The practical politics of sharing personal data

The focus of this paper is upon how people handle the sharing of personal data as an interactional concern. A number of ethnographic studies of domestic environments are drawn upon in order to articulate a range of circumstances under which data may be shared. In particular a distinction is made between the in situ sharing of data with others around you and the sharing of data with remote parties online. A distinction is also drawn between circumstances of purposefully sharing data in some way and circumstances where the sharing of data is incidental or even unwitting. On the basis of these studies a number of the organisational features of how people seek to manage the ways in which their data is shared are teased out. The paper then reflects upon how data sharing practices have evolved to handle the increasing presence of digital systems in people’s environments and how these relate to the ways in which people traditionally orient to the sharing of information. In conclusion a number of ways are pointed out in which the sharing of data remains problematic and there is a discussion of how systems may need to adapt to better support people’s data sharing practices in the future

Comparing Security Self-Efficacy Amongst College Freshmen and Senior, Female and Male Cybersecurity Students

This study sought to determine if there was a difference in the self-efficacy of freshman and senior, female and male Cybersecurity students relating to threats associated with various information systems. The design for this quantitative study was non-experimental, causal-comparative and known as group comparison used to determine if there was a causal relationship between variables. The method used to make that determination utilized a self-efficacy survey developed by Phelps (2005), to identify the independent variables specific level of self-efficacy. Research was conducted at a small, southern university with total of 33 participants. Each student was enrolled in the Computer Science Department at the university with varying levels of Cybersecurity experience. The research results did not predominately follow other research patterns. Even though there are multiple, historical instances of one’s self-efficacy showing considerable influence on an individual’s actions and approach to various threats, results from this study supported the lesser pervasive accounts where it does not. The results were in line with historical instances where self-efficacy did not play an influential part on one’s actions. In fact there was no statistically significant difference in the Cybersecurity self-efficacy of freshmen and senior, female and male students. Recommendations for future research include identifying why there was no difference between the groups with a larger research group and post hoc testing

Outdata-ed museums: creating ethical and transparent data collection processes in museums

UK museums are contradictory sites of education and community outreach, and emblems of colonial legacy and elitism. Physical and socioeconomic barriers prevent meaningful engagement for audiences, but particularly marginalised peoples. To identify and overcome these barriers, museums and cultural institutions are seeking technological solutions that capture and analyse personal data. However, current legislation and attitudes towards personal data also risk perpetuating exclusionary barriers. Many governments and organisations use personal data to suppress, undermine, and violently target minoritised or marginalised communities whilst upholding the status quo that marginalised them in the first place. This inequality is further entrenched by the powerlessness most people feel in the face of how data is collected and used on a day-to-day basis. Drawing on Human Computer Interaction, Human Geography and New Museology, this PhD thesis seeks a solution to these concerns that empowers museums to safely collect the data they need whilst enabling audiences to become active in their own data curation. Using co-creative principles, input is sought from museums and audiences to answer three questions: • How are discourses and practices surrounding personal data negotiated, defined, perpetuated, and resisted in museums? • What is the value of personal data to museums and audiences? • Can mutually beneficial and transparent data exchange foster meaningful, long-term relationships between museums and audiences? To address these questions, a novel theoretical framework that explores museums as place, technology as mediator, and relational personal data through a lens of power is generated. Four sequential studies are then conducted utilising a post-structural feminist epistemology. The first study presents a content analysis of privacy policies to explore what data museums typically collect and how that information is conceptualised and shared with audiences, showing that museums collect a broad range of quantitative data but inadequately express to audiences what, how, or why. The second study presents a workshop with museum staff to determine what data would benefit the museum and what prevents it from being captured. It shows that museums seek qualitative, behavioural data but are limited by resource constraints. The third study uses workshop style activities to ask audiences to conceptualise the value of their desirable data and speculate different ways for their data to be used in the museum. The study highlights barriers to data engagement including fatigue and lack of understanding, and shows trust and transparency to be key motivators in data sharing. The fourth study uses a novel methodology to speculate a data-enabled museum visit, from which a technology probe called ‘MuNa’ is developed and tested in a virtual museum visit with real audiences. Evaluation shows how transparency and trust can be synchronously developed through meaningful engagement with data. This is shown to increase the engagement of audiences with both museum and data, fostering long-term, meaningful relationships between venue and visitor and the creation of data subjects able to advocate for their own data rights. The implications of this research reach across each of its disciplines and into the everyday practices of cultural organisations and audiences. Contributing novel paradigms of understanding surrounding the museum visit experience including different stakeholder perspectives addressing museums, technology, and personal data, the thesis presents evidence of an equitable and sustainable, data-enabled future

Outdata-ed museums: creating ethical and transparent data collection processes in museums

UK museums are contradictory sites of education and community outreach, and emblems of colonial legacy and elitism. Physical and socioeconomic barriers prevent meaningful engagement for audiences, but particularly marginalised peoples. To identify and overcome these barriers, museums and cultural institutions are seeking technological solutions that capture and analyse personal data. However, current legislation and attitudes towards personal data also risk perpetuating exclusionary barriers. Many governments and organisations use personal data to suppress, undermine, and violently target minoritised or marginalised communities whilst upholding the status quo that marginalised them in the first place. This inequality is further entrenched by the powerlessness most people feel in the face of how data is collected and used on a day-to-day basis. Drawing on Human Computer Interaction, Human Geography and New Museology, this PhD thesis seeks a solution to these concerns that empowers museums to safely collect the data they need whilst enabling audiences to become active in their own data curation. Using co-creative principles, input is sought from museums and audiences to answer three questions: • How are discourses and practices surrounding personal data negotiated, defined, perpetuated, and resisted in museums? • What is the value of personal data to museums and audiences? • Can mutually beneficial and transparent data exchange foster meaningful, long-term relationships between museums and audiences? To address these questions, a novel theoretical framework that explores museums as place, technology as mediator, and relational personal data through a lens of power is generated. Four sequential studies are then conducted utilising a post-structural feminist epistemology. The first study presents a content analysis of privacy policies to explore what data museums typically collect and how that information is conceptualised and shared with audiences, showing that museums collect a broad range of quantitative data but inadequately express to audiences what, how, or why. The second study presents a workshop with museum staff to determine what data would benefit the museum and what prevents it from being captured. It shows that museums seek qualitative, behavioural data but are limited by resource constraints. The third study uses workshop style activities to ask audiences to conceptualise the value of their desirable data and speculate different ways for their data to be used in the museum. The study highlights barriers to data engagement including fatigue and lack of understanding, and shows trust and transparency to be key motivators in data sharing. The fourth study uses a novel methodology to speculate a data-enabled museum visit, from which a technology probe called ‘MuNa’ is developed and tested in a virtual museum visit with real audiences. Evaluation shows how transparency and trust can be synchronously developed through meaningful engagement with data. This is shown to increase the engagement of audiences with both museum and data, fostering long-term, meaningful relationships between venue and visitor and the creation of data subjects able to advocate for their own data rights. The implications of this research reach across each of its disciplines and into the everyday practices of cultural organisations and audiences. Contributing novel paradigms of understanding surrounding the museum visit experience including different stakeholder perspectives addressing museums, technology, and personal data, the thesis presents evidence of an equitable and sustainable, data-enabled future