Affiliate Position

  • Faculty, Center for an Informed Public

Specialization

  • Computer security and privacy for end users of existing and emerging technologies

Biography

Franziska (Franzi) Roesner is an associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where she co-directs the Security and Privacy Research Lab. Her research focuses on computer security and privacy for end users of existing and emerging technologies. She is the recipient of an MIT Technology Review "Innovators Under 35" Award, an Emerging Leader Alumni Award from the University of Texas at Austin, a Google Security and Privacy Research Award, and an NSF CAREER Award. She received her PhD from the University of Washington in 2014 and her BS from UT Austin in 2008.

Education

  • Ph D, University of Washington, 2014
  • MS, University of Washington, 2011
  • BS, Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
  • BA, Plan II Honors Prgram, University of Texas at Austin, 2008

Awards

  • Emerging Leader Award - UT Austin College of Natural Sciences, 2017
  • Google Security and Privacy Research Award - Google, 2017
  • MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35, 2017
  • NSF CAREER Award - National Science Foundation, 2017
  • William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award, 2014
  • IEEE Security & Privacy Best Practical Paper Award, 2012

Publications and Contributions

  • Conference Paper
    Principles Matter: Integrating an Ethics Intervention into a Computer Security Course (2022)
    Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), pp. 474-480 Authors: Justin Petelka, Megan Finn, Katie Shilton, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Interactions with Potential Mis/Disinformation URLs Among U.S. Users on Facebook, 2017-2019 (2021)
    FOCI '21: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet Authors: Franzi Roesner, Theo Gregersen, Aydan Bailey
  • Newspaper
    Know the facts: Do social media covid-19 banners help? (2020)
    Medium Authors: C. Geeng, Franzi Roesner, Jevin West
  • White Paper
  • Conference Paper
    Analysis of the Susceptibility of Smart Home Programming Interfaces to End User Error (2019)
    IEEE Workshop on the Internet of Safe Things (SafeThings)(SafeThings’ 19). ACM, New York, NY, USA Authors: Mitali Palekar, Earlence Fernandes, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Computer Security and Privacy in the Interactions Between Victim Service Providers and Human Trafficking Survivors (2019)
    Proceedings of the 28th USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 89--104 Authors: Christine Chen, Nicola Dell, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Proceeding
    Consumer Smart Homes: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go (2019)
    Proceedings of the 20th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pp. 117--122 Authors: Shrirang Mare, Logan Girvin, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Defending Against Neural Fake News (2019)
    arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.12616 Authors: Rowan Zellers, Ari Holtzman, Hannah Rashkin, Yonatan Bisk, Ali Farhadi, Franzi Roesner, Yejin Choi
  • Conference Paper
    Enabling Multiple Applications to Simultaneously Augment Reality: Challenges and Directions (2019)
    Proceedings of the 20th Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile) Author: Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Secure Multi-User Content Sharing for Augmented Reality Applications (2019)
    Proceedings of the 28th USENIX Security Symposium, pp. 141--158 Authors: Kimberly Ruth, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Who's In Control?: Interactions In Multi-User Smart Homes (2019)
    Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 268 Authors: Christine Geeng, Franzi Roesner
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Arya: Operating system support for securely augmenting reality (2018)
    IEEE Security & Privacy, 16(1), pp. 44--53 Authors: Kiron Lebeck, Kimberly Ruth, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Challenges and New Directions in Augmented Reality, Computer Security, and Neuroscience--Part 1: Risks to Sensation and Perception (2018)
    arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.10557 Authors: Stefano Baldassi, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner, Moqian Tian
  • Conference Proceeding
    Computer Security and Privacy for Refugees in the United States (2018)
    2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 409--423 Authors: Lucy Simko, Ada Lerner, Samia Ibtasam, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Computer security for data collection technologies (2018)
    Development engineering, 3(Unknown Issue), pp. 1--11 Authors: Camille Cobb, Samuel Sudar, Nicholas Reiter, Richard Anderson, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Conference Proceeding
    Towards security and privacy for multi-user augmented reality: Foundations with end users (2018)
    2018 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 392--408 Authors: Kiron Lebeck, Kimberly Ruth, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Proceeding
    Confidante: Usable encrypted email: A case study with lawyers and journalists (2017)
    2017 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS\&P), pp. 385--400 Authors: Ada Lerner, Eric Zeng, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Proceeding
    Creative and Set in Their Ways: Challenges of Security Sensemaking in Newsrooms (2017)
    7th $\{$USENIX$\}$ Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet ($\{$FOCI$\}$ 17) Authors: Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Franzi Roesner, Kelly Caine, Susan McGregor
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Designing Application Permission Models that Meet User Expectations (2017)
    IEEE Security \& Privacy, 15(1), pp. 75--79 Author: Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    End user security and privacy concerns with smart homes (2017)
    Thirteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2017), pp. 65--80 Authors: Eric Zeng, Shrirang Mare, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Exploring ADINT: Using ad targeting for surveillance on a budget-or-how Alice can buy ads to track Bob (2017)
    Proceedings of the 2017 on Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society, pp. 153--164 Authors: Paul Vines, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Conference Paper
    Rewriting history: Changing the archived web from the present (2017)
    Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 1741--1755 Authors: Ada Lerner, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Securing augmented reality output (2017)
    2017 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), pp. 320--337 Authors: Kiron Lebeck, Kimberly Ruth, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Securing vulnerable home IoT devices with an in-hub security manager (2017)
    2017 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops), pp. 551--556 Authors: Anna Kornfeld Simpson, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Conference Paper
    Toys that listen: A study of parents, children, and internet-connected toys (2017)
    Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 5197--5207 Authors: Emily McReynolds, Sarah Hubbard, Timothy Lau, Aditya Saraf, Maya Cakmak, Franzi Roesner
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Understanding and Designing for End Users' Security Expectations (2017)
    Author: Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    When the weakest link is strong: Secure collaboration in the case of the Panama Papers (2017)
    26th Security Symposium (Security 17), pp. 505--522 Authors: Susan E McGregor, Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Kelly Caine, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Audacious: User-driven access control with unmodified operating systems (2016)
    Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 204--216 Authors: Talia Ringer, Dan Grossman, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Computer security and privacy: where human factors meet engineering (2016)
    Frontiers of Engineering: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2015 Symposium Author: Franzi Roesner
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Excavating Web Trackers Using Web Archaeology (2016)
    ; login:, 41(4) Authors: Adam Lerner, Anna Kornfeld Simpson, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Proceeding
    How to safely augment reality: Challenges and directions (2016)
    Proceedings of the 17th International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, pp. 45--50 Authors: Kiron Lebeck, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    Individual versus organizational computer security and privacy concerns in journalism (2016)
    Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2016(4), pp. 418--435 Authors: Susan E McGregor, Franzi Roesner, Kelly Caine
  • Conference Proceeding
    Internet Jones and the raiders of the lost trackers (2016)
    An archaeological study of web tracking from 1996 to 2016 Authors: Adam Lerner, Anna Kornfeld Simpson, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Proceeding
    Let's Talk Money: Evaluating the Security Challenges of Mobile Money in the Developing World (2016)
    Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development, pp. 4 Authors: Sam Castle, Fahad Pervaiz, Galen Weld, Franzi Roesner, Richard Anderson
  • Managing access by applications to perceptual information (2016)
    Authors: Loris D'antoni, Alan M Dunn, Suman Jana, Tadayoshi Kohno, Benjamin Livshits, David A Molnar, Alexander N Moshchuk, Eyal Ofek, Franzi Roesner, Timothy Scott Saponas, others
  • Conference Paper
    Radiatus: a Shared-Nothing Server-Side Web Architecture (2016)
    Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing, pp. 237--250 Authors: Raymond Cheng, William Scott, Paul Ellenbogen, Jon Howell, Franzi Roesner, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Thomas Anderson
  • Conference Paper
    Sensemaking and Storytelling: Network Security Strategies for Collaborative Groups (2016)
    2016 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), pp. 622--623 Authors: Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Franzi Roesner, Susan McGregor, Byron Lowens, Kelly Caine, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen
  • Conference Paper
    Analyzing the use of quick response codes in the wild (2015)
    Proceedings of the 13th Annual International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, pp. 359--374 Authors: Adam Lerner, Alisha Saxena, Kirk Ouimet, Ben Turley, Anthony Vance, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Cryptographic currencies from a tech-policy perspective: Policy issues and technical directions (2015)
    International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, pp. 94--111 Authors: Emily McReynolds, Adam Lerner, Will Scott, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Technical Report
    Display leakage and transparent wearable displays: Investigation of risk, root causes, and defenses (2015)
    Authors: Tadayoshi Kohno, Joel Kollin, David Molnar, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Investigating the computer security practices and needs of journalists (2015)
    24th Security Symposium (Security 15), pp. 399--414 Authors: Susan E McGregor, Polina Charters, Tobin Holliday, Franzi Roesner
  • Technical Report
    Rethinking Mobile Money Security for Developing Regions (2015)
    Authors: Kiron Lebeck, Temitope Oluwafemi, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    The privacy-utility tradeoff for remotely teleoperated robots (2015)
    Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, pp. 27--34 Authors: Daniel J Butler, Justin Huang, Franzi Roesner, Maya Cakmak
  • Conference Paper
    Augmented reality: hard problems of law and policy (2014)
    2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp'14): Adjunct Publication, pp. 1283--1288 Authors: Franzi Roesner, Tamara Denning, Bryce Newell, Tadayoshi Kohno, Ryan Calo
  • Conference Paper
    Collaborative verification of information flow for a high-assurance app store (2014)
    Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 1092--1104 Authors: Michael D Ernst, Just, Ren\'e, Suzanne Millstein, Werner Dietl, Stuart Pernsteiner, Franzi Roesner, Karl Koscher, Paulo Barros Barros, Ravi Bhoraskar, Seungyeop Han, others
  • Ph.D. Thesis
    Security and Privacy for Untrusted Applications in Modern and Emerging Client Platforms (2014)
    Author: Franzi Roesner
  • Conference Paper
    Sex, lies, or kittens? investigating the use of snapchat’s self-destructing messages (2014)
    International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, pp. 64--76 Authors: Franzi Roesner, Brian T Gill, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Conference Paper
    World-driven access control for continuous sensing (2014)
    Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 1169--1181 Authors: Franzi Roesner, David Molnar, Alexander Moshchuk, Tadayoshi Kohno, Helen J Wang
  • Conference Paper
    Operating system support for augmented reality applications (2013)
    Presented as part of the 14th Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems Authors: Loris D'Antoni, Alan Dunn, Suman Jana, Tadayoshi Kohno, Benjamin Livshits, David Molnar, Alexander Moshchuk, Eyal Ofek, Franzi Roesner, Scott Saponas, others
  • Conference Paper
    Securing embedded user interfaces: Android and beyond (2013)
    Presented as part of the 22nd $\{$USENIX$\}$ Security Symposium ($\{$USENIX$\}$ Security 13), pp. 97--112 Authors: Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Magazine/Trade Publication
    Balancing privacy and functionality of third-party social widgets (2012)
    USENIX Magazine Authors: Franzi Roesner, CHRISTOPHER Rovillos, Tadayoshi Kohno, DAVID Wetherall
  • Conference Paper
    Detecting and defending against third-party tracking on the web (2012)
    Proceedings of the 9th USENIX conference on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, pp. 12--12 Authors: Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno, David Wetherall
  • Magazine/Trade Publication
    Sharemenot: Balancing privacy and functionality of third-party social widgets (2012)
    Usenix; login Authors: Franzi Roesner, Christopher Rovillos, Tadayoshi Kohno, David Wetherall
  • Conference Paper
    User interface toolkit mechanisms for securing interface elements (2012)
    Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, pp. 239--250 Authors: Franzi Roesner, James A. Fogarty, Tadayoshi Kohno
  • Conference Paper
    Comprehensive experimental analyses of automotive attack surfaces. (2011)
    USENIX Security Symposium, 4(Unknown Issue), pp. 447--462 Authors: Stephen Checkoway, Damon McCoy, Brian Kantor, Danny Anderson, Hovav Shacham, Stefan Savage, Karl Koscher, Alexei Czeskis, Franzi Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno, others

Presentations

  • Online Tracking and Targeting (2019)
    MisinfoDay - Seattle, WA
  • Privacy Risks from the Targeted Advertising Ecosystem: Web Trackers, Ad Networks, and Ad Purchasers. (2018)
    Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro 2018) - San Francisco, CA
  • Security in IoT (2018)
    GeekWire Summit - Seattle, WA