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General-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) systems are built on massive swathes of public web data, assembled into corpora such as C4, RefinedWeb, and Dolma. To our knowledge, we conduct the first, large-scale, longitudinal audit of the…
The dark patterns, deceptive interface designs manipulating user behaviors, have been extensively studied for their effects on human decision-making and autonomy. Yet, with the rising prominence of LLM-powered GUI agents that automate tasks…
The analysis of the behaviour of individuals and entities (UEBA) is an area of artificial intelligence that detects hostile actions (e.g. attacks, fraud, influence, poisoning) due to the unusual nature of observed events, by affixing to a…
In recent years, many countries have started enacting laws to safeguard privacy of personal data of their citizens collected and maintained by various enterprises through websites, mobile apps, and other means. It is imperative that the…
We need to rethink our approach to defend privacy on the internet. Currently, policymakers focus heavily on the idea of informed consent as a means to defend privacy. For instance, in many countries the law requires firms to obtain an…
Web tracking by ad networks, social networks, and other third parties is privacy-invasive. To protect users' privacy an increasing number of countries are adopting new privacy laws. However, a major reason why their application on the web…
On January 1, 2020, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by more than 56% of voters intended to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California, United States. Since then, more conditions…
This article provides a quantitative analysis of privacy-compromising mechanisms on 1 million popular websites. Findings indicate that nearly 9 in 10 websites leak user data to parties of which the user is likely unaware; more than 6 in 10…
Browser fingerprinting is a relatively new method of uniquely identifying browsers that can be used to track web users. In some ways it is more privacy-threatening than tracking via cookies, as users have no direct control over it. A number…
The content moderation systems used by social media sites are a topic of widespread interest and research, but less is known about the use of similar systems by web search engines. For example, Google Search attempts to help its users…
Deceptive/Manipulative Patterns (DMP) are interface designs, also known as ``dark patterns,'' that manipulate user behavior. While considerable attention has been paid to their ethical and legal implications, empirical evidence about their…
Dark patterns in user interfaces represent deceptive design practices intended to manipulate users' behavior, often leading to unintended consequences such as coerced purchases, involuntary data disclosures, or user frustration. Detecting…
Web browsers, particularly Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, have grown in popularity over the past decade, with browser extensions becoming an integral part of their ecosystem. These extensions can customize and enhance the…
Free and open source software has gained a lot of momentum in the industry and the research community. The latest advances in privacy legislation, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer…
We need to rethink our approach to defend privacy on the internet. Currently, policymakers focus heavily on the idea of informed consent as a means to defend privacy. For instance, in many countries the law requires firms to obtain an…
With the increasing concerns around privacy and the enforcement of data privacy laws, many websites now provide users with privacy controls. However, locating these controls can be challenging, as they are frequently hidden within multiple…
As third-party cookies are being phased out or restricted by major browsers, first-party cookies are increasingly repurposed for tracking. Prior work has shown that third-party scripts embedded in the main frame can access and exfiltrate…
Privacy policies are intended to support informed consent, yet users rarely read them fully. This study examines how common privacy policy interface structures influence attention allocation, reading behavior, and perceived experience.…
Third-party web tracking is a common, and broadly used technique on the Web. Almost every step of users' is tracked, analyzed, and later used in different use cases (e.g., online advertisement). Different defense mechanisms have emerged to…
Autoencoder-based anomaly detection methods have been used in identifying anomalous users from large-scale enterprise logs with the assumption that adversarial activities do not follow past habitual patterns. Most existing approaches…