Kentrell Owens

Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy

[my first name].[my last name]@mpi-sp.org (PGP key)
Curriculum Vitae

My pronouns are he/him.
Google Scholar
Mastodon: @kentrellowens

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About Me

I'm a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, working with Yixin Zou. I earned my PhD in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington in the Security & Privacy Research Lab, advised by Tadayoshi Kohno and Franziska Roesner. My research area is human-centered computer security & privacy, with a specific focus on underserved or marginalized communities. Through my research, I attempt to do impactful computer security & privacy research that fulfills my sense of curiosity, justice, and hope. My long-term vision is to ensure that technology does not disproportionately harm those with the least power to resist it. I grew up in rural northern Louisiana, and I'm a first-generation college student. I owe the victories in my life to all the investments my friends, family, teachers, and communities have made in me. If you're reading this, you might be one of those people; thank you!

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Updates

April 1, 2026 - I'm happy to announce that my research proposal was recently accepted to the Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection (ConPro '26). I look forward to sharing more details on the work in the future and improving it with the feedback I'll receive at the workshop.

February 19, 2026 - Earlier this week I attended the DSA (Digital Services Act) Platform and Regulation Conference at Amsterdam Law School. I learned a lot about data access for researchers and the potential for Article 40 to enable research studies that were previously not possible. This builds on the knowledge I gained from attending the Data Access Days organized by the DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory in September. I also met lots of great researchers and regulators working in the space. If you are interested in data access for researchers and want to talk more about it, feel free to reach out!

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Publications

2025

• Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology. (formerly titled "The Surveillance AI Pipeline")
  Pratyusha Ria Kalluri*, William Agnew*, Myra Cheng*, Kentrell Owens*, Luca Soldaini*, Abeba Birhane*
  Nature. June 2025.
  * co-first authors
  BibTeX
  Press: Nature.com, 404 Media


• Understanding Experiences with Compulsory Immigration Surveillance in the U.S.
  Kentrell Owens, Yael Eiger, Basia Radka, Tadayoshi Kohno, and Franziska Roesner.
  ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), June 2025.
  BibTeX


• "You Have to Ignore the Dangers": User Perceptions of the Security and Privacy Benefits of WhatsApp Mods. [preprint]
  Collins W. Munyendo*, Kentrell Owens*, Faith Strong, Shaoqi Wang, Adam J. Aviv, Tadayoshi Kohno, and Franziska Roesner.
  46th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P). May 2025.
  BibTeX

2024

• Face the Facts: Using Face Averaging to Visualize Gender-by-Race Bias in Facial Analysis Algorithms.
  Kentrell Owens*, Erin Freiburger*, Ryan Hutchings*, Mattea Sim, Kurt Hugenberg, Franziska Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno.
  7th AAAI Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES). October 2024.
  BibTeX

2022

• Exploring Deceptive Design Patterns in Voice Interfaces. [preprint]
  Kentrell Owens, Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Pardis Emami-Naeini, Tadayoshi Kohno, Franziska Roesner
  European Symposium on Usable Security (EuroUSEC). September 2022.
  BibTeX


• Electronic Monitoring Smartphone Apps: An Analysis of Risks from Technical, Human-Centered, and Legal Perspectives. [preprint]
  Kentrell Owens, Anita Alem, Franziska Roesner, Tadayoshi Kohno
  31st USENIX Security Symposium. August 2022.
  BibTeX
  Press: EFF, NewScientist

2021

• User Perceptions of the Usability and Security of Smartphones as FIDO2 Roaming Authenticators. [preprint]
  Kentrell Owens, Olabode Anise, Amanda Krauss, Blase Ur
  17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). Online, August 2021.
  BibTeX


• "You Gotta Watch What You Say": Surveillance of Communication with Incarcerated People. [pdf, html]
  Kentrell Owens, Camille Cobb, Lorrie Cranor.
  ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Online, May 8–13, 2021.
  [One pager for ACJ]
  BibTeX
  Honorable Mention Award
  

2020

• A Framework For Evaluating the Usability and Security of Smartphones as FIDO2 Roaming Authenticators.
  Kentrell Owens, Blase Ur, Olabode Anise.
  Who Are You?! Adventures in Authentication 2020 Workshop (WAY). Online, August 2020.

2019

• Studying Passwords to Create Domain-Specific Blocklists (Poster). [Extended abstract]
  Kentrell Owens, Mengchen Yong, Neha Sridhar, Ziheng Ni, Joshua Tan, Lorrie Cranor.
  15th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). August 2019.


• pico-Boo: How to avoid scaring students away in a CTF competition.
  Kentrell Owens, Alexander Fulton, Luke Jones, Martin Carlisle.
  Journal of The Colloquium for Information System Security Education (CISSE). June 2019.
  Best Student Paper Award

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Mentoring

I've had the opportunity to work with wonderful undergraduate and masters students in the past, including:

• Basia Radka (University of Washington)
• Shaoqi Wang (University of Washington)
• Faith Strong (Austin College)

Last updated April 2026.