Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2022
Browsing privacy tools can help people protect their digital privacy. However, tools which provid... more Browsing privacy tools can help people protect their digital privacy. However, tools which provide the strongest protections—such as Tor Browser—have struggled to achieve widespread adoption. This may be due to usability challenges, misconceptions, behavioral biases, or mere lack of awareness. In this study, we test the effectiveness of nudging interventions that encourage the adoption of Tor Browser. First, we test an informational nudge based on protection motivation theory (PMT), designed to raise awareness of Tor Browser and help participants form accurate perceptions of it. Next, we add an action planning implementation intention, designed to help participants identify opportunities for using Tor Browser. Finally, we add a coping planning implementation intention, designed to help participants overcome challenges to using Tor Browser, such as extreme website slowness. We test these nudges in a longitudinal field experiment with 537 participants. We find that our PMT-based inter...
Self-images are among the most prevalent forms of content shared on social media streams. Face-mo... more Self-images are among the most prevalent forms of content shared on social media streams. Face-morphs are images digitally created by combining facial pictures of different individuals. In the case of self-morphs, a person's own picture is combined with that of another individual. Prior research has shown that even when individuals do not recognize themselves in self-morphs, they tend to trust self-morphed faces more, and judge them more favorably. Thus, self-morphs may be used online as covert forms of targeted marketing – for instance, using consumers' pictures from social media streams to create self-morphs, and inserting the resulting self-morphs in promotional campaigns targeted at those consumers. The usage of this type of personal data for highly targeted influence without individuals' awareness, and the type of opaque effect such artifacts may have on individuals' attitudes and behaviors, raise potential issues of consumer privacy and autonomy. However, no re...
Although the importance of format and presentation of privacy notices has been extensively studie... more Although the importance of format and presentation of privacy notices has been extensively studied in the privacy literature, less explored is the interplay of presentation and content in influencing users' disclosure decisions. In two experiments, we manipulate the content as well as the format of privacy notices shown to participants who were asked to choose whether they would like to disclose personal information. We manipulate content by changing the objective privacy risk that participants face from disclosing personal information. We manipulate format by changing the manner in which these notices are presented. We find that participants are significantly less likely to share their personal information when the privacy notice is presented under a 'Prohibit [disclosure]' frame, as compared to an 'Allow [disclosure]' frame. However, and importantly, we find that the effect of changes in framing on disclosure decisions is small when the objective privacy risk f...
Westin's Privacy Segmentation Index has been widely used to measure privacy attitudes and cat... more Westin's Privacy Segmentation Index has been widely used to measure privacy attitudes and categorize individuals into three privacy groups: fundamentalists, pragmatists, and unconcerned. Previous research has failed to establish a robust correlation between the Westin categories and actual or intended behaviors. Unexplored however is the connection between the Westin categories and individuals' responses to the consequences of privacy behaviors. We use a survey of 884 Amazon Mechanical Turk participants to investigate the relationship between the Westin Privacy Segmentation Index and attitudes and behavioral intentions for both privacysensitive scenarios and privacy-sensitive consequences. Our results indicate a lack of correlation between the Westin categories and behavioral intent, as well as a lack of correlation between the Westin categories and consequences. We discuss potential implications of this attitude-consequence gap
People value their privacy; however, they typically do not make the protection of their privacy a... more People value their privacy; however, they typically do not make the protection of their privacy a priority. Privacy is oftentimes not tangible, complicating the efforts of technology users to express and act according to their privacy needs. Additionally, people may not be fully aware of the risks they are subjecting themselves to once they use the Internet for financial transactions, or create profiles on online social networks. Companies post privacy policies inform people about their informational practices; but, this information is extremely difficult to use and typically not considered in users' decision-making processes. Privacy concerns have also had an impact on users' adoption of new technologies that share personal information. A plethora of mobile location-finding technologies applications have become available over the last two decades, but the products and services offered by the technology developers may not comprehensively address the privacy implications and ...
The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-qualit... more The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-quality research in the area of information privacy. It will include 1) invited papers by scholars from participating schools and 2) submitted papers. The day will include four sessions, each of which will feature two paper presentations by authors and ample time for discussion facilitated by a designated commentator. Our goal is to enhance ties between scholars within the iSchool communities researching privacy and related topics. iSchool faculty, alumni, and students consistently make important contributions to research and policy developments around privacy. This special workshop seeks to facilitate dialogue between different parts of the privacy community, support its continued growth, and identify areas for potential collaboration. The following papers were selected for the workshop: Peer-produced Privacy Protection: A Common-pools Approach Vaibhav Garg, Sameer Patil, Apu Kapadia, L Jean ...
The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-qualit... more The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-quality research in the area of information privacy. It will include 1) invited papers by scholars from participating schools and 2) submitted papers. The day will include four sessions, each of which will feature two paper presentations by authors and ample time for discussion facilitated by a designated commentator. Our goal is to enhance ties between scholars within the iSchool communities researching privacy and related topics. iSchool faculty, alumni, and students consistently make important contributions to research and policy developments around privacy. This special workshop seeks to facilitate dialogue between different parts of the privacy community, support its continued growth, and identify areas for potential collaboration. The following papers were selected for the workshop: Peer-produced Privacy Protection: A Common-pools Approach Vaibhav Garg, Sameer Patil, Apu Kapadia, L Jean ...
Among the many factors that can elicit privacy concerns and affect privacy behavior, some are sen... more Among the many factors that can elicit privacy concerns and affect privacy behavior, some are sensorial: detecting the presence of others through our senses. Human beings may be wired to react to sensorial cues and rely, in part, on them to assess the privacy ramifications of their actions. Individuals may react to sensorial cues indicating the presence of others even when those cues do not carry relevant information about likely consequences of privacy choices – and thus, from a normative perspective, may not be expected to influence privacy concerns and resulting behaviors. In four experiments (N = 829), we examine the effect on privacy-relevant behavior (the disclosure of sensitive personal information) of four sensorial cues signaling the presence of other humans: proximity, visual, auditory, and olfactory, each signaling the presence of another person. Proximity and visual cues (Experiments 1 and 2) produced an inhibitory effect on intimate self-disclosures in an online survey ...
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2021
Privacy and security tools can help users protect themselves online. Unfortunately, people are of... more Privacy and security tools can help users protect themselves online. Unfortunately, people are often unaware of such tools, and have potentially harmful misconceptions about the protections provided by the tools they know about. Effectively encouraging the adoption of privacy tools requires insights into people’s tool awareness and understanding. Towards that end, we conducted a demographically-stratified survey of 500 US participants to measure their use of and perceptions about five web browsing-related tools: private browsing, VPNs, Tor Browser, ad blockers, and antivirus software. We asked about participants’ perceptions of the protections provided by these tools across twelve realistic scenarios. Our thematic analysis of participants’ responses revealed diverse forms of misconceptions. Some types of misconceptions were common across tools and scenarios, while others were associated with particular combinations of tools and scenarios. For example, some participants suggested tha...
This Review summarizes and draws connections between diverse streams of empirical research on pri... more This Review summarizes and draws connections between diverse streams of empirical research on privacy behavior. We use three themes to connect insights from social and behavioral sciences: people’s uncertainty about the consequences of privacy-related behaviors and their own preferences over those consequences; the context-dependence of people’s concern, or lack thereof, about privacy; and the degree to which privacy concerns are malleable—manipulable by commercial and governmental interests. Organizing our discussion by these themes, we offer observations concerning the role of public policy in the protection of privacy in the information age.
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2022
Browsing privacy tools can help people protect their digital privacy. However, tools which provid... more Browsing privacy tools can help people protect their digital privacy. However, tools which provide the strongest protections—such as Tor Browser—have struggled to achieve widespread adoption. This may be due to usability challenges, misconceptions, behavioral biases, or mere lack of awareness. In this study, we test the effectiveness of nudging interventions that encourage the adoption of Tor Browser. First, we test an informational nudge based on protection motivation theory (PMT), designed to raise awareness of Tor Browser and help participants form accurate perceptions of it. Next, we add an action planning implementation intention, designed to help participants identify opportunities for using Tor Browser. Finally, we add a coping planning implementation intention, designed to help participants overcome challenges to using Tor Browser, such as extreme website slowness. We test these nudges in a longitudinal field experiment with 537 participants. We find that our PMT-based inter...
Self-images are among the most prevalent forms of content shared on social media streams. Face-mo... more Self-images are among the most prevalent forms of content shared on social media streams. Face-morphs are images digitally created by combining facial pictures of different individuals. In the case of self-morphs, a person's own picture is combined with that of another individual. Prior research has shown that even when individuals do not recognize themselves in self-morphs, they tend to trust self-morphed faces more, and judge them more favorably. Thus, self-morphs may be used online as covert forms of targeted marketing – for instance, using consumers' pictures from social media streams to create self-morphs, and inserting the resulting self-morphs in promotional campaigns targeted at those consumers. The usage of this type of personal data for highly targeted influence without individuals' awareness, and the type of opaque effect such artifacts may have on individuals' attitudes and behaviors, raise potential issues of consumer privacy and autonomy. However, no re...
Although the importance of format and presentation of privacy notices has been extensively studie... more Although the importance of format and presentation of privacy notices has been extensively studied in the privacy literature, less explored is the interplay of presentation and content in influencing users' disclosure decisions. In two experiments, we manipulate the content as well as the format of privacy notices shown to participants who were asked to choose whether they would like to disclose personal information. We manipulate content by changing the objective privacy risk that participants face from disclosing personal information. We manipulate format by changing the manner in which these notices are presented. We find that participants are significantly less likely to share their personal information when the privacy notice is presented under a 'Prohibit [disclosure]' frame, as compared to an 'Allow [disclosure]' frame. However, and importantly, we find that the effect of changes in framing on disclosure decisions is small when the objective privacy risk f...
Westin's Privacy Segmentation Index has been widely used to measure privacy attitudes and cat... more Westin's Privacy Segmentation Index has been widely used to measure privacy attitudes and categorize individuals into three privacy groups: fundamentalists, pragmatists, and unconcerned. Previous research has failed to establish a robust correlation between the Westin categories and actual or intended behaviors. Unexplored however is the connection between the Westin categories and individuals' responses to the consequences of privacy behaviors. We use a survey of 884 Amazon Mechanical Turk participants to investigate the relationship between the Westin Privacy Segmentation Index and attitudes and behavioral intentions for both privacysensitive scenarios and privacy-sensitive consequences. Our results indicate a lack of correlation between the Westin categories and behavioral intent, as well as a lack of correlation between the Westin categories and consequences. We discuss potential implications of this attitude-consequence gap
People value their privacy; however, they typically do not make the protection of their privacy a... more People value their privacy; however, they typically do not make the protection of their privacy a priority. Privacy is oftentimes not tangible, complicating the efforts of technology users to express and act according to their privacy needs. Additionally, people may not be fully aware of the risks they are subjecting themselves to once they use the Internet for financial transactions, or create profiles on online social networks. Companies post privacy policies inform people about their informational practices; but, this information is extremely difficult to use and typically not considered in users' decision-making processes. Privacy concerns have also had an impact on users' adoption of new technologies that share personal information. A plethora of mobile location-finding technologies applications have become available over the last two decades, but the products and services offered by the technology developers may not comprehensively address the privacy implications and ...
The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-qualit... more The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-quality research in the area of information privacy. It will include 1) invited papers by scholars from participating schools and 2) submitted papers. The day will include four sessions, each of which will feature two paper presentations by authors and ample time for discussion facilitated by a designated commentator. Our goal is to enhance ties between scholars within the iSchool communities researching privacy and related topics. iSchool faculty, alumni, and students consistently make important contributions to research and policy developments around privacy. This special workshop seeks to facilitate dialogue between different parts of the privacy community, support its continued growth, and identify areas for potential collaboration. The following papers were selected for the workshop: Peer-produced Privacy Protection: A Common-pools Approach Vaibhav Garg, Sameer Patil, Apu Kapadia, L Jean ...
The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-qualit... more The Special Workshop on Information Privacy will consist of a one-day presentation of high-quality research in the area of information privacy. It will include 1) invited papers by scholars from participating schools and 2) submitted papers. The day will include four sessions, each of which will feature two paper presentations by authors and ample time for discussion facilitated by a designated commentator. Our goal is to enhance ties between scholars within the iSchool communities researching privacy and related topics. iSchool faculty, alumni, and students consistently make important contributions to research and policy developments around privacy. This special workshop seeks to facilitate dialogue between different parts of the privacy community, support its continued growth, and identify areas for potential collaboration. The following papers were selected for the workshop: Peer-produced Privacy Protection: A Common-pools Approach Vaibhav Garg, Sameer Patil, Apu Kapadia, L Jean ...
Among the many factors that can elicit privacy concerns and affect privacy behavior, some are sen... more Among the many factors that can elicit privacy concerns and affect privacy behavior, some are sensorial: detecting the presence of others through our senses. Human beings may be wired to react to sensorial cues and rely, in part, on them to assess the privacy ramifications of their actions. Individuals may react to sensorial cues indicating the presence of others even when those cues do not carry relevant information about likely consequences of privacy choices – and thus, from a normative perspective, may not be expected to influence privacy concerns and resulting behaviors. In four experiments (N = 829), we examine the effect on privacy-relevant behavior (the disclosure of sensitive personal information) of four sensorial cues signaling the presence of other humans: proximity, visual, auditory, and olfactory, each signaling the presence of another person. Proximity and visual cues (Experiments 1 and 2) produced an inhibitory effect on intimate self-disclosures in an online survey ...
Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2021
Privacy and security tools can help users protect themselves online. Unfortunately, people are of... more Privacy and security tools can help users protect themselves online. Unfortunately, people are often unaware of such tools, and have potentially harmful misconceptions about the protections provided by the tools they know about. Effectively encouraging the adoption of privacy tools requires insights into people’s tool awareness and understanding. Towards that end, we conducted a demographically-stratified survey of 500 US participants to measure their use of and perceptions about five web browsing-related tools: private browsing, VPNs, Tor Browser, ad blockers, and antivirus software. We asked about participants’ perceptions of the protections provided by these tools across twelve realistic scenarios. Our thematic analysis of participants’ responses revealed diverse forms of misconceptions. Some types of misconceptions were common across tools and scenarios, while others were associated with particular combinations of tools and scenarios. For example, some participants suggested tha...
This Review summarizes and draws connections between diverse streams of empirical research on pri... more This Review summarizes and draws connections between diverse streams of empirical research on privacy behavior. We use three themes to connect insights from social and behavioral sciences: people’s uncertainty about the consequences of privacy-related behaviors and their own preferences over those consequences; the context-dependence of people’s concern, or lack thereof, about privacy; and the degree to which privacy concerns are malleable—manipulable by commercial and governmental interests. Organizing our discussion by these themes, we offer observations concerning the role of public policy in the protection of privacy in the information age.
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Papers by Alessandro Acquisti