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Dr William Seymour

I conduct interdisciplinary work at the intersection of security, privacy, HCI, ethics, and law using a combination of computational and social science research methods. My work explores people’s concerns about using AI systems, what values those systems should embody, and how they can better meet the needs of the people who use them. Over the course of my research I've worked with a wide range of public sector and industry partners including Microsoft, BRE Group, and the Information Commissioner’s Office.

EXPERIENCE

  • September 2023 –

    Lecturer in Cybersecurity, King's College London

  • 2021 – 2023

    Research Associate, King's College London

  • 2016 – 2020

    DPhil in Computer Science, University of Oxford

  • 2012 – 2016

    MEng in Computer Science, University of Warwick

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Online Privacy and Security
  • AI Ethics
  • AI Assistants
  • Smart Homes

AWARDS

  • KCL Recognition Award, 21/22 & 22/23
  • Best Short Paper, CUI 2022
  • Winner, 2019 CHI Student Research Competition

PROJECTS

A picture of an Amazon Alexa

2021 – 2023

Secure AI Assistants (SAIS)
A cross-disciplinary collaboration providing an understanding of potential attacks on the AI assistant ecosystem, methods to specify & verify security behaviour, and the generation of co-created privacy/security explanations for AIS behaviour.
FOSH project logo

2019 – 2020

Informing the Future of Data Protection by Design and by Default in Smart Homes (FOSH)
The introduction of the GDPR in Europe changed the design landscape for smart devices, requiring new design techniques to ensure that devices are able to adequately protect users' data. This project informed the future of data protection by design and by default in smart homes through a combination of ethnography and speculative design.
ReTiPS project logo

2018 – 2020

Respectful Things in Private Spaces (ReTiPS)
Respectul Things in Private Spaces was a research project under the umbrella of PETRAS which examined the privacy needs of highly private spaces within people’s homes to inform how smart home IoT devices might be re-designed for them.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

[All Publications]
  1. Legal Obligation and Ethical Best Practice: Towards Meaningful Verbal Consent for Voice Assistants
    Seymour, William, Cote, Mark, and Such, Jose
    In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–16, 2023
  2. Ignorance is Bliss? The Effect of Explanations on Perceptions of Voice Assistants
    Seymour, William, and Such, Jose
    Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., vol. 7, Apr, 2023
  3. Can You Meaningfully Consent in Eight Seconds? Identifying Ethical Issues with Verbal Consent for Voice Assistants
    Seymour, William, Cote, Mark, and Such, Jose
    In Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Conversational User Interfaces, 2022