Navigating Risk in Vendor Data Privacy Practices: An Analysis of Elsevier\u27s ScienceDirect

Executive Summary As libraries transitioned from buying materials to licensing content, serious threats to privacy followed. This change shifted more control over library user data (and whether it is collected or kept at all) from the local library to third-party vendors, including personal data about what people search for and what they read. This transition has further reinforced the move by some of the largest academic publishers to move beyond content and become data analytics businesses that provide platforms of tools used throughout the research lifecycle that can collect user data at each stage. These companies have an increasing incentive to collect and monetize the rich streams of data that these platforms can generate from users. As a result, user privacy depends on the strength of privacy protections guaranteed by vendors (e.g., negotiated for in contracts), and a growing body of evidence indicates that this should be a source of concern. User tracking that would be unthinkable in a physical library setting now happens routinely through such platforms. The potential integration of this tracking with other lines of business, including research analytics tools and data brokering services, raises pressing questions for users and institutions. Elsevier provides an important case study in this dynamic. Elsevier is many academic libraries’ largest vendor for collections, and its platforms span the knowledge production process, from discovery and idea generation to publication to evaluation. Furthermore, Elsevier’s parent company, RELX, is a leading data broker. Its “risk” business, which provides services to corporations, governments, and law enforcement agencies based on expansive databases of personal data, has surpassed its Elsevier division in revenue and profitability. For these reasons, it is important to carefully consider Elsevier’s privacy practices, the risks they may pose, and proactive steps to protect users. This analysis focuses on ScienceDirect due to its position as a leading discovery platform for research as well as the Elsevier product that researchers are most likely to interact with regularly. Based on our findings, many of ScienceDirect\u27s data privacy practices directly conflict with library privacy standards and guidelines. The data privacy practices identified in our analysis are like the practices found in many businesses and organizations that track and harvest user data to sustain privacy-intrusive data-driven business models. The widespread data collection, user tracking and surveillance, and disclosure of user data inherent to these business models run counter to the library\u27s commitment to user privacy as specified in the ALA Code of Ethics, Library Bill of Rights, and the IFLA Statement on Privacy in the Library Environment. Examples of current ScienceDirect practices found in our analysis that conflict with these standards include: • Use of web beacons, cookies, and other invasive web surveillance methods to track user behavior outside and beyond the ScienceDirect website • Extensive collection of a broad range of personal data (e.g., behavioral and location data) from ScienceDirect combined with personal data harvested from sources beyond ScienceDirect (i.e., third parties in and outside of RELX and data brokers as stated in Elsevier’s Privacy Policy and U.S. Consumer Privacy Notice) • Collection of personal data by third parties, including search engines, social media platforms, and other personal-data aggregators and profilers such as Google, Adobe, Cloudflare, and New Relic, through extensive use of third-party trackers on the ScienceDirect site • Disclosure of personal data to other Elsevier products and the potential for disclosure of personal data to other business units within RELX, including risk products and services sold to corporations, governments, and law enforcement agencies • Processing and disclosure of personal data (and personal data inferred from personal data) for targeted, personalized advertising and marketing In particular, ScienceDirect’s U.S. Consumer Privacy Notice, posted and updated in 2023, raises important concerns. The notice describes the disclosure of detailed user data—including geolocation data, sensitive personal information, and inference data used to create profiles on individuals—both for wide-ranging internal use and to external third parties, including “affiliates” and “business and joint venture partners.” The collection and disclosure of data about who someone is, where they are, and what they search for and read by the same overarching company that provides sophisticated surveillance and data brokering products to corporations, governments, and law enforcement should be alarming. These practices raise the question of whether simultaneous ownership of key academic infrastructure alongside sophisticated surveillance and data brokering businesses should be permitted at all—by users, by institutions, or by policymakers and regulatory authorities. Our analysis cannot definitively confirm whether personal data derived from academic products is currently being used in data brokering or “risk” products. Nevertheless, ScienceDirect’s privacy practices highlight the need to be aware of this risk, which is not mitigated by privacy policy revisions or potential verbal assurances concerning specific data uses. Privacy policies can be changed unilaterally, and denials are not legally binding. To be meaningful, any privacy guarantee a vendor makes must be durable, verifiable, and not limited to a particular jurisdiction. As many of the largest publishers reinvent themselves as platform businesses, users and institutions should actively evaluate and address the potential privacy risks as this transition occurs rather than after it is complete. In closely analyzing the privacy practices of the leading vendor in this transition, this report highlights the need for institutions to be proactive in responding to these risks and provides initial steps for doing so. This report underscores the significant expertise and capacity required for any institution to understand even one vendor’s privacy practices—and the power asymmetry this creates between vendors and libraries. Collaborative efforts, such as SPARC’s Privacy & Surveillance Community of Practice, can plan a key role in supporting future action to address the real privacy risks posed by vendors’ platforms. This report closes with options that institutions may consider to mitigate these risks over the short and longer term

Ocular attention-sensing interface system

The purpose of the research was to develop an innovative human-computer interface based on eye movement and voice control. By eliminating a manual interface (keyboard, joystick, etc.), OASIS provides a control mechanism that is natural, efficient, accurate, and low in workload

Tracking Third-Party Cookies - an empirical analysis of the current situation

Through the act of browsing, “users,” or the individuals who participate in internet searches, develop their digital footprint cookies. Essentially, cookies are trackers stored on a user’s computer by a website or application. The trackers collect data that provides users with a more relevant internet experience. While cookies have proven to enhance user experiences on the internet, they also encompass a range of concerns over privacy and user safety. Notably, the way cookies both store and track PII (Personal Identifiable Information) without user’s consent is a significant concern. When users enter a webpage, there is an options box that prompts them to accept or reject cookies. It is unclear how transparent this process actually is, as these sites may still store user’s personal information, even after they have elected to “reject” cookies. Discussion: Therefore, the primary aim of this thesis is to understand how cookies affect the user and determine what kind of technologies or strategies can be implemented to ensure the user has a better network experience while guaranteeing that their information is secure. This will be done by researching existing published research on various aspects of cookies to understand how cookies are typically used. The detail of the methodology is discussed on page 14. Conclusion: Ultimately, it is essential that users know how to utilize cookies sensibly, it is vital to share the user’s cookie policy and protect privacy as much as possible. The main finding was that there was a gap in existing research as no articles tried to discover which 2 main sets of regulations, in the EU or US, was being implemented more successfully. The information required to do this simple analysis, such as the regional location of a site and user, is typically available but was not published in the research material

Socio-technical analysis and design of digital workplaces to foster employee health

Recent socio-technical developments caused by ongoing digitalization (e.g., robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, anthropomorphic systems) or the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., an increasing number of remote working employees and hence, increasing number of virtual collaboration) change the work environment and culture. Digital and smart workplace technol-ogies facilitate business processes and provide tools for efficient communication and (virtual) collaboration, “increasing the productivity of the workforce in the information age” (Attaran et al. 2019, p. 1). Especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies play a crucial role in keeping us socially close, connected, and collaborative while increasing the phys-ical distance between humans. However, this development affects the health of employees (Tarafdar et al. 2013). In research, for example, it has long been known that the increased usage of digital technologies and media (DTM) may cause stress, leading to potentially harmful reac-tions in individuals. Research has noted this specific form of stress as technostress (Ayyagari et al. 2011; Tarafdar et al. 2007; Tarafdar et al. 2011; Tarafdar et al. 2019), which is an umbrella term for causes, negative organizational outcomes, and negative humanistic outcomes resulting from the use of DTM at work. The simultaneous consideration of humanistic (e.g., well-being, equality) and organizational outcomes (e.g., efficiency, productivity) is an integral part of a socio-technical system (Beath et al. 2013; Mumford 2006), which is at the core of the IS discipline (Bostrom et al. 2009; Chiasson and Davidson 2005). However, a review from Sarker et al. (2019) regarding published research articles in one of the top journals within the IS community revealed that most reviewed studies (91%) had focused exclusively on instrumental goals. They conclude that “many IS researchers have forgotten or ignored the premise that technologies need to benefit humankind overall (Majchrzak et al. 2016), not just their economic condition” (Sarker et al. 2019, p. 705). Especially as humanistic outcomes can lead to even more positive instrumental outcomes. Hence, Sarker et al. (2019) call for focusing on the connection between humanistic and instru-mental outcomes, enabling a positive synergy resulting from this interplay. For this reason, this dissertation adopts a socio-technical perspective. It aims to conduct re-search that links instrumental outcomes with humanistic objectives to ultimately achieve a healthier use of DTMs at the digital workplace. It is important to note that the socio-technical perspective considers both the technical component and the social component privileging nei-ther one of them and sees outcomes resulting from the reciprocal interaction between those two.Therefore, the dissertation focuses on the interaction while applying pluralistic methodological approaches from qualitative (e.g., semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions) and quantitative research (e.g., collection from a field study or survey research). It provides a theo-retical contribution applying both behavioral research (i.e., analysis of cause-and-effect rela-tionships) and design-oriented research (i.e., instructions for designing socio-technical information systems). Overall, this work addresses four different areas within the reciprocal interaction between the social and technical components: the role of the technical component, the role of the social component, DTMs fostering a fit between the technical and social compo-nents, and the imminent misfit between these two due to ongoing digitalization. First, to contribute to an understanding of the technical component’s role, this thesis presents new knowledge on the characteristics and features of DTM and their influence on employee health and productivity. Research on the design of digital workplaces examined different design approaches, in which information exchange and sharing documents or project support were regarded (Williams and Schubert 2018). However, the characteristics of DTM also play an es-sential role in the emergence of technostress (Dardas and Ahmad 2015). This thesis presents ten characteristics of DTM that affect technostress at an individual’s workplace, including a measurement scale and analysis on how these characteristics affect technostress. Besides, also, the provision of functional features by DTMs can affect instrumental outcomes or humanistic objectives. For example, affording users with certain kinds of autonomy regarding the config-uration of DTM while they work towards their goals could have a tremendous effect on pursu-ing goals and well-being (Patall et al. 2008; Ryan and Deci 2000). Therefore, this thesis presents knowledge regarding the design of DTM on the benefits of affording users with autonomy. Furthermore, it shows that merely affording more autonomy can have positive effects above and beyond the positive effects of the actualization of affordance. Second, to contribute to an understanding of the social component’s role, this thesis presents new knowledge on contextual and individual factors of social circumstances and their influence on employee health and productivity. In this context, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intensity of technostress among employees is considered, as work became more digital almost overnight. Therefore, this thesis provides empirical insights into digital work and its context in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on employees’ well-being, health, and productivity. Furthermore, measures to steer the identified effects if the situation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic persists or comparable disruptive situations should re-occur are discussed. On the other hand, this research takes a closer look at the effect of an individual preference regarding coping styles in dealing with upcoming technostress. A distinction is made between the effects of two different coping styles, namely active-functional and dysfunctional, on strain as a humanistic outcome and productivity as an instrumental outcome. In the course of this, evidence is provided that coping moderates the relationship between the misfit within the socio-technical system and strain as proposed by the psychological theory of job demands-resources model (Demerouti et al. 2001). Third, to contribute to a successful fit between the technical and social components, this thesis presents frameworks and guidelines on the design of DTM, which understand the social com-ponent (here the user and her/his environment) and adjust accordingly to the needs of their users. Therefore, the thesis provides knowledge on the design of DTMs that support users in applying stress management techniques and build the foundation for stress-sensitive systems (i.e., systems that aim to mitigate stress by applying intervention measures on the social and technical component (Adam et al. 2017)). As a matter of fact, a framework for collecting and storing data (e.g., on the user and her/his environment) is developed and experiences with im-plementing a prototype for life-integrated stress assessment are reported. The experiences from this and the existing knowledge in the literature will finally be aggregated to a mid-range design theory for mobile stress assessment. To contribute to the fourth and last aspect, the imminent misfit within the socio-technical sys-tem due to ongoing digitalization, this thesis presents new knowledge regarding digital work demands that potentially affect both employees’ health and instrumental outcomes. The current version of technostress’s theoretical foundation was introduced more than ten years ago by Tarafdar et al. (2007). However, the interaction with and use of DTM has considerably changed along with the societal and individual expectations. Therefore, this thesis puts the current con-cept of technostress to test. As a result, a new theory of digital stress, as an extension of the concept of technostress, is proposed with twelve dimensions – instead of five dimensions within the concept of Tarafdar et al. (2007) – that could be hierarchically structured in four higher-order factors. This theory holistically addresses the current challenges that employees have to deal with digitalization. To sum up, this dissertation contributes to the IS community’s knowledge base by providing knowledge regarding the interaction between employees and their digital workplace to foster the achievement of humanistic and instrumental outcomes. It provides both behavioral research and design-oriented research while using pluralistic methodological approaches. For this pur-pose, this thesis presents knowledge about the different components within the socio-technical system, design knowledge on DTMs fostering the fit between these components, and an under-standing of an upcoming misfit due to the ongoing digitalization. Overall, this research aims to support the successful change towards a healthy digital workplace in the face of digitalization

Security and Privacy of Contact Tracing Applications

Αυτή η διατριβή εστιάζει στην ασφάλεια και το απόρρητο των εφαρμογών ανίχνευσης επαφών. Παρουσιάζονται οι κανόνες και οι κατευθυντήριες γραμμές που παρέχονται από το Ευρωπαϊκό Συμβούλιο Προστασίας Δεδομένων και τον Γενικό Κανονισμό Προστασίας Δεδομένων για την ανάπτυξη και τη λειτουργικότητα των εφαρμογών ανίχνευσης επαφών. Στη συνέχεια, γίνεται μια περιγραφή υψηλού επιπέδου των κύριων αρχιτεκτονικών και τεχνολογιών που χρησιμοποιούνται στην ανίχνευση επαφών, παρουσιάζονται τα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα καθεμιάς, οι απειλές για την ασφάλεια και οι ανησυχίες για το απόρρητο, καθώς και παραδείγματα της λειτουργικότητάς τους. Υπάρχει επίσης μια ανάλυση σχετικά με τις αναπτυγμένες εφαρμογές ανίχνευσης επαφών σε όλο τον κόσμο τα τελευταία 2 χρόνια, όπου συζητούνται τα ευρήματα, το πόσο αποδεκτή είναι καθώς και το πόσο καλά προστατεύει την ιδιωτικότητα η εκάστοτε εφαρμογή. Πάνω σε αυτήν την ανάλυση, γίνεται έρευνα των trackers και των αδειών που απαιτούνται για κάθε εφαρμογή, και συζήτηση για το πώς αυτά επηρεάζουν την υιοθέτηση της εφαρμογής από το κοινό. Τέλος, υπάρχει η πρότασή μας για τις οδηγίες που πρέπει να ακολουθεί μια ελληνική εφαρμογή ανίχνευσης επαφών για να είναι ασφαλής, ιδιωτική και να υιοθετηθεί με επιτυχία από το κοινό.The focus of this thesis is the security and privacy of contact tracing applications. The rules and guidelines provided by European Data Protection Board and General Data Protection Regulation for the development and functionality of contact tracing applications will be presented, as well as, a high-level description of the main architectures and technologies used in contact tracing, the advantages and disadvantages of each, security threats and privacy concerns and examples of their functionality. There is also an analysis concerning developed contact tracing applications around the world over the past 2 years, where the findings and how acceptable and privacy-proof is each application, are discussed. Based on the aforementioned analysis, the trackers and permissions required for each application are investigated and the manner in which these affect the adoption of the application is discussed. Finally, there is our suggestion of the guidelines a Greek contact tracing application should follow to be secure, private and successfully adopted from the public

A Literature Review on the Risks and Potentials of Tracking and Monitoring eHealth Technologies in the Context of Occupational Health Management

Employee health is increasingly important, as is the use of eHealth technologies in the private and the organizational context. This paper examines which existing eHealth technologies that support monitoring and tracking of health are applied in occupational health management (OHM) and investigates the advantages and disadvantages of their application. To pursue this intention, we analyze the current state of research with a structured literature review and provide a comprehensive overview of relevant works. The results point out advantages and disadvantages that provide the groundwork to discuss success factors for tracking and monitoring eHealth technologies in OHM. The derived success factors aim at operational, technological, operational/technological aspects of eHealth tracking and monitoring usage. Thereby, favorable outcomes such as an increase in employee health can be achieved, and participation in OHM measures can be increased. However, it can also lead to adverse outcomes such as a reduced work-life balance