Winter 2027
Prototype evaluation to help companies detect forged search warrants
Instructors:
- Alisha Ukani, Information School Postdoctoral Scholar
- Franziska Roesner, Allen School Professor and HCDE Adjunct Professor
Tech companies like Google and Apple are required by US law to hand over user data to the US government to aid criminal investigations. However, criminals are starting to create fake search warrants and impersonate law enforcement in order to steal user data, often for stalking or doxxing (example 1, example 2, example 3).
We have developed a prototype, WarrInt, that helps companies detect when the search warrants they receive are forged. Now, we want to work with the legal analysts at tech companies to answer two research questions:
- RQ1: how (effectively) do legal analysts currently evaluate the legitimacy of the search warrants they receive?
- RQ2: how can WarrInt be redesigned to best aid legal analysts in evaluating the legitimacy of the search warrants they receive?
We are looking for students with some background in conducting user studies to help conduct interviews with legal analysts to answer these research questions and to help improve the prototype based on our findings.
We hope this DRG will lead to two broader outcomes. First, we hope to submit a research paper based on these user studies with the DRG participants as authors. Second, this work will also help our goal of eventually deploying WarrInt in courts and companies to help prevent more attacks using forged search warrants. Interested students can continue to participate in this research in spring quarter.
Enrollment information
- Meeting time: This DRG will include a weekly meeting, with the meeting time determined based on student availability and finalized by December 18, 2026. We expect students will spend 4-6 hours per week outside of meetings on average, but this load may be variable depending on the availability of legal analyst participants.
- Credits: 2
- Who should apply: We are seeking applicants from any degree program with experience in conducting user study interviews. Experience in UX research and/or prototype engineering is also encouraged but not required.
- This DRG does meet the PhD research requirement.
- To apply: Complete this Google form.
- Application deadline: December 7, 2026
- Anticipated notification date: December 14
- Questions? Contact Alisha Ukani (aukani@uw.edu) and Franzi Roesner (franzi@cs.washington.edu)