On-line privacy behavior: using user interfaces for salient factors

The problem of privacy in social networks is well documented within literature; users have privacy concerns however, they consistently disclose their sensitive information and leave it open to unintended third parties. While numerous causes of poor behaviour have been suggested by research the role of the User Interface (UI) and the system itself is underexplored. The field of Persuasive Technology would suggest that Social Network Systems persuade users to deviate from their normal or habitual behaviour. This paper makes the case that the UI can be used as the basis for user empowerment by informing them of their privacy at the point of interaction and reminding them of their privacy needs. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is introduced as a potential theoretical foundation for exploring the psychology behind privacy behaviour as it describes the salient factors that influence intention and action. Based on these factors of personal attitude, subjective norms and perceived control, a series of UIs are presented and implemented in controlled experiments examining their effect on personal information disclosure. This is combined with observations and interviews with the participants. Results from this initial, pilot experiment suggest groups with privacy salient information embedded exhibit less disclosure than the control group. This work reviews this approach as a method for exploring privacy behaviour and proposes further work required

Digital libraries: What do users want?

This is the post-print version of the Article of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2006 EmeraldPurpose – The purpose of this study is to determine user suggestions for digital libraries' functionality and features. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted as part of this study, in which users' suggestions for digital libraries were solicited, as well as their ranking opinions on a range of suggested digital library features. Findings – The study revealed that, regardless of users' information technology (IT) backgrounds, their expectations of digital libraries' functionality are the same. However, based on users' previous experiences with digital libraries, their requirements with respect to specific features may change. Practical implications – Involving users in digital library design should be an integral step in the process of building a digital library – in addition to the classic roles of evaluation and testing. Originality/value – In previous digital library user studies, users were involved implicitly (e.g. observed) or explicitly (e.g. diary notes). However, they were never asked to suggest digital library features or functionalities, as this was left to usability and domain experts. This study approached digital library design from a new perspective, giving users an opportunity to express their suggestions on future functionality and features of digital libraries. Moreover, in contrast to previous work, this study has explicitly taken into account the IT abilities of those interacting with a digital library

QoE of cross-modally mapped Mulsemedia: an assessment using eye gaze and heart rate

A great deal of research effort has been put in exploring crossmodal correspondences in the field of cognitive science which refer to the systematic associations frequently made between different sensory modalities (e.g. high pitch is matched with angular shapes). However, the possibilities cross-modality opens in the digital world have been relatively unexplored. Therefore, we consider that studying the plasticity and the effects of crossmodal correspondences in a mulsemedia setup can bring novel insights about improving the human-computer dialogue and experience. Mulsemedia refers to the combination of three or more senses to create immersive experiences. In our experiments, users were shown six video clips associated with certain visual features based on color, brightness, and shape. We examined if the pairing with crossmodal matching sound and the corresponding auto-generated haptic effect, and smell would lead to an enhanced user QoE. For this, we used an eye-tracking device as well as a heart rate monitor wristband to capture users’ eye gaze and heart rate whilst they were experiencing mulsemedia. After each video clip, we asked the users to complete an on-screen questionnaire with a set of questions related to smell, sound and haptic effects targeting their enjoyment and perception of the experiment. Accordingly, the eye gaze and heart rate results showed significant influence of the cross-modally mapped multisensorial effects on the users’ QoE. Our results highlight that when the olfactory content is crossmodally congruent with the visual content, the visual attention of the users seems shifted towards the correspondent visual feature. Crosmodally matched media is also shown to result in an enhanced QoE compared to a video only condition

An enhanced model for digital reference services

Digital Reference Service (DRS) play a vital role in the Digital Library (DL) research. DRS is a very valuable service provided by DL. Unfortunately, the reference service movement towards digital environment begins late, and this shift was not model based. So, a journey towards a digital environment without following a proper model raises some issues. A few researchers presented a general process model (GPM) in the late 1990s, but this process model could not overcome the problems of DRS. This paper proposes an enhanced model for DRS that use the storage and re-use mechanism with other vital components like DRS search engine and ready reference for solving the issues in DRS. Initially, storage and re-use mechanism are designed and finally, DRS search engine is designed to search appropriate answers in the knowledge base. We improved the GPM by incorporating the new components. The simulation results clearly states that the proposed model increased the service efficiency by reducing the response time from days to seconds for repeated questions and decreased the workload of librarian

Increasing service users privacy awareness by introducing on-line interactive privacy features

The work presented in this paper introduces the concept of On-line Interactive (OI) privacy feature which is defined as any on-line interactive tool, component or user-interface that creates privacy awareness and supports users in understanding their on-line privacy risks. These features have been developed as an interactive social translucence map that discloses the flow of personal information, a privacy enquiry for a direct chat about users? privacy concerns and a discussion forum presenting users? privacy concerns using their language in an interactive FAQ format. The paper presents an evaluation of a prototype of this set of embedded OI privacy features. The field study presented evaluates the prototype?s usability and its effect on users? privacy awareness, understanding and attitude. 100 participants took part in the study and were drawn from groups of experienced and less experienced users. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used. Findings suggest that OI privacy features increase users? privacy awareness and encourage users to find out more about the uses of their personal data. However, users? ICT skills and Internet experience significantly influence whether a feature is favoured or otherwise. In general, it is concluded that privacy features are very much welcomed and necessary to empower users to manage their privacy concerns but some groups need to be further supported by social and institutional privacy management processes

Service users’ requirements for tools to support effective on-line privacy and consent practices

The work presented in this paper explores how privacy dialogues within an on-line service might be constructed by conducting field experiments those identify privacy practices used when engaging with on-line services and elicit service user requirements for privacy dialogues. The findings are considered against the established design principles for general CRM dialogue design such as: frequency, initiation, signalling, service provider disclosure and richness as well as privacy specific design principles including: transparency, service user disclosure and the agreement of privacy norms and rules

Practice makes perfect: motivating confident privacy protection practices

The study presented in this paper shows that service users can have low confidence in a service provider's ability to protect their personal information even if those service users trust the overall brand. Today, on-line services are not specifically designed to promote a service user's confidence building. As a result, service users have to depend on off-line techniques to build confidence in their information practices. One implication of not having effective support for confidence building designed into the on-line service is that, despite costly investment in trust marks, security technologies and brand development, service users will continue to give false information, limit the extent of their engagement in on-line services and avoid registration with on-line services. In the era of on-line public services delivery, this pattern of privacy protection practice potentially has devastating consequences for public service delivery and the ability of the most vulnerable to receive the public service support that they need. The study also indicates that providing interaction possibilities through social computing as part of the service design is one way to help build service user confidence. This paper concludes with examples of social computing used for this purpose

On-line privacy and consent: a dialogue, not a monologue

With the move to deliver services on-line, there is a reduction in opportunities for a service user to discuss and agree to the terms of the management of their personal data. As the focus is turned to on-line technologies, the design question becomes one of privacy protection not privacy negotiation and conflict resolution. However, the findings from a large privacy survey and the outputs of several follow-up focus groups reflect a need for privacy systems to also support different types of privacy and consent dialogues. These dialogues are used to support the resolution of privacy dilemmas through the selection of effective privacy protection practices. As the face to face contact between service user and service provider decreases, the potential for these types of dialogues to become increasingly important grows. The work presented in this paper forms the initial part of a study to learn more about the types of privacy dialogue and negotiation that should be deployed in on-line services. In this position paper we outline the types of privacy and consent dialogues that service providers and service users want to have. We also explore how a socio-technical approach should ideally form the basis of the design and implementation of any dialogue system

A study on the quality of experience of crossmodal mulsemedia

Media content is consumed more and more on digital and mobile devices. Internet of Things enables media providers to move beyond the traditional content and entertainment space and offer a plethora of new services that creates an engaging user experience around content. However, one of the questions that remain open is how to design content that enhances users’ quality of experience by widening the classic audio-visual multimedia content spectrum to stimulate also other human senses such as olfaction or touch. In this paper we look at systematic associations made between different sensory modalities (crossmodal correspondences) in a digital setup and on their influence on the quality of experience. Our experiments target various senses: audio, visual, olfaction and tactile and show that creating untraditional content that matches the visual dominants of the video does not contribute to an improved experience of mulsemedia