[This course has been previously offered as 08-534/08-734]
There is growing recognition that technology alone will not provide all of the solutions to security and privacy problems. Human factors play an essential role in these areas, and it is important for security and privacy experts to have an understanding of how people will interact with the systems they develop. This course is designed to introduce students to a variety of usability and user-interface problems related to privacy and security and to give them experience in understanding and designing studies aimed at helping to evaluate usability issues in security and privacy systems. The course is suitable both for students interested in privacy and security who would like to learn more about usability, as well as for students interested in usability who would like to learn more about security and privacy. All students will work in small teams on a group project throughout the semester. The course is open to all students who have at least some technical background (e.g. an undergraduate computer programming course). The 12-unit course numbers (17-734, 5-836, 19-734) are for PhD students and masters students (but open to undergrads). Students enrolled in these course numbers will be required to read and comment on a research paper each week in addition to the other assignments. The 9-unit course numbers (8-534, 5-436, 19-534) are for undergraduates. Most seats open to students in any department are available in 17-334 and 17-734. Remote sections are available for students in Qatar and Africa, Privacy Engineering part-time students, and other remote students with permission of the instructor.
Spring 2026 (Lorrie Cranor and Yuvraj Agarwal)
Spring 2025 (Lorrie Cranor and Yuvraj Agarwal)
Spring 2024 (Lorrie Cranor and Yuvraj Agarwal)
Spring 2016 (Lujo Bauer and Nicolas Christin)
Spring 2015 (Lorrie Cranor and Blase Ur)
Spring 2014 (Lorrie Cranor and Blase Ur)