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SUMMARY:Abusability of Automation Apps in Intimate Partner Violence - Shir
 ley Zhang\, University of Wisconsin-Madison
DTSTART:20260210T140000Z
DTEND:20260210T150000Z
UID:TALK243715@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alexandre Pauwels
DESCRIPTION:Recording link: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/sem
 inars/archive/video/2026-02-10-t243715.html\n\nAutomation apps such as iOS
  Shortcuts and Android Tasker enable users to "program" new functionalitie
 s\, also called recipes\, on their smartphones. For example\, users can cr
 eate recipes to set the phone to silent mode once they arrive at their off
 ice or save a note when an email is received from a particular sender. The
 se automation apps provide convenience and can help improve productivity. 
 However\, these automation apps can also provide new avenues for abuse\, p
 articularly in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). This paper 
 systematically explores the potential of automation apps to be used for su
 rveillance and harassment in IPV scenarios. We analyze four popular automa
 tion apps—iOS Shortcuts\, Samsung Modes & Routines\, Tasker\, and IFTTT
 —evaluating their capabilities to facilitate surveillance and harassment
 . Our study reveals that these tools can be exploited by abusers today to 
 monitor\, impersonate\, overload\, and control their victims. The current 
 notification and logging mechanisms implemented in these automation apps a
 re insufficient to warn the victim about the abuse or to help them identif
 y the root cause and stop it. We therefore built a detection mechanism to 
 identify potentially malicious Shortcuts recipes and tested it on 12\,962 
 publicly available Shortcuts recipes. We found 1\,014 recipes that can be 
 used to surveil and harass others. We then discuss how users and platforms
  mitigate such abuse potential of automation apps. 
LOCATION:Webinar &amp\; FW11\, Computer Laboratory\, William Gates Buildin
 g.
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