Privacy concerns and benefits of engagement with social media-enabled apps: A privacy calculus perspective

Privacy threats in a social media-enabled application (app) can originate from either the institution or other app users. Although privacy in social media is well studied, the role of social (peer) privacy concerns is largely unknown and most privacy studies on mobile apps focus on initial adoption and ignore long-term behavioral outcomes. Drawing on the privacy calculus theory, this study examines the impact of both institutional and social privacy concerns on long-term user engagement with social media-enabled apps. Findings from the analysis of 354 survey responses reveal that both institutional and social privacy concerns decrease engagement. Regarding the antecedents, the perceived sensitivity of information increases institutional privacy concerns. However, social privacy concerns are influenced by the perception of risk and control. Moreover, while the impacts of social and enjoyment benefits are expectedly positive, the perception of efficiency benefits decreases engagement. These findings are further investigated and validated through a follow-up text analysis study, suggesting that users who enjoy the functionality of these apps are more likely to express social privacy concerns and minimize their engagement. This study contributes to the literature of privacy on mobile apps by unraveling the intricate dynamics of privacy concerns and benefits in the social mobile era

Beyond Just Money Transactions: Redesigning Digital Peer-to-Peer Payments for Social Connections

Financial activities, such as the exchange of money between individuals, have long been considered a crucial aspect of how people build and maintain their interpersonal relationships (i.e., a strong, deep, or close association/acquaintance between two or more people) with individuals they know because money is a sensitive social construct. In particular, over the past decade, how to conduct, manage, and experience money exchanges and processes between individuals has been dramatically transformed due to the increasing popularity of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payment services (i.e., performing one to one online money transactions via a digital device). In this sense, digital P2P payments have shown the potential to affect how people pay and interact with each other regarding money, an important impact factor on various forms of interpersonal relationships, by facilitating direct money transactions between individuals through computer-mediated channels. Therefore, this dissertation research is motivated to leverage a sociotechnical approach to conduct an in-depth investigation of the nuanced human experiences of personal money exchanges mediated by digital P2P payments between people who know each other and the unique role of digital P2P payments in shaping these individuals\u27 social connections with each other online and offline. In doing so, this dissertation research aims to (i) reveal and elaborate the multidimensional influences of digital P2P payments on interpersonal relationships between people who already know each other in terms of both experiences of money exchanges and everyday social interactions; ii) advance our knowledge and understanding of how digital P2P payments systems can be redesigned to better support people\u27s social connections with individuals they know; and iii) envision the future landscape of digital P2P payments in our increasingly networked digital society. This dissertation research involves four studies. Grounded in 158 social media posts and 8 interviews, Study 1 explores how people perceive the increasing trend of integrating digital P2P payments with social media services (e.g., Facebook Messenger payment) and why they decide not to use this service in their daily lives. Study 2 reports findings of a qualitative study of 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews to investigate the influences of using digital P2P payments on people\u27s offline interpersonal relationships. Study 3 reports results of a large-scale anonymous online survey with 218 valid responses to measure the specific immediate social consequences and lasting impacts of using digital P2P payments on people\u27s interpersonal relationships. Study 4 adopts the research through design (RtD) approach with a specific emphasis on participatory design activities to both elicit and qualitatively investigate user needs and user-generated design solutions for digital P2P payment services that can better support people\u27s social connections. This dissertation research thus contributes to innovating financial technologies in the perspective of Human-Computer Interaction and Human-Centered Computing by better understanding new and more complicated social phenomena and dynamics emerging in today\u27s digital economy. First, this dissertation research offers one of the first empirical evidence to unpack and explicate the multidimensional influences of digital P2P payments on both financial experiences/processes and everyday social connections between known contacts, which is understudied in prior scholarship. In doing so, we provide new perspectives on today\u27s technology-mediated financial life and shed light on the intertwining financial and social relationships through technology. These insights also help re-conceptualize computer-mediated interpersonal relationships in today\u27s networked society. Second, we identify and further reflect on user-generated design recommendations and develop prototypes that highlight the importance of taking the interplay of financial and social engagement, in addition to security and privacy, into consideration when redesigning digital P2P payments platforms. Through this RtD approach, we thus rethink and envision the future landscape of digital P2P payments where such technologies can be designed, developed, and used in a more comfortable, innovative, and emotionally satisfactory way. As we are entering a post COVID-19 pandemic age, there is an increasing interest to make digital financial technologies not only secure but also more human-centered, interaction-centric, and culturally sensitive, which can be used to better support and maintain human connections through daily financial activities with or without face-to-face interaction. Therefore, in a broader sense, this dissertation research on the social values of digital P2P payments also contributes to building a more robust and inclusive digital economy in today\u27s changing society

A Framework for Integrating Transportation Into Smart Cities

In recent years, economic, environmental, and political forces have quickly given rise to “Smart Cities” -- an array of strategies that can transform transportation in cities. Using a multi-method approach to research and develop a framework for smart cities, this study provides a framework that can be employed to: Understand what a smart city is and how to replicate smart city successes; The role of pilot projects, metrics, and evaluations to test, implement, and replicate strategies; and Understand the role of shared micromobility, big data, and other key issues impacting communities. This research provides recommendations for policy and professional practice as it relates to integrating transportation into smart cities

Digital Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence, Policy, and Feature Analysis

Applications (apps) of the Digital Sharing Economy (DSE), such as Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit, have become a main facilitator of economic growth and shared prosperity in modern-day societies. However, recent research has revealed that the participation of minority groups in DSE activities is often hindered by different forms of bias and discrimination. Evidence of such behavior has been documented across almost all domains of DSE, including ridesharing, lodging, and freelancing. However, little is known about the under- lying design decisions of DSE systems which allow certain demographics of the market to gain unfair advantage over others. To bridge this knowledge gap, in this dissertation, we investigate the problem of digital discrimination from a software engineering point of view. To develop an in-depth understanding of the problem, we first synthesize existing evidence on digital discrimination from interdisciplinary literature. We then analyze online user feedback, available on social media channels, to assess end-users’ awareness of discrimination issues affecting their DSE apps. We then introduce a novel protocol for drafting and evaluating nondiscrimination policies (NDPs) in the DSE market. Our objective is to assist DSE developers with drafting high quality and less ambiguous NDPs. Finally, we propose and evaluate a modeling framework for representing discrimination concerns affecting popular DSE apps along with their relations (synergies and tradeoffs) to other system features and user goals. Our objective is to visualize such complex domain knowledge using formal notations that software developers can easily understand, communicate, and utilize as an integral part of their app design process. The impact of the proposed research will extend to the entire population of DSE workers, targeting the deep racial and regional disparities in the DSE market and helping people in resource-constrained communities to overcome key barriers to participation and adaptation in one of the fastest growing software ecosystems in the world

With or Without Blockchain? Towards a Decentralized, SSI-based eRoaming Architecture

Fragmentation and limited accessibility of charging infrastructure impede the adoption of electric vehicles. To improve the availability of charging infrastructure independent of providers, eRoaming offers a promising solution. Yet, current eRoaming systems are typically centralized, which raises concerns of market power concentration. While the use of blockchain technology can obviate such concerns, it comes with significant privacy challenges. To address these challenges, we explore a combination of blockchain with self-sovereign identity. Specifically, we apply a design science research approach, which helps us to identify requirements, derive a conceptual architecture, and deduce design principles for decentralized eRoaming and beyond. We find that blockchain may best leverage its benefits when it takes a backseat as a public registry for legal entities. Moreover, we find that the use of self-sovereign identities could improve compliance with privacy regulations, but they should not be overused

The Importance of Platform Producers’ Reputation Signals and Product Type on Product Performance in Peer-to-Peer Platforms

On two-sided peer-to-peer platforms there exists a supply side (producers) and a demand side (consumers). Platform owners provide the platforms that assist in efficiently matching producers and consumers and an infrastructure that producers can take advantage of to signal quality to consumers. This study examines the effects of producer signals on product performance in the context of Airbnb, a peer-to-peer home sharing platform. Adjusting for producers with multiple listings, the analysis uses 77,445 listings from the platform to produce regression models which tests whether signals are positively related to product performance and if the relationship between producer signals and product performance is moderated by product type. Results show that while producer signals are important to product performance, there is minimal support for the assumption that signals vary by product type. Results also show that certain product attributes may be more important than producer signals in some contexts. Based on these findings, business and theoretical implications are discussed as well as directions for future research

Using Blockchain in Peer-to-Peer Carsharing to Build Trust in the Sharing Economy

Trust is the lubricant of the sharing economy, especially in peer-to-peer carsharing where you leave a valuable good to a stranger in the hope of getting it back unscathed. Central mechanisms for handling this information gap nowadays are ratings and reviews of other users. The rising of connected car technology opens new possibilities to increase trust by collecting and providing e.g. driving behavior data. At the same time, this means an intrusion into the privacy of the user. Therefore, in this work we explore technological approaches that allow building trust without violating the privacy of individuals. We evaluate to what extent blockchain technology and smart contracts are suitable technologies to meet these challenges by setting up a prototype implementation of a blockchain-based carsharing approach. In this context, we present our research approach and evaluate the prototype in terms of trust and privacy

The Platformed Money Ecosystem: Digital Financial Platforms, Datafication, and Reimagining Financial Well-being

Digital financial platforms have become an integral part of consumers\u27 lives–resulting in the datafication of everyday life and potential for uniquely impacting financial well-being. Extending previous transformative consumer research, we suggest financial well-being must center the ways digital financial platforms and their resulting data are increasingly enmeshed with financial decision making and consumption. Drawing on a theoretical lens of platformization, we propose the Platformed Money Ecosystem, which accounts for increased embeddedness of digital financial platforms within consumers\u27 lives and the subtlety of how everyday life is transformed into data: producing data at the micro-level, monetizing data at the meso-level, and regulating data at the macro-level. In conceptualizing the Platformed Money Ecosystem, we identify three data-informed considerations for scholars and policymakers to reimagine financial well-being: protecting consumer data, limiting data biases, and supporting data literacy