More than Usability - Differential Access to Digital Security and Privacy

Explore how sociodemographic factors create unequal access to digital security and privacy protections in this 11-minute conference presentation from SOUPS 2025. Examine research conducted by Annalina Buckmann, Jan Magnus Nold, Yasemin Acar, and Yixin Zou that analyzes interview data from 47 participants with diverse backgrounds in age, gender, education, income, disability status, and expertise. Learn how the Security and Privacy Acceptance Framework (SPAF) was applied to understand the persistent gap between expert security recommendations and actual user behavior. Discover seven newly identified underlying factors that influence security and privacy awareness beyond the traditional SPAF model, including how personal threat experiences and independent research contribute to user awareness. Understand four key barriers that prevent effective security adoption, such as limited social support systems. Gain insights into the concept of "differential access" - a framework showing how users' social and relational positions within society, along with their access to resources, fundamentally determine their ability to protect themselves digitally, with significant variations across different sociodemographic groups.