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Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a crucial Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PET) leveraged by millions of users and catered by multiple VPN providers worldwide; thus, understanding the user preferences for the choice of VPN apps should be…

We study how and why university students chose and use VPNs, and whether they are aware of the security and privacy risks that VPNs pose. To answer these questions, we conducted 32 in-person interviews and a survey with 349 respondents, all…

Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions are used to connect private networks securely over the Internet. Besides their benefits in corporate environments, VPNs are also marketed to privacy-minded users to preserve their privacy, and to…

Many users make quick decisions that affect their data privacy without due consideration of their values. One such decision is whether to download a smartphone app to their device. Previous work has suggested a relationship between values,…

As more users adopt VPNs for a variety of reasons, it is important to develop empirical knowledge of their needs and mental models of what a VPN offers. Moreover, studying VPN users alone is not enough because, by using a VPN, a user…

How do commercial VPNs interact with IPv6? We show two "rough edges" in how commercial VPNs handle IPv6. First, we show that many IPv4-only VPNs leak IPv6 traffic to the ISP. Individual use VPNs in part to conceal their local IP addresses,…

Recommender systems (RSs) output ranked lists of items, such as movies or restaurants, that users may find interesting, based on the user's past ratings and ratings from other users. RSs increasingly incorporate differential privacy (DP) to…

Choosing authentication schemes for a specific purpose is challenging for service providers, developers, and researchers. Previous ratings of technical and objective aspects showed that available schemes all have strengths and limitations.…

Internet users increasingly rely on commercial virtual private network (VPN) services to protect their security and privacy. The VPN services route the client's traffic over an encrypted tunnel to a VPN gateway in the cloud. Thus, they hide…

In the age of ubiquitous technologies, security- and privacy-focused choices have turned out to be a significant concern for individuals and organizations. Risks of such pervasive technologies are extensive and often misaligned with user…

Protecting personal information privacy has become a controversial issue among online social network providers and users. Most social network providers have developed several techniques to decrease threats and risks to the users privacy.…

VPN adoption has seen steady growth over the past decade due to increased public awareness of privacy and surveillance threats. In response, certain governments are attempting to restrict VPN access by identifying connections using "dual…

The wide adoption of mobile devices and social media platforms have dramatically increased the collection and sharing of personal information. More and more frequently, users are called to take decisions concerning the disclosure of their…

Anecdotal evidence suggests an increasing number of people are turning to VPN services for the properties of privacy, anonymity and free communication over the internet. Despite this, there is little research into what these services are…

Influencer VPN ads (sponsored segments) on YouTube often disseminate misleading information about both VPNs, and security & privacy more broadly. However, it remains unclear how (or whether) these ads affect users' perceptions and knowledge…

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides private network connections over a publicly accessible shared network. The effective allocation of bandwidth for VPNs assumes significance in the present scenario due to varied traffic. Each VPN…

As technology and technology companies have grown in power, ubiquity, and societal influence, some companies -- and notably some mobile apps -- have come to be perceived as privacy threats. Prior work has considered how various factors…

Smartphone-based contact-tracing apps are a promising solution to help scale up the conventional contact-tracing process. However, low adoption rates have become a major issue that prevents these apps from achieving their full potential. In…

Online Social Networks (OSNs) have come to play an increasingly important role in our social lives, and their inherent privacy problems have become a major concern for users. Can we assist consumers in their privacy decision-making…

The number of active users of Wi-Fi Direct Device-to-Device file sharing applications on Android has exceeded 1.8 billion. Wi-Fi Direct, also known as Wi-Fi P2P, is commonly used for peer-to-peer, high-speed file transfer between mobile…