth Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC), 2013.
    Proceedings Version
  • E. Birrell and R. Pass. Approximately Strategy-Proof Voting. In International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), 2011.
    Proceedings Version     Full Version    Slides
  • E. Birrell and S. Vadhan. Composition of Zero-Knowledge Proofs with Efficient Provers. In Seventh Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC), 2010.
    Proceedings Version     Full Version     Slides