"Create an environment that protects women, rather than selling anxiety!": Participatory Threat Modeling with Chinese Young Women Living Alone

2026-02-09

AI Summary

This study addresses the intersecting challenges of digital privacy, cybersecurity, and physical safety faced by young women living alone in China, where existing technological solutions often exacerbate anxiety rather than mitigate risk. For the first time, Participatory Threat Modeling (PTM) was applied to this demographic through six workshops involving 33 participants, integrating qualitative interviews with human-centered security design. The research uncovers systemic linkages among digitally enabled violence, harassment, fraud, and multi-party surveillance, and identifies four categories of coping strategies along with their associated secondary risks. The project yields a user-oriented guide on digital privacy, security, and personal safety, and offers actionable, cross-sectoral recommendations for smart device design, platform governance, legal frameworks, and educational interventions.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Privacy & Security
• Application Domains: Security
• Computer Vision: Bias, Fairness & Privacy

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User privacy protection in personalized systems
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

As more young women in China live alone, they navigate entangled privacy, security, and safety (PSS) risks across smart homes, online platforms, and public infrastructures. Drawing on six participatory threat modeling (PTM) workshops (n = 33), we present a human-centered threat model that illustrates how digitally facilitated physical violence, digital harassment and scams, and pervasive surveillance by individuals, companies, and the state are interconnected and mutually reinforcing. We also document four mitigation strategies employed by participants: smart home device configurations, boundary management, sociocultural practices, and social media tactics--each of which can introduce new vulnerabilities and emotional burdens. Based on these insights, we developed a digital PSS guidebook for young women living alone (YWLA) in China. We further propose actionable design implications for smart home devices and social media platforms, along with policy and legal recommendations and directions for educational interventions.

Problem

• privacy
• security
• safety
• threat modeling
• young women living alone

Innovation

• Participatory Threat Modeling
• Privacy-Security-Safety (PSS)
• Smart Home Security
• Digital Harassment
• Human-Centered Design