Digital Safety and Security for Survivors of Interpersonal Abuse
We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers at Cornell Tech studying how to improve digital safety and security for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Our work combines foundational research with community engagement to ensure technology empowers those working to end IPV and related social ills.
We also run the Clinic to End Tech Abuse (CETA) and offer free resources for IPV survivors in New York City.
Group members
Current members
Tom Ristenpart, Nicki Dell, Rosanna Bellini, Emily Tseng, Alaa Daffalla, Arkaprabha Bhattacharya
Alumni
Lana Ramjit, Sophie Stephenson, Mehrnaz Sabet, Yixin Zou, Allison McDonald, Julio Poveda, Diana Freed, Janet Chen, Sam Havron, Rahul Chatterjee, Damon McCoy, Peri Doerfler, Karen Levy
Academic Publications
Alaa Daffalla, Arkaprabha Bhattacharya, Jacob Wilder, Rahul Chatterjee, Nicola Dell, Rosanna Bellini, Thomas Ristenpart.
Passkeys in Interpersonal Threat Models: Abusability Analysis of Early Deployments.
USENIX Security Symposium. To appear.
Emily Tseng, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
Mitigating Trauma in Qualitative Research Infrastructure: Roles for Machine Assistance and Trauma-Informed Design.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW). To appear.
Rosanna Bellini
Abusive Partner Perspectives on Technology Abuse: Implications for Community-based Violence Prevention (pre-print)
ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Issue CSCW. 2024.
Emily Tseng, Rosanna Bellini, Yuek Lee Yu, Lana Ramjit, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
Data Stewardship in Clinical Computer Security: Balancing Benefit and Burden in Participatory Systems. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Issue CSCW. 2024.
Arkaprabha Bhattachara, Kevin Lee, Vineeth Ravi, Jessica Staddon, and Rosanna Bellini.
Shortchanged: Uncovering and Analyzing Intimate Partner Financial Abuse in Consumer Complaints.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2024.
Rosanna Bellini, Emily Tseng, Noel Warford, Alaa Daffalla, Tara Matthews, Sunny Consolvo, Jill Woelfer, Patrick Gage Kelley, Michelle Mazurek, Dana Cuomo, Nicola Dell, and Thomas Ristenpart.
SoK: Safer Digital-Safety Research Involving At-Risk Users
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland). 2024.
Alaa Daffalla, Marina Bohuk, Nicola Dell, Rosanna Bellini, and Thomas Ristenpart.
Account Security Interfaces: Important, Unintuitive, and Untrustworthy.
In USENIX’23 Security Symposium, 2023
Distinguished Paper Award
Rosanna Bellini, Kevin Lee, Megan A Brown, Jeremy Shaffer, Rasika Bhalerao, and Thomas Ristenpart.
The Digital-Safety Risks of Financial Technologies for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.
USENIX Security Symposium. 2023.
Rosanna Bellini.
Paying the Price: When Intimate Partners Use Technology for Financial Harm
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2023.
Best Paper Award
Enze Liu, Sumanth Rao, Sam Havron, Grant Ho, Stefan Savage, Geoffrey M. Voelker, Damon McCoy
No Privacy Among Spies: Assessing the Functionality and Insecurity of Consumer Android Spyware Apps
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PoPETS). 2023.
Janet X. Chen, Allison McDonald, Yixin Zou, Emily Tseng, Kevin A Roundy, Acar Tamersoy, Florian Schaub, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
Trauma-Informed Computing: Towards Safer Technology Experiences for All.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2022.
Emily Tseng, Mehrnaz Sabet, Rosanna Bellini, Harkiran Kaur Sodhi, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
Care Infrastructures for Digital Security in Intimate Partner Violence.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2022.
Best Paper Award
Media coverage: Cornell Chronicle
Yixin Zou, Allison McDonald, Julia Narakornpichit, Nicola Dell, Thomas Ristenpart, Kevin Roundy, Florian Schaub, and Acar Tamersoy.
The Role of Computer Security Customer Support in Helping Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.
USENIX Security Symposium. 2021.
Emily Tseng, Diana Freed, Kristen Engel, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). 2021
Rosanna Bellini, Emily Tseng, Nora McDonald, Rachel Greenstadt, Damon McCoy, Thomas Ristenpart, & Nicola Dell.
"So-called privacy breeds evil": Narrative Justifications for Intimate Partner Surveillance in Online Forums.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Issue CSCW. 2020
Best Paper Award
Media coverage: Input Magazine
Emily Tseng, Rosanna Bellini, Nora McDonald, Matan Danos, Rachel Greenstadt, Damon McCoy, Nicola Dell, and Thomas Ristenpart.
The Tools and Tactics Used in Intimate Partner Surveillance: An Analysis of Online Infidelity Forums.
29th USENIX Security Symposium. 2020
Distinguished Paper Award; Internet Defense Prize (third place)
Kevin Roundy, Paula Mendelberg, Nicola Dell, Damon McCoy, Daniel Nissani, Thomas Ristenpart, and Acar Tamersoy.
The Many Kinds of Creepware Used for Interpersonal Attacks.
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland 2020).
Diana Freed, Sam Havron, Emily Tseng, Andrea Gallardo, Rahul Chatterjee, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
"Is my phone hacked?" Analyzing Clinical Computer Security Interventions with Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Vol. 3 Issue CSCW. 2019.
Best Paper Honorable Mention Award
Sam Havron, Diana Freed, Rahul Chatterjee, Damon McCoy, Nicola Dell, and Thomas Ristenpart.
Clinical Computer Security for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence.
USENIX Security Symposium (Security 2019). pdf. presentation (video).
Media coverage: MIT Technology Review, Cornell Chronicle.
Rahul Chatterjee, Periwinkle Doerfler, Hadas Orgad, Sam Havron, Jackeline Palmer, Diana Freed, Karen Levy, Nicola Dell, Damon McCoy, and Thomas Ristenpart.
The Spyware Used in Intimate Partner Violence.
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland 2018). pdf. presentation (video).
Media coverage: The New York Times, Vox, Freedom to Tinker (Princeton CITP).
Diana Freed, Jackeline Palmer, Diana Minchala, Karen Levy, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
"A Stalker’s Paradise": How Intimate Partner Abusers Exploit Technology.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018). pdf.
Best Paper Award
Diana Freed, Jackeline Palmer, Diana Minchala, Karen Levy, Thomas Ristenpart, and Nicola Dell.
Digital Technologies and Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Analysis with Multiple Stakeholders.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Volume 1 Issue CSCW, November 2017. Article. 46. pdf.
Selected Press
CETA co-founder Nicola Dell named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow - MacArthur Foundation
Wireless lobby tangles future of domestic violence bill - Axios
US lawsuit takes aim at ‘weapon of choice’ for stalkers - Al Jazeera
Unwanted Connection: Who Has Control of Your Smart Home? - The New York Times
How to spot the software that could be spying on you - The BBC
A bill aims to stop abusers stalking ex-partners - The Guardian
Hundreds of apps can empower stalkers to track their victims - The New York Times
NYC has hired hackers to hit back at stalkerware - MIT Technology Review
The simple way Apple and Google let domestic abusers stalk victims - WIRED
How 'stalkerware' apps are letting abusive partners spy on their victims - MIT Technology Review
Tech can impact domestic violence — not always in a positive way - Smart Cities Dive
Hacker Eva Galperin has a plan to eradicate stalkerware - WIRED
How a mobile spyware scan helps free abuse victims - GCN
How domestic abusers use smartphones to spy on their partners - Vox
No safe haven for victims of digital abuse - Slate
Kaspersky lab will now alert users to 'stalkerware' used in domestic abuse - Vice
New tools help detect digital domestic abuse - Cornell Chronicle
Apps make it easy for domestic abusers to spy - Cornell Chronicle
How tech is failing victims of intimate partner violence - Freedom to Tinker (Princeton CITP)
Parental monitoring apps: How do they differ from stalkerware? - Malwarebytes Labs