ABSURD is a regional event for the Boston area to meet and discuss recent work in Usable Security and Privacy, broadly construed. We hope that this can be a venue for everyone to meet, hear more about each others’ work, and potentially develop fruitful collaborations. The ABSURD schedule consists of both research talks and networking events.

The ABSURD 2026 will be held February 27th-28th at Tufts University.

Registration

To register for the event, please fill out the following form. There is no cost to attend.

Schedule

February 27th, 2026

  • 12:00-12:30pm: Lunch (provided)

  • 12:30-12:40pm: Welcome and Introductions

  • 12:40-1:40pm: Session 1 - On Privacy (Session Chair: Daniel Votipka)
    • Disclose with Care: Designing Privacy Controls in Interview Chatbots
    • Expecting Targeted Advertisements? Characterizing Private Data Leakage in Fertility Tracking Apps
      • Yeeun Jo; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Privacy and Security Education in Low-Income School Districts
    • Exploring the Decision-Making of Youth on the Internet through Interactive Storytelling

  • 1:40-1:55pm: Break

  • 1:55-2:40pm: Session 2 - Policy, Policies, and Cryptographers (Session Chair: Tianshi Li)

  • 2:40-2:50pm: Break

  • 2:50-3:50pm: Session 3 - Online Harms (Session Chair: Diana Freed)

  • 3:50-4:15pm: Break

  • 4:15-5:00pm: Session 4 - Evaluating Privacy and Security (Session Chair: Kelly Wang)
    • Autonomy Matters: A Study on Personalization-Privacy Dilemma in LLM Agents
    • Do We Trust the Copilot: An Empirical Investigation of Developers’ Usage and Perceptions of AI-generated Code
    • Characterizing the Efficacy of Industry Cybersecurity Self-Assessments

  • 5:00-5:15pm: Closing Remarks

    • 5:15-6:00pm Posters and Reception

February 28th, 2026

  • 10:00a-12:00pm: Research Preparation Workshop (details below)

  • 12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch (provided)

  • 1:00p-3:00pm: Continue Research Preparation Workshop

  • 3:00-3:15pm: Closing Remarks

Posters

ABSURD Ideas Workshop

This year we are extending ABUSRD to a two-day event and experimenting with an idea that was proposed during last year's community town hall, i.e., a research preparation workshop. The idea is that you can bring your study ideas to the second day of the event and receive feedback from other members on the community to help you identify challenges you might not have expected or alternative approaches which could strengthen your work. We have developed a strong community of usable security researchers in the Boston area and this seems like a great way to serve each other and get to know each others' work more deeply. We will share more details regarding how this will be organized as we get closer to ABSURD.

Location

All the main events will take place at Tufts University in room 160 of the Joyce Cummings Center (JCC). We are still finalizing details for the reception, which may take place in another nearby location.

Directions and other information

Transportation information is available here, including information for driving/parking and transit. If you are coming from downtown Boston, the easiest way to get to Tufts is via the Green Line E branch. The Tufts/Medford stop is next to the JCC

Visitor parking information for Tufts is available here. The daily rate is $20.

Virtual attendees

Zoom information will be sent to attendees who register for virtual participation a week ahead of the event

Prior Events

Spring 2025

Spring 2024

Beyond ABSURD

Looking for more ways to engage with other usable security researchers in the Boston area beyond the research day? Check out our other Beyond ABSURD activities we run throughout the year.

Organizing Committee

Daniel Voitpka, Tufts University, daniel.votipka@tufts.edu

Diana Freed, Brown University, Diana_Freed@Brown.edu

Tianshi Li, Northeastern University, tia.li@northeastern.edu

Sponsors

We wish to thank the Tufts Cybersecurity Center for the Public Good, Tufts University Department of Computer Science, the Brown University Computer Science Department, and the Brown University Data Science Institute for their support to make this event happen.