About
I am a tenure track assistant professor at the University of Alabama. Previously, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Irvine, working closely with Prof. Athina Markopoulou's group and the ProperData Center. I completed a PhD in Computer Science in 2023, advised by Prof. Yuan Tian.
My research interests broadly include Security and Privacy, Human-centered Computing, and Emerging Technologies, with applications to smart systems (AI/ML) and public policy (law & policy). Specifically, my work focuses on usable security and privacy for emerging technologies (e.g., IoT, AI, XR) and the implications of technology and policy. The overarching goal is to bridge the gaps between computing applications’ behaviors and user perceptions/preferences as well as inform secure and privacy-respecting designs for future smart systems.
News
- 08/15/2025: New paper accepted to ACM IMC 2025.
- 04/14/2025: Tu is joining the University of Alabama as their new tenure track professor in Fall 2025.
- 03/25/2025: Poster reviewer for IEEE S&P 2025.
- 03/04/2025: New paper accepted to PETS 2025.
- 10/09/2024: TPC member (Security Usability and Measurement track) for CCS 2025.
- 08/14/2024: TPC member (Systems track) for WWW 2025.
Recent Publications
For a full list of publications, please view my Google Scholar page.
When Kids Mode Isn't For Kids: Investigating TikTok's "Under 13 Experience"
2025O. Figueira, P. Chamarthi, T. Le, A. Markopoulou
Under review.VBIT: Towards Enhancing Privacy Control Over IoT Devices
2025J. Al Aaraj, O. Figueira, T. Le, I. Figueira, R. Trimananda, A. Markopoulou
Under review.From Voice to Ads: Auditing Commercial Smart Speakers for Targeted Advertising based on Voice Characteristics
Madison, Wisconsin, USA, October 2025T. Le, L. Baldesi, A. Markopoulou, C. Butts, Z. Shafiq
ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC)"Free WiFi is not ultimately free": Privacy Perceptions of Users in the US regarding City-wide WiFi Services
Washington DC, USA, July 2025P. Mandal, T. Le, A. Ami, Y. Tian, A. Nadkarni
Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS)Alexa, is the skill always safe? Uncover Lenient Skill Vetting Process and Protect User Privacy at Run Time
Lisbon, Portugal, May 2024T. Le, D. Zhao, Z. Wang, X. Wang, Y. Tian
International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)Towards Real-time Voice Interaction Data Collection Monitoring and Ambient Light Privacy Notification for Voice-controlled Services
San Diego, CA, USA, February 2024T. Le, Z. Wang, D. Huang, Y. Yao, Y. Tian
Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC)Exploring Smart Commercial Building Occupants' Perceptions and Notification Preferences of IoT Data Collection
Delft, Netherlands, July 2023T. Le, A. Wang, Y. Yao, Y. Feng, A. Heydarian, N. Sadeh, Y. Tian
IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P)Towards Usable Parental Control for Voice Assistants
San Antonio, TX, USA, May 2023P. Yang, J. Fan, Z. Wei, H. Li, T. Le, Y. Tian
Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things Week (CPS-IoT)SkillBot: Identifying Risky Content for Children in Alexa Skills
July 2022T. Le, D. Huang, N. Apthorpe, Y. Tian
ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT)Intent Classification and Slot Filling for Privacy Policies
Bangkok, Thailand, August 2021W. Ahmad, J. Chi, T. Le, T. Norton, Y. Tian, KW. Chang
Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)Students
PhD Students
- Kofi Ampomah
- Ismat Jarin (UC Irvine)
- Olivia Figueira (UC Irvine)
- Jad Al Aaraj (UC Irvine)
Master's Students
TBAUndergraduate Students
TBATeaching
- CS 691: Human-Centered Security and Privacy (Spring 2026)
- This course is a graduate-level elective course.
- The goals of this course are: (1) to learn about topics at the intersection of security/privacy and HCI; (2) to learn how to design and conduct experiments to study usability and human factors in security/privacy.