Security & Privacy Boxes

The thesis goal was to investigate the usability of Security & Privacy Boxes. For this purpose, a research question was posed to evaluate the usability of Privacy Boxes in the case that users want to protect themselves against unwanted use of their data as well as intrusions into their privacy.

To answer this research question, the development of an own methodology for the usability investigation of Privacy Boxes was necessary, since no existing methodology could be found or adapted. An evaluation methodology for Privacy Boxes was developed, based on a feature model, a device pre-selection and defined user types.

The methodology, which is based on common analytical evaluation methods and established usability and privacy heuristics, investigates the Out-of-Box Experience and required time during setup as well as usability and usable-privacy during usage of Privacy Boxes. The results show: the evaluation of a Privacy Box’s usability depends on the respective user type.

Finally, usability can be identified as a decision criterion for successful self-data protection with Privacy Boxes, as well as the number of privacy functions supported by the specific device.