@article{66638,
  abstract     = {{Smart cities promise safer streets, smoother traffic, and more efficient services, enabled by dense networks of urban sensors. Yet this infrastructure, often unnoticed by citizens, introduces pervasive privacy risks, from tracking, profiling, and sensitive inferences to subtle forms of self-censorship. Despite widespread deployment, little is known about how the public understands and perceives these sensing systems. To address this gap, we present an intervention based user study (n = 172) in which participants are exposed to data collection by six urban sensors, including cameras and alternative technologies commonly framed as privacy-preserving. Participants encounter either the sensors alone or sensors accompanied by real-time data visualizations. Our results reveal widespread misunderstanding of some sensors (radar, LiDAR, Wi-Fi, depth, and thermal imaging sensors), particularly their capacity for identification and for attribute inferences such as gender or age. We also identify persistent misconceptions, including the belief that Wi-Fi poses privacy risks only when users connect to public networks. While making sensors visible and visualizing collected data improves privacy awareness, these measures alone are not enough for citizens to understand the actual risks of urban sensing. We derive recommendations for privacy-respecting smart city environments grounded in citizens’ informational needs and expectations.}},
  author       = {{Todt, Julian and Kablo, Emiram and Morsbach, Felix and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia and Strufe, Thorsten}},
  issn         = {{2299-0984}},
  journal      = {{Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{7--35}},
  publisher    = {{Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium Advisory Board}},
  title        = {{{“The city isn’t uploading me to TikTok”: Exploring Privacy Attitudes towards Data Collection in Urban Public Spaces}}},
  doi          = {{10.56553/popets-2026-0108}},
  volume       = {{2026}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}

@inproceedings{65493,
  author       = {{Kablo, Emiram and Sharafi, Avishan and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}},
  publisher    = {{ACM}},
  title        = {{{"I store some passwords in WhatsApp": Understanding User Experiences and Usability Challenges of Password Managers in Virtual Reality}}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3772363.3798346}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}

@inproceedings{61144,
  author       = {{Kablo, Emiram and Kleber, Melina and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia}},
  booktitle    = {{34th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 25)}},
  pages        = {{1531–1548}},
  title        = {{{PrivaCI in VR: Exploring Perceptions and Acceptability of Data Sharing in Virtual Reality Through Contextual Integrity}}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

@inproceedings{54291,
  author       = {{Kablo, Emiram and Kader, Katharina and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia}},
  booktitle    = {{Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}},
  publisher    = {{ACM}},
  title        = {{{"I'm actually going to go and change these passwords": Analyzing the Usability of Credential Audit Interfaces in Password Managers}}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3613905.3650889}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}

@inproceedings{49373,
  author       = {{Kablo, Emiram and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 2023 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security}},
  publisher    = {{ACM}},
  title        = {{{Privacy in the Age of Neurotechnology: Investigating Public Attitudes towards Brain Data Collection and Use}}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3576915.3623164}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}

@inproceedings{48060,
  author       = {{Röse, Markus and Kablo, Emiram and Arias Cabarcos, Patricia}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 2023 European Symposium on Usable Security}},
  publisher    = {{ACM}},
  title        = {{{Overcoming Theory: Designing Brainwave Authentication for the Real World}}},
  doi          = {{10.1145/3617072.3617120}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}