Seminar by Ruba Abu-Salma

The computer security community has advocated widespread adoption of secure communication tools to counter mass surveillance. Several popular personal communication tools (e.g., WhatsApp, iMessage) have adopted end-to-end encryption, and many new tools (e.g., Signal, Telegram) have been launched with security as a key selling point. However, it remains unclear if users understand what protection these tools offer, and if they value that protection. In our studies, we used qualitative research methods (e.g., unstructured/semi-structured interviews, focus groups, observations) and quantitative methods (census-representative surveys) to understand how users “perceive” secure communications, and what influences their decision to adopt (or not adopt) secure tools. We found that usability issues are not the primary obstacles to adopting secure tools. Instead, the main obstacles to adoption include small and fragmented user bases, lack of interoperability, low QoS (Quality of Service), incorrect user mental models of how secure communication works, and bad software quality.