Who Are You? The Trade-Off between Information Utility and Privacy

There's no doubt that personal information can be valuable to companies. People are willing to give up information about themselves not because they're stupid or because they're being tricked by evil corporations, but because it can sometimes be in their best interests to do so. From this perspective, the important questions are how users can provide or limit access to that information, what benefits they might receive in exchange for a bit of information, and how they perceive the value of those benefits.     

Revealing the relationship between rational fatalism and the online privacy paradox

Previous research has revealed the privacy paradox, which suggests that despite concern about their online privacy, people still reveal a large amount of personal information and don’t take measures to protect personal privacy online. Using data from a national-wide survey, this study takes a psychological approach and uses the rational fatalism theory to explain the privacy paradox on the Internet and the social networking sites (SNSs). The rational fatalism theory argues that risks will become rational if the person believes he or she has no control over the outcome. Our results support the rational fatalism view. We found that people with higher levels of fatalistic belief about technologies and business are less likely to protect their privacy on the Internet in general, and the SNS in particular. Moreover, such relationship is stronger among young Internet users compared with older users.     

A bumpy ride on the information superhighway: Exploring turbulence online

Managing our personal information is becoming increasingly complex as people share more and more about themselves and others online. Beyond the ordinary challenges people face in disclosing information in face-to-face settings, the Internet presents additional demands users must take into account related to the size and diversity of their audience as well as the longevity and accessibility of their communication. Using survey data from a diverse group of young adults, this paper explores turbulence online, that is, the breakdown of privacy expectations that result in information spreading beyond a user’s desired audience. More than a third of these young adults reported at least one turbulent encounter online ranging in tangible consequences like ending a friendship or trouble at work or school to emotional trouble like feelings of embarrassment or betrayal. Results suggest that successful privacy management online requires a combination of social and technological skills and behaviors. Findings also bring to light new questions on self- versus other-generated turbulence and broader implications for researchers, designers, and users.     

Privacy and Commercial Use of Personal Data: Policy Developments in the United States

In the online and offline worlds, the value of personal information – especially information about commercial purchases and preferences – has long been recognised. Exchanges and uses of personal information have also long sparked concerns about privacy. Public opinion surveys consistently indicate that overwhelming majorities of the American public are concerned that they have lost all control over information about themselves and do not trust organisations to protect the privacy of their information. Somewhat smaller majorities favour federal legislation to protect privacy. Despite public support for stronger privacy protection, the prevailing policy stance for over thirty years has been one of reluctance to legislate and a preference for self‐regulation by business to protect privacy. Although some privacy legislation has been adopted, policy debates about the commercial uses of personal information have been dominated largely by business concerns about intrusive government regulation, free speech and the flow of commercial information, costs, and effectiveness. Public concerns about privacy, reflected in public opinion surveys and voiced by a number of public interest groups, are often discredited because individuals seem to behave as though privacy is not important. Although people express concern about privacy, they routinely disclose personal information because of convenience, discounts and other incentives, or a lack of understanding of the consequences. This disconnect between public opinion and public behaviour has been interpreted to support a self‐regulatory approach to privacy protections with emphasis on giving individuals notice and choice about information practices. In theory the self‐regulatory approach also entails some enforcement mechanism to ensure that organisations are doing what they claim, and a redress mechanism by which individuals can seek compensation if they are wronged. This article analyses the course of policy formulation over the last twenty years with particular attention on how policymakers and stakeholders have used public opinion about the commercial use of personal information in formulating policy to protect privacy. The article considers policy activities in both Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that have resulted in an emphasis on “notice and consent.” The article concludes that both individual behaviour and organisational behaviour are skewed in a privacy invasive direction. People are less likely to make choices to protect their privacy unless these choices are relatively easy, obvious, and low cost. If a privacy protection choice entails additional steps, most rational people will not take those steps. This appears logically to be true and to be supported by behaviour in the physical world. Organisations are unlikely to act unilaterally to make their practices less privacy invasive because such actions will impose costs on them that are not imposed on their competitors. Overall then, the privacy level available is less than what the norms of society and the stated preferences of people require. A consent scheme that is most protective of privacy imposes the largest burden on the individual, as well as costs to the individual, while a consent scheme that is least protective of privacy imposes the least burden on the individual, as well as fewer costs to the individual. Recent experience with privacy notices that resulted from the financial privacy provisions in Gramm‐Leach‐Bliley supports this conclusion. Finally, the article will consider whether the terrorist attacks of 11 September have changed public opinion about privacy and what the policy implications of any changes in public opinion are likely to be.     

Internet users’ perceptions of ‘privacy concerns’ and ‘privacy actions’

A consistent finding reported in online privacy research is that an overwhelming majority of people are ‘concerned’ about their privacy when they use the Internet. Therefore, it is important to understand the discourse of Internet users’ privacy concerns, and any actions they take to guard against these concerns. A Dynamic Interviewing Programme (DIP) was employed in order to survey users of an instant messaging ICQ (‘I seek you’) client using both closed and open question formats. Analysis of 530 respondents’ data illustrates the importance of establishing users’ privacy concerns and the reasoning behind these concerns. Results indicate that Internet users are concerned about a wider range of privacy issues than surveys have typically covered. The results do not provide final definitions for the areas of online privacy, but provide information that is useful to gain a better understanding of privacy concerns and actions.     

On the path to building a community of programs

The grid project is the next step on the path to the creation of a worldwide artificial mind. For example, the Internet made it possible for people not to care about the place where the information is stored and how it is delivered. The grid allows people not to care about where and which resources are used to execute their programs. The next step will make it possible not to care about what programs are used to perform the desired tasks. It will be sufficient to set a task and programs will find and organize themselves so as to perform it. Even this step will not be the last one. All these features define the process of creating the universal mind from outside, that is, from the viewpoint of users. It is also important to see the internal substance of this process. From the inside, this is the process of creating a global community of programs. In the first decades of software development, the key problem was creating increasingly complicated and clever programs. Beginning in the 1990s, the main problem changed: now, it is to ensure the coexistence and cooperative operation of programs. This is a quite objective process, and it is governed by certain laws of which we mention two. First, the structure of the community of programs and the means of their interaction are largely similar to the structure and means of interaction in human society. Second, the human society becomes increasingly dependent on the community of programs, while the community of programs gradually becomes less dependent on the participation of people in its activity. Some day, the community of programs will become all-sufficient. It is a very important and many-sided question how the relationship between the human society and the community of programs will develop, and we must start studying this problem now.     

How Internet Users' Privacy Concerns Have Evolved since 2002

In 2002, the authors established a baseline for Internet users' online privacy values, finding information transfer, notice/awareness, and information storage were the top online privacy concerns. Since this survey, many privacy-related events have occurred, including changes in online trends and the creation of laws, prompting the authors to rerun the survey in 2008 to examine how these events might have affected users' online privacy concerns. In this article, they discuss the 2008 survey, which revealed that US Internet users' top three privacy concerns didn't change over the course of six years, although their level of concern did. The authors also examine differences in privacy concerns between US and international respondents. The Web extra groups the survey statements according to six dimensions of privacy concerns based on the following classifications—personalization, notice/awareness, information transfer, information collection, information storage, and access/participation.     

Solving the privacy paradox: A counter-argument experimental approach

This study investigates why ordinary online users highly concerned about the misuse of personal information do not adopt privacy-protective behaviors, or even engage in risky behaviors, on the Internet. Given that people have few chances to directly experience privacy infringement and tend to be unfamiliar with technical terms, their opinions as reflected in conventional polls tend to be instantaneous reactions to survey questionnaires, lacking thoughtfulness. By adopting a counterargument experimental technique, this study produced three important findings: (1) people’s opinions about online privacy are swayed after being presented with a message containing a counterargument; (2) this persuasion effect is pronounced among people with a low level of online knowledge or who assess the presented message’s argument as strong; and (3) the privacy paradox is found in conventional polls but disappears in counterargument conditions. These findings imply that opinions concerning online privacy should not be estimated through conventional polling. Rather, alternative polls (e.g., deliberative polls) should be adopted for online privacy policy-making.     

Adolescents' privacy concerns and information disclosure online: The role of parents and the Internet

This study investigated the role of parents and the Internet in adolescents' online privacy concerns and information disclosing behaviors. Specifically, instructive and restrictive parental mediation, adolescents' self-disclosure to parents about their Internet experiences, time spent on the Internet, and participation in online communication activities were examined as factors that may impact adolescents' concerns about online privacy, willingness to disclose personally identifiable information, and actual disclosure of personal information online. A survey conducted in Singapore with 746 adolescents aged 12–18 revealed that instructive parental mediation based on parent-adolescent communication was more effective than restrictive parental mediation based on rule-making and controlling in reducing information disclosure among adolescents. Adolescents' self-disclosure to parents about their Internet experiences was found to be positively associated with their privacy concerns but did not foster privacy protection behaviors. While online chatting had a positive relationship with privacy concerns, excessive use of the Internet and frequent participation in social networking and online gaming resulted in increased information disclosure.     

Is technology meeting the privacy challenge?

Privacy is one of consumers' most important concerns about using the Internet for e-commerce and other purposes. With this in mind, a number of privacy-related technologies are emerging, including improved software that anonymizes user identities, tools that audit a company's privacy policy adherence, and standards. Technology's effect on privacy has caused concern since commercial computing emerged in the 1960s. However, the Internet has caused people to look at this issue again in a new way, and we have seen a lot more technologies that are invasive, as well as technologies that enhance privacy     

物联网位置隐私保护综述

位置信息是物联网感知信息的基本要素之一,也是物联网提供基于位置服务的前提.位置信息在带来服务便利的同时,其泄露也带来诸多威胁.物联网位置隐私保护已成为当前的研究热点之一.综述了物联网位置隐私保护领域现有的工作,阐述了物联网位置隐私保护的目标与挑战,重点介绍物联网在定位过程、基于位置服务以及边信息中的位置隐私泄露方式及对应的位置隐私保护机制,并探讨了物联网位置隐私保护技术未来的发展方向.     

Privacy and/or Security: Take Your Pick

The concepts of privacy and security are distinct, but they're often considered synonymously when applied to computational systems. This article explores the conceptual differences between computational privacy and security and suggests four mutually exclusive models that define four different fundamental approaches to privacy and security during design. It's crucial that developers make a conscious and explicit decision how the two concepts should be approached early during system design.     

Privacy is dead,get over it! 1 Information privacy and the dream of a risk-free society

The use of information and communications technology and the ‘digitalisation’ of everyday tasks has resulted in a paradigm shift where vast amounts of personal information about individuals, their opinions and habits is generated and stored in the databases of those providing online services. The mere existence of those data pools has created ‘unwholesome’ desires in both private and public organisations which cover that data for their own purposes. This article looks at the way in which the ‘market value’ of privacy seems to be falling as individuals are persuaded to disclose information about themselves in order to minimise real or perceived risks. It examines the way in which our perception of risk has changed in recent years and the way in which that perception may be manipulated. It analyses the link between risk perception, data processing and individual concepts of privacy as well as the dangers that increased privacy intrusion represents for the relationship between the individual and the state and the relationship between citizens.     

The InfoSec Officer and Protecting Online Privacy: Part 1

Today, because of computer networks and especially the Internet, many people are talking about privacy — the right to keep your personal information private. However, like InfoSec, everyone is talking about it but it is still a low priority for businesses and government agencies. In fact, for some, obtaining private information is a lucrative business and often a necessity in the competitive world for customers.     

Young people,disclosure of personal information and online privacy: Control,choice and consequences

This paper examines the privacy implications of the different online practices in which young people disclose personal information, and how associated configurations of choice and control create possibilities for violations of online privacy. The implications of the commercial and non-commercial use of young peoples' personal information are examined, with a specific focus on how this can potentially facilitate cyberbullying. The paper suggests that educational strategies should more clearly focus on encouraging young people to protect their online privacy, encourage control over disclosure practices, and consider the potential commercial and non-commercial uses of their information. There is a need for development of these strategies to be informed by empirical research exploring the everyday contexts and social norms which influence young peoples' online behaviour. Such an evidence-base can inform a critical review of educational, legal and regulatory actions which aim to protect their online privacy and safety.     

网络与信息安全技术的重要性及发展前景分析

科技的进步带动着社会的进步,计算机技术的不断发展与创新,也使互联网更广泛的应用到人们的日常生活中。随着互联网技术的广泛应用,人们对网络信息安全的关注度也在逐渐提高,不仅能给人们的生活带来更多的方便,同时也会对公民互联网信息造成很大的威胁。所以,网络与信息安全防护的重要性就不言而喻。本文通过对网络与信息安全的现状进行分析,强调了网络安全的重要性,根据网络信息技术的使用情况,对其发展前景进行分析。     

Gender differences and the effects of perceived internet privacy on self-reports of sexual behavior and sociosexuality

The use of the Internet for conducting research has found that the level of anonymity intrinsic to web-based surveys is useful in deterring various participant biases. Though, concerns about Internet privacy could interfere with the effects of perceived anonymity and influence how a person responds. In this study, participants were asked to take an Internet survey and then were randomly assigned to conditions with varying degrees of implied privacy in which they answered questions about their desire for casual sex (sociosexuality) and their lifetime sexual partners. Only in the condition without any threat to the participant’s anonymity was there no difference between men and women’s reports of their sexual behavior. However, in every condition men reported having a significantly higher sociosexuality than women. Findings are consistent with both the biologic and gender-biased explanations in differences of self-report for sexual information. Implications for social constraints and Internet based research are discussed.     

Valuating privacy

In several experimental auctions, participants put a dollar value on private information before revealing it to a group. An analysis of results show that a trait's desirability in relation to the group played a key role in the amount people demanded to publicize private information. Because people can easily obtain, aggregate, and disperse personal data electronically, privacy is a central concern in the information age. This concern is clear in relation to financial data and genetic information, both of which can lead to identity abuse and discrimination. However, other relatively harmless information can also be abused, including a person's gender, salary, age, marital status, or shopping preferences. What's unclear is whether it's the fear of such abuse that actually causes people's stated hesitance to reveal their data. Our hypothesis - and the motivation for our study - is that people reveal information when they feel that they're somewhat typical or positively atypical compared to the target group. To test this hypothesis, we conducted experiments that elicit the value people place on their private data. We found, with great significance (more than 95 percent statistical confidence) that a linear relationship exists between an individual's belief about a trait and the value he or she places on it. That is, the less desirable the trait, the greater the price a person demands for releasing the information. Furthermore, we found that small deviations in a socially positive direction are associated with a lower asking price.     

Small treatise about e-manipulation for honest people

Information warfare is nowadays a well-known concept. However, articles are mainly split into two categories. The first one deals with how information must be managed in a system (e.g. a company or a state), in order to achieve information dominance, that is providing more and better information than the others so that they have to follow what is produced. The second one is more on how information can be used as a weapon. Dominance is one goal, but not the only one: deception, intoxication or misinformation are others. In this article, we chose the second approach. The goal when using information as a weapon is to influence a target so that it does what the attacker wants, or to cause effects. We chose also to focus on a specific battlefield: Internet. One particularly important aspect of the Internet is that it is both a container and contents. For instance, web sites are providing articles, but they are also some servers, referenced by search engines. As such, we combined this duality to increase the effects of the operations given as example. We illustrate the operation through examples, where both information is created, but also its container is improved. We show how Search Engine Optimization can be used for information warfare. Combining oriented action techniques and information based techniques make each of them much more efficient. This article shows how information warfare can be conducted on Internet. The goal is to illustrate how very few people can organize an information based attack, targeting either a company or a state for instance.     

Flamingos on a slackline: Companies' challenges of balancing the competing demands of handling customer information and privacy

Providers of online services are under increasing pressure to leverage the value inherent in customer data to remain competitive. At the same time, however, Internet users' privacy has become more and more subject to public debate, and companies must protect this privacy if they want to attract and retain customers. It seems that companies struggle to satisfy these competing demands, and neglecting either could have detrimental effects on their success. Different streams of research underline the importance of either privacy protection or the collection and use of customer information. But they remain largely silent about the resulting challenges that companies face. In this study, we address this gap by exploring how companies perceive and handle the tensions between their organizational information needs that necessitate some degree of privacy intrusion and their need to attract and retain customers, which requires privacy protection. We develop a grounded theory that explains how companies balance these opposing demands from an organizational perspective. More specifically, we identify four challenging tensions that define the conditions under which companies must operate. We find that companies try to achieve and maintain a state of balance in the presence of these tensions, and we discover three categories of tactics that help companies in their balancing acts. Our research contributes to a provider‐centric perspective on information privacy and uncovers the management of customer information and privacy as a new but important context in which organizational ambidexterity is required. We offer a detailed perspective on the specific challenges that companies face with respect to customer information and privacy, and our results can guide managers who have to deal with these challenges.