Modeling the C(o)urse of Privacy-critical Location-based Services – Exposing Dark Side Archetypes of Location Tracking

With the ubiquitous use of mobile devices, location-based services (LBS) have rapidly pervaded daily life. By providing context- and location-specific information, LBS enable a myriad of opportunities for individuals and organizations. However, the manifold advantages come along with a radical increase in location privacy concerns and non-transparent data flows between the various actors involved. While research often focuses on protecting the dyadic relation between the user and LBS provider, the entirety of dark sides constituting privacy violations remains hidden. In this paper, we follow the paradigm of architectural thinking to shed light on the diverse dark sides emerging in today’s LBS. By drawing on a multiple case study and developing a notation for architectural maps that help understand LBS from a socio-technical and privacy-oriented perspective, we reveal six dark side archetypes of LBS

Stakeholder values of car parking

Widespread car usage of around 800 million of cars travelling 30 billion of kilometres on a daily basis has led to many benefits but also to significant environmental and societal impacts such as congestion, air and noise pollution and urban sprawl. This thesis aims to investigate the stakeholder values of car parking in order to support and inform the decision makers who are tasked with how best to resolve challenging car parking dilemmas. A two phase progressive methodology is involved. Phase one begins with conducting a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight academics to identify whom the stakeholders are that are affected by car parking. Then a second series of 20 interviews are conducted with sector leaders of stakeholder groups to establish how the stakeholders are affected by car parking and importantly, how they value car parking. Finally a third series of nine interviews are conducted with nine different experts to help to bridge the gap between phase one and phase two. Phase one found that a broader reach of stakeholders (classified into four different groups) are affected by car parking than the literature might imply, and that they value car parking in eight different key ways. It also found that the values emerged from a context of governmental, social and consumer concerns. Phase two of the methodology was quantitative and used the findings from phase one to develop four additional attributes considered meaningful across all four stakeholder groups, namely: safety, politics, public spaces and weekly household council tax. Choice based conjoint analysis was used to incorporate the attributes into three hypothetical scenarios namely; driver, strategy and social, as these were considered to be reflective of the value context unearthed previously in phase one. The scenarios were disseminated across England as part of a wider survey and achieved a sample size of 1107 responses. The results of which were then interpreted through willingness to pay (WTP) values. Key findings included: how a persistent political undertone can impact on car parking policy setting; that the car parking industry is under pressure to provide a service chiefly motivated by a perceived consumer intolerance of market prices; and that stakeholders can not only appreciate but also experience the impact of car parking choices on other stakeholder groups. Conclusions drawn included that the different stakeholder groups took issue with national government leadership believing it to currently be deficient in setting the standards for British car parking. Moreover, decision makers wrongly perceive that consumers of car parking do not pass between the groups and are therefore hostile to policies which do not directly benefit them. The key implication being that decision makers are cautious to implement policies which are not necessarily advantageous to consumers but which may lead to gains for the remaining stakeholder groups. In short, this thesis recommends amongst others that the governmental stakeholder group should seek to provide direction and guidelines for tariff setting which is reflective of the provision of a service that is conscious of the range of parking industry stakeholder values. Furthermore, as safety is an industry held value, practitioners should seek to better understand how it impacts their market. They should explore the relevance of schemes such as Park Mark to operators and their customers, by fundamentally investigating to what extent safety exists as a valid concern inside car parks and how it applies to personal safety, vehicle safety or general perceptions of safety. In addition, where the governmental stakeholder group remain mindful of the significance of securing political backing, the car parking industry would benefit from appreciating the sensitivities of political challenges faced by the governmental group when lobbying for any changes in parking policy programmes. Indeed, the parking industry should collaborate between the two parties and seek to unite in finding agreeable solutions which benefit constituents either directly or indirectly. As car parking values might differ according to their geopolitical context and lead to the extraction of a different set of attributes, further work would include looking beyond England to first the UK and then to abroad to explore the effects of potential cultural differences and learn the relevant lessons

Challenges Posed by Locational Data Privacy

With the growth of innovative positioning technologies, research into individuals’ behavioral challenges posed by location-based services has become increasingly popular in recent years. Scholars from various social sciences and management disciplines have attempted to address such challenges in order to understand and mitigate concerns for locational-data privacy. In view of the broad applicability of location-based services, we conduct a review of eight prominent IS journals to investigate and understand individuals’ behavioral challenges in using such services. Our review reveals that perception of individuals’ locational-data privacy is constantly influenced by their respective social norms, social reality, and cultural background as well as their current geographical or locational factor. In light of this finding, we outline possible directions and opportunities for further IS research around three philosophical approaches- “positivist”, “interpretivist”, and “critical”- with the aim of enriching our discussion of how and why individuals’ social reality and cultural factors influence their perception of locational- data privacy

Location-based Services as Marketing Promotional Tools to Provide Value-added in E-tourism

Purpose: E-tourism is the most cost-effective way to communicate with the target market and to publish information. It is also an easy way for customers to buy travel products. Recent advances in mobile communication technologies are leading the way for the next generation of travel commercial applications. Location-based services are among these facilities available on the mobile platform. These services use mobile tracking techniques to provide users with relevant information at the right time, based on their current location. This study investigates the LBSs value in tourism and their effect on destination brand equity components and tourist behavior. Method: The sample of the study totaled 210 visitors from Isfahan as one of the popular tourist cities in the world. The research hypotheses were analyzed using Smart-PLS3 software. Findings: The research findings revealed that LBSs have positive and significant effects on destination brand image, destination brand loyalty and WOM. Conclusion: As this paper is among the first studies investigating the positive effect of LBS on destination brand equity components and tourist behavior, the findings are beneficial for DMOs and their marketing managers. Due to their potential to create a unique travel experience as well as to personalize and tailor tourism services based on tourists' needs and personal preferences, LBS provide them with significant added value

Influencable autonomy and predictable freedom in the IoE

This thesis investigates how individuals can develop, exercise, and maintain autonomy and freedom in the presence of information technology. It is particularly interested in how information technology can impose autonomy constraints. The first part identifies a problem with current autonomy discourse: There is no agreed upon object of reference when bemoaning loss of or risk to an individual’s autonomy. Here, thesis introduces a pragmatic conceptual framework to classify autonomy constraints. In essence, the proposed framework divides autonomy in three categories: intrinsic autonomy, relational autonomy and informational autonomy. The second part of the thesis investigates the role of information technology in enabling and facilitating autonomy constraints. The analysis identifies eleven characteristics of information technology, as it is embedded in society, so-called vectors of influence, that constitute risk to an individual’s autonomy in a substantial way. These vectors are assigned to three sets that correspond to the general sphere of the information transfer process to which they can be attributed to, namely domain-specific vectors, agent-specific vectors and information recipient-specific vectors. The third part of the thesis investigates selected ethical and legal implications of autonomy constraints imposed by information technology. It shows the utility of the theoretical frameworks introduced earlier in the thesis when conducting an ethical analysis of autonomy-constraining technology. It also traces the concept of autonomy in the European Data Lawsand investigates the impact of cultural embeddings of individuals on efforts to safeguard autonomy, showing intercultural flashpoints of autonomy differences. In view of this, the thesis approaches the exercise and constraint of autonomy in presence of information technology systems holistically. It contributes to establish a common understanding of (intuitive) terminology and concepts, connects this to current phenomena arising out of ever-increasing interconnectivity and computational power and helps operationalize the protection of autonomy through application of the proposed frameworks

The motivation of mission statements: How regulatory mode influences workplace discrimination

Despite concerted efforts to enforce ethical standards, transgressions continue to plague US corporations. This paper investigates whether the way in which an organization pursues its goals can influence ethical violations, manifested as involvement in discrimination. We test this hypothesis among franchises, which employ a considerable amount of low-income workers adversely affected by discrimination. Drawing upon Regulatory Mode Theory, we perform a linguistic analysis of franchise mission statements to determine their degree of locomotion and assessment language. EEOC archival data for the past decade reveals that regulatory mode predicts franchise involvement in discrimination. Discriminatory behavior is associated with franchises whose mission statements motivate employees to embrace urgent action (locomotion mode) over thoughtful consideration (assessment mode). Two experiments demonstrate that participants exposed to high locomotion mission statements tend to disregard ethical standards due to their need for expediency, making significantly more discriminatory managerial decisions than those exposed to high assessment mission statements

Sharing but caring: Location based mobile applications (LBMA) and privacy protection motivation

Location based mobile applications (LBMA) are developing rapidly with the increasing adoption of smartphones. These applications advantage userś location to provide products or services based on information obtained from their smart devices. However, implementation and execution of these services may raise userś privacy concerns related to sensitive information being handled. In this context, this paper examines the factors that motivate users and lead them to protect their privacy while using LBMA. It also considers potential benefits they could encounter and thus enable their privacy trade. The model proposed is based on Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and tested through a variance-based Structural Equations Modelling approach. Data were obtained through an online survey with 820 participants. Findings reveal that perceived severity, perceived vulnerability and self-efficacy exert a positive effect on the intention of privacy protection, which in turn is found to be positively related to the behavior of protecting privacy.Spanish Ministry of Economics, Industry and Competitiveness under the grant ECO2017-82449-PFunding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBU

A Qualitative Review on the Implementation Challenges of National Policy on Education in Nigeria

Education policy in Nigeria have undergone significant changes for a long time geared towards the effective administration, management and implementation of education at all tiers of government. In fact, it continues to be the central point of discourse owing to the role it has in the measurement of whether a country is developed or not. The objective of this paper is to identify the implementation challenges of National Policy on Education and proffer suggestions on the way out for the effective implementation of the policy. This paper adopts a qualitative method of data analysis, which was thematically done relying on secondary sources. The paper identifies corruption, lack of continuity in government policies by successive administration, inadequate human and material resources and others as the major implementation challenges of the policy. The paper suggests that there is need for the mobilizations of grassroots by the civil societies and all stake holders to support and enforce the implementation of the constitutional provision for education and tie it to their vote, there is also a need to enforce compliance of all sector of education from early childhood care to the development of special needs school and also ensure that there is continuous monitoring and evaluation of the policy so as to fill in the gaps that may occur during the process of implementation, among others as the way out for in dealing with the implementation challenges of National Policy on Education in Nigeri