Individual Privacy and Online Services

We explore consumer trade-offs between better performance through tailoring of online services to their individual needs and greater privacy as a result of reduced disclosure of personal information. We show that individuals have different willingness to accept loss of privacy that is a function of (1) the individual and his/her preferences, because the variation in demands for privacy is not uniform across individuals, (2) the service Domain, because individuals demand more privacy in some Domains than they do in others and (3) these differences themselves differ among consumers as well

Cyberpsychology and Human Factors

The online environment has become a significant focus of the everyday behaviour and activities of individuals and organisations in contemporary society. The increasing mediation of communication has led to concerns about the potential risks and associated negative experiences which can occur to users, particularly children and young people. This is related to the emergence of the online environment as a location for criminal and abusive behaviour (e.g., harassment, sexual exploitation, fraud, hacking, malware). One of the key aspects of understanding online victimisation and engagement in criminal behaviours is the characteristics of online communication that are related to the affordances of the technologies, services and applications which constitute digital environments. The aim of this paper is to examine the influence of these characteristics on individual and group behaviour, as well as the associated opportunities for victimisation and criminal behaviour. These issues are of relevance for those involved in the design and implementation of technologies and services, as the ability to assess their potential use in this way can enhance strategies for improving the security of systems and users. It can also inform educational strategies for increasing user understanding of potential informational, privacy and personal risks, and associated steps to improve their security and privacy. Each of the main characteristics of mediated communication is examined, as well as their potential impact on individual and group behaviour, and associated opportunities for victimisation and offending. The article ends by considering the importance of recognising these issues when designing and implementing new technologies, services and applications

Consumer Trust in Internet-based Airline Reservations

This paper explores consumer trust in Internet-based airline reservations using the data collected from individual consumers in Hong Kong. The empirical analysis shows that such attributes as perceived usefulness, ease of use, reputation, privacy, security and responsibility significantly influence consumer attitudes towards online airline reservation services. In addition, consumer attitudes are related to integrity, benevolence and ability, which in turn affect consumer trusting intentions to use online airline reservations. The research results in practically useful implications for improving Internet-based airline reservation services

On genomics, kin, and privacy

The storage of greater numbers of exomes or genomes raises the question of loss of privacy for the individual and for families if genomic data are not properly protected. Access to genome data may result from a personal decision to disclose, or from gaps in protection. In either case, revealing genome data has consequences beyond the individual, as it compromises the privacy of family members. Increasing availability of genome data linked or linkable to metadata through online social networks and services adds one additional layer of complexity to the protection of genome privacy.  The field of computer science and information technology offers solutions to secure genomic data so that individuals, medical personnel or researchers can access only the subset of genomic information required for healthcare or dedicated studies

Consumer-Centric Protection for Online Social Networks

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are a unique construct that is shaped by the advancement and availability of Internet technologies. A large portion of internet users make use of OSN services to share and celebrate their personal lives with friends and family. A substantial proportion of these shared experiences revolve around privacy-sensitive information. The OSN services handling privacy-sensitive information deploy state-of-the-art security and privacy preserving mechanisms. However, these protections are, to a great extent, not consumer-centric: this is the main focus of this study. In this paper, we define the notion of Consumer-Centric Protection (CCP) for OSNs. In this proposal, the individual user controls how her data can be accessed by her contacts (e.g. friends and family members) and others, thus giving control of user data back to the rightful owner — the user. This work is still in progress and in this paper we present our preliminary result

Individual Privacy Empowerment: Exploring the trade-offs between Information Sensitivity and Compensation

To provide personalized services and remain competitive, many online companies depend on individual disclosure of personal information. An emerging common theme, in the quest for privacy solutions, is the idea to empower individuals to control the management of their personal information. This study proposes a third-option design that seeks to empower users when signing up for an online service. We also measure individual privacy empowerment in a 2*2 experimental design study (reward/utility-limit mechanism to high/low sensitivity information context) using the proposed third-option design. Results from the multigroup analysis indicate that respondents prefer the reward mechanism over the utility-limit mechanism when asked to disclose less sensitive data. However, the utility-limit mechanism is preferred in the highly sensitive group indicating that a simple linear relationship does not exist between monetary rewards and information sensitivity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Awareness, values and attitudes of user generated content website users and non-users towards privacy in Europe : a quantitative study

The analyses and results in this document are based on an online survey regarding the awareness, values and attitudes of user generated content (UGC) website users towards privacy. This study was undertaken as part of the CONSENT project. This document highlights the overall findings from the study; other reports focusing on individual countries are available for each of the countries listed in the table below.CONSENT Consumer Sentiment regarding privacy on user generated content (UGC) services in the digital economy (G.A. 244643). The project was co-financed by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013).peer-reviewe

Privacy Intelligence: A Survey on Image Sharing on Online Social Networks

Image sharing on online social networks (OSNs) has become an indispensable part of daily social activities, but it has also led to an increased risk of privacy invasion. The recent image leaks from popular OSN services and the abuse of personal photos using advanced algorithms (e.g. DeepFake) have prompted the public to rethink individual privacy needs when sharing images on OSNs. However, OSN image sharing itself is relatively complicated, and systems currently in place to manage privacy in practice are labor-intensive yet fail to provide personalized, accurate and flexible privacy protection. As a result, an more intelligent environment for privacy-friendly OSN image sharing is in demand. To fill the gap, we contribute a systematic survey of 'privacy intelligence' solutions that target modern privacy issues related to OSN image sharing. Specifically, we present a high-level analysis framework based on the entire lifecycle of OSN image sharing to address the various privacy issues and solutions facing this interdisciplinary field. The framework is divided into three main stages: local management, online management and social experience. At each stage, we identify typical sharing-related user behaviors, the privacy issues generated by those behaviors, and review representative intelligent solutions. The resulting analysis describes an intelligent privacy-enhancing chain for closed-loop privacy management. We also discuss the challenges and future directions existing at each stage, as well as in publicly available datasets.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures. Under revie

Remember when, on the internet, nobody knew who you were?

Social Networking Services have seen an unprecedented adoption rate in the world of information technologies. This adherence has been so strong that even new psychiatric pathologies have been risen around them. Notwithstanding the numerous benefits of using social networking services, these systems live from information share between their users, and very often this information is private. Although social network services have numerous privacy and security settings, and management features, many users choose - consciously or unintentionally - to make excessive or uncontrolled sharing of personal information with social network services. This supposed controlled sharing of personal information on social media can put people at risk, or even in threatening situations, either to the individual himself or to others, linked to his network or family. An exploratory study was conducted through a focus group involving 12 college students attending the first year of an undergraduate program. This study aims, particularly, to understand how college students perceive their own online exposition, and the importance that this has on their privacy and the security of information shared, in social networking services. The data gathered from the focus group was analyzed with an online content analysis software – using the Leximancer platform. From the content analysis of the focus group several important concepts emerged: social network companies, location information, information sharing and distribution, user awareness changes. Findings suggest students are getting a new approach to privacy concerns over social media. Even though they are aware of the risks inherent in over-sharing private data, when faced with “to share or not to share” very often they tend to overlook the privacy concerns in favour of the social exposition. The obtained items and concepts were also used to develop a questionnaire, to be answered by a population of college students, in a subsequent study.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Privacy Requirements for mobile e-Service in the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD)

© 2016 Infonomics Society. The Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD) mobile e-Service is a smartphone or smart device installed with the HAAD mobile app. This connects to one or more e-services at the HAAD Cloud to facilitate healthcare services for the residents at the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A mobile device in this context can be effectively considered Internet of Things (IoT), which can provide advanced online services to both healthcare provider and requestor under the control and monitor of the HAAD. Health information is among the most sensitive information of an individual that can be collected and shared. The information that needs to be protected in the healthcare sector is often referred to as Protected Health Information (PHI). Service providers with a good reputation for privacy protection will find it easier to build a trusted relationship with their users. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) defines a set of security and privacy rules to be followed by healthcare providers in the United States of America. The HIPAA standards are designed for protecting health information. This paper discusses related privacy requirements for Mobile e-Service at the HAAD in accordance with the HIPAA privacy requirements