Group privacy management strategies and challenges in Facebook : a focus group study among Flemish youth organizations

A large body of research has studied young people’s privacy practices and needs in Facebook. Less is known about group privacy. In this study 12 focus groups were organized with a total of 78 adolescents and young adults of local Flemish youth organizations to discuss their privacy practices. Findings describe how different strategies are used to coordinate the group information flow. The study also shows how online group privacy management can be challenging because ‘implicit’ privacy rules need to be made ‘explicit’, personal boundaries may conflict with those of the group one belongs to and privacy turbulence is difficult to define

Control responsibility : the discursive construction of privacy, teens, and Facebook in Flemish newspapers

This study explores the discursive construction of online privacy through a critical discourse analysis of Flemish newspapers' coverage of privacy, teens, and Facebook between 2007 and 2018 to determine what representation of (young) users the papers articulate. A privacy-as-control discourse is dominant and complemented by two other discourses: that of the unconcerned and reckless teenager and that of the promise of media literacy. Combined, these discourses form an authoritative language on privacy that we call "control responsibility." Control responsibility presents privacy as an individual responsibility that can be controlled and needs to be learned by young users. We argue that the discourses contribute to a neoliberal rationality and have a disciplinary effect that strengthens various forms of responsibilization

From persuasive messages to tactics : exploring children’s knowledge and judgment of new advertising formats

Despite that contemporary advertising is decreasingly about persuading children through persuasive messages and increasingly about influencing them through implicit tactics, little attention has been given to how children may cope with advertising by understanding and evaluating the new advertising tactics. Drawing on 12 focus groups entailing 60 European children of ages 9-11, this article investigates children’s advertising literacy by exploring their knowledge and judgments (and according reasoning strategies) of the new advertising formats. In particular, insight is provided into children’s critical reflection on the tactics of brand integration, interactivity and personalization in the advertising formats brand placement, advergames and retargeted pre-roll video ads on social media. It is shown that while children not spontaneously do so, they appear to have the ability to understand these tactics and form judgments about their (moral) appropriateness, thereby considering a wide range of societal actors

Measuring the cost and impact of cybercrime in Belgium (BCC): D3.1.2 Risk perception monitor report (2 nd wave, 2017)

Edward Snowden’s testimony about the PRISM program has clarified the intense and widespread practice of surveillance on the Internet and social media by governments. The leaked documents provided by Snowden indicated how the PRISM program had access to users’ data from various ICT companies, such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple. According to the whistleblower, the NSA further “impersonated Facebook in an attempt to trick users into downloading malicious code in its attempt to install malware on millions of computers which gives NSA control over users’ computers” (“NSA posed as Facebook,” 2014). The recent attack of the ransomware dubbed Wanna cry had victimisation rates of more than 200.000 computers in more than 150 computers and 10.000 organizations, it affected several hospitals, governmental agencies and private companies (Liptak, 2017). It took Equifax five months to report a hack into their servers that compromised 143.000.000 social security numbers that allowed hackers to pretend to be any of the victims in any given circumstance, such as the request of a new visa card (Lynley, 2017). These are just some examples to show that citizens, businesses and governments are often targeted and impacted by what has been labelled as cybercrime. The booming of Internet technology (IT) creates many opportunities and permeates almost all aspects of our daily life (World Economic Forum, 2015). Today we live in a networked society with cloud computing, online transactions and other new interactions made possible by internet technology (Bendovschi, 2015). Unfortunately, IT also facilitates existing and new threats such as cybercrime (Tsakalidis & Vergidis, 2017). Cybercrime is an umbrella term for different online threats such as malware, scams, hacking and surveillance It can come as no surprise that cybercrime is growing globally (Interpol, 2017) given that estimated internet penetration of 2016 is up to more than 40% globally, for Belgium that is 88,5% (Internet live stats, 2017). This internet-penetration implies that more and more people are exposed to all the risks and threats that are inherent to the online world, cybercrime is one of them (Verdegem, Teerlinck & Vermote, 2015). This study is part of a systematical investigation in Belgium about the costs and impact of cybercrime. The overall goal of this project is to assess the harms and costs of cybercrime on the government, industry and citizens. The latter insights substantiate and guarantee an evidence-based and effective cybersecurity policy, which, in turn, helps to defend all the involved parties. Different research departments from the KU Leuven and the Ugent are involved in this project: the KU Leuven Centre for IT and IP Law (CiTiP) and the KU Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC) as coordinator of the project, the KU Leuven imec-Distrinet Research Group, the KU Leuven imec-COSIC Research Group and the UGent imec-MICT. The current study focusses on Belgian citizens and their online practices in order to describe the cost and impact of cybercrime. Specifically, we aim to demystify the process to protection and identify core target groups for risk communication by means of quantitative research. Our research consists of two separate but consecutive survey waves (as described in Work Package 3). The first wave of WP3 has been undertaken by imec-MICT as is the second and last wave. The first wave consisted of a large-scale quantitative survey (n=1033) which was conducted in the first quarter of 2015. The current wave consists of a follow-up survey in the last quarter of 2017 (n=1258). These two waves give us the possibility to compare results of the 2015 survey with the 2017 survey and thus compare the online practices of the average Belgian citizen over time. The research leading to these results has received funding from the BRAIN-be research program of the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) under grant agreement number BR/132/A4/BCC. In addition, we would like to thank the different partners in the BCC-project for their input and support. Lastly, we want to thank the respondents who filled in our surveys

Social influencers, Instapods en het nieuwsoverzicht-algoritme van Instagram.

This study amplifies the voice of social influencers and the challenges they face. We specifically look into the facilitating role of the newsfeed algorithm in Instagram. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with women social influencers between the age of 18 and 29. The results show how these influencers experience many negative side effects that are caused by the news-feed algorithm. In line with Bucher (2012) we argue trough algorithmic restructuring of information flows, visibility has become a privilege on social media which imposes a 'threat of invisiblity' on the part of social influencers. Our conversations with influencers show how the growth of their profile does not reflect the energy and time they have invested. To cope with the latter they participate in so-called 'Instapods'. In the discussion we further outline how algorithmic obscurity and the practices in Instapods are at odds with the authentic role social influencers attribute themselves

Editorial: Children’s Voices on Privacy Management and Data Responsibilization

Contemporary children live in datafied societies in which they navigate and use technological innovations that drive on their personal information. Instructing privacy literacy is often presented as a key solution to help children manage their personal data responsibly. While there is agreement on the empowering potential of privacy literacy for children, there are also concerns over the burden that this responsibility places on them and their capacity for resilience. Children are key stakeholders in this debate. Nonetheless, we rarely hear their voices on issues related to their online privacy and data responsibilization. The articles included in this thematic issue account for this limitation by amplifying the voices of children, looking into the practices of parents and exploring the role of the tools being used

Concise report : teenage sexting on the rise? Results of a cohort study using a weighted sample of adolescents

Background: The vast differences in sampling techniques, cultural contexts between international studies, the differences in age groups of the samples and various definitions used to measure sexting make it hard to compare how sexting behaviour has evolved over the past years. This exploratory study aims to address this critical gap in the research by using two datasets of a biennial study on adolescents' media use. The first aim of this study is to compare the sexting prevalence and correlates (i.e. age, gender and smartphone ownership) of youth in 2015 and 2017. The second aim is to investigate the risk mitigation behaviours of youth who engage in sexting and to assess how their behaviours differ between the two time points. Methods: The data for cohort 1 were collected in October and November 2015 and comprise of 2663 students from 11 secondary schools in the Dutch-speaking community of Belgium. For the second cohort, the data were collected in October and November 2017 and comprise of 2681 students from 10 secondary schools. A weighing factor was implemented on the dataset. Results: The results show sexting behaviour has significantly increased between cohorts, with 8.3% of the respondents having sent a sext in the first cohort, compared with 12.1% in the second cohort. The sexting prevalence rates also significantly increased between cohorts when taking into account students who owned a smartphone. Furthermore, engagement in sexting was associated with being older, and no gender differences were found. In the second cohort, 36.8% of youth who had sent a sext were identifiable in those images. There were no differences between cohorts. Conclusion: The results indicate that other factors next to smartphone ownership may be associated with an increase in sexting prevalence. The findings also highlight the need for the development of age-appropriate sexting educational materials

Children's processing of new advertising formats: how to improve children's dispositional and situational advertising literacy?

Compared to traditional advertising formats, contemporary advertising is characterized by a more subtle, less intrusive commercial nature. Commercial messages are now frequently integrated in or merged with highly entertaining and fun media content, which distract the users from systematically and critically processing the content. This makes it difficult for consumers, especially young consumers with limited advertising literacy, to evaluate the persuasion attempt critically. Not only do children have a limited general knowledge of advertising (i.e dispositional advertising literacy), they also have difficulty to actually apply this knowledge when confronted with advertising (i.e. situational advertising literacy). To be able to activate their advertising literacy when confronted with (new forms of) advertising, children need certain coping skills, as well as a number of cognitive, emotion regulation and moral capacities. As studies focusing on strategies to improve the situational advertising literacy of children remain scarce, the current presentation will focus on the interrelationships between dispositional and situational advertising literacy to investigate how children can be assisted in their recognition and critical processing of (new) advertising formats. We hereby refer to Friestad and Wright’s (1994) ‘if-then’ procedure (i.e. “if people are made aware of a persuasion attempt, they then have to figure out how to effectively manage their response to this attempt”) in order to reflect on how we can help children to 1) realize that they are confronted with advertising in order to 2) be able to process it in a critical manner. However, for children, this second step may not follow automatically from the first step when confronted with new advertising formats. Research shows that recognition of advertising does not automatically lead to a critical evaluation. Therefore, we reflect on how these two steps can be linked successfully and automatically. A suggestion proposed by this paper is the use of automatic and implicit tactics such as persuasive intent priming and implementation intentions to improve children’s associative network and learn them to cope with advertising. Besides reflecting on specific strategies that can be used to improve children’s dispositional and situational advertising literacy, this presentation will also reflect on children’s processing of advertising formats and the challenges for their advertising literacy in the contemporary advertising environment

Algoritmes en Artificiële Intelligentie in een medische context : een studie naar de perceptie, mening en houding van Vlaamse burgers

In steeds meer contexten wordt data gebruikt om inschattingen te maken en suggesties te geven. De ontwikkeling van Artificiële Intelligentie (AI) en het gebruik van algoritmes wakkert die dorst naar data enkel maar aan. Zo is gepersonaliseerde content, denk maar aan de suggesties die je krijgt op Netflix of Youtube, niet meer weg te denken uit onze alledaagse online omgeving. In de medische sector bestaan er ook systemen die inschattingen maken op basis van jouw persoonlijke data. Zo zijn er chatbots, zoals ADA health, die aan de hand van persoonsgegevens en een online conversatie een inschatting maken of je ziek bent en hiervoor naar de dokter moet. Andere systemen, zoals IBM Watson, analyseren röntgenfoto’s op basis van wetenschappelijke literatuur en patiëntgegevens om een inschatting te maken of een persoon kanker heeft en welke behandeling het meest is aangewezen. In de context van de huidige COVID-19 pandemie, worden ook steeds vaker persoonlijke gegevens zoals je locatie, je contacten en je gezondheidstoestand verzameld om een inschatting te maken van het risico op besmetting zoals de Canadese COVI app. Ook andere gegevens, zoals je stem, kunnen bijvoorbeeld door de COVID-19 Sounds app gebruikt worden om als mogelijke COVID-19 indicator te dienen. In Vlaanderen zijn er ook steeds vaker contexten waarbij persoonlijke gegevens verzameld en gebruikt worden door organisaties om zo’n inschattingen te maken. De Vlaamse overheid investeert in allerlei AI-opportuniteiten, zo ook in de medische sector. Het is belangrijk bij te dragen aan de verdere digitalisering en hoe artificiële intelligente hier een plaats kent. Evenzeer is het belangrijk de Vlaamse burger een stem te verlenen in dit debat: Hoe staat de Vlaming tegenover slimme medische algoritmes? Welke bedrijven vertrouwen ze met welke gegevens? Welke context vinden ze aanvaardbaar en wat verwachten ze van de overheid in deze situaties? Om hier een antwoord op te formuleren hebben we in Juni 2020 een online survey uitgevoerd bij een representatieve sample van 1082 Vlamingen (representatief op geslacht, leeftijd en opleidingsniveau)

Nodular lymphocyte predominant hodgkin lymphoma and T cell/histiocyte rich large B cell lymphoma : endpoints of a spectrum of one disease?

In contrast to the commonly indolent clinical behavior of nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL), T cell/histiocyte rich large B cell lymphoma (THRLBCL) is frequently diagnosed in advanced clinical stages and has a poor prognosis. Besides the different clinical presentations of these lymphoma entities, there are variants of NLPHL with considerable histopathologic overlap compared to THRLBCL. Especially THRLBCL-like NLPHL, a diffuse form of NLPHL, often presents a histopathologic pattern similar to THRLBCL, suggesting a close relationship between both lymphoma entities. To corroborate this hypothesis, we performed gene expression profiling of microdissected tumor cells of NLPHL, THRLBCL-like NLPHL and THRLBCL. In unsupervised analyses, the lymphomas did not cluster according to their entity. Moreover, even in supervised analyses, very few consistently differentially expressed transcripts were found, and for these genes the extent of differential expression was only moderate. Hence, there are no clear and consistent differences in the gene expression of the tumor cells of NLPHL, THRLBCL-like NLPHL and THRLBCL. Based on the gene expression studies, we identified BAT3/BAG6, HIGD1A, and FAT10/UBD as immunohistochemical markers expressed in the tumor cells of all three lymphomas. Characterization of the tumor microenvironment for infiltrating T cells and histiocytes revealed significant differences in the cellular composition between typical NLPHL and THRLBCL cases. However, THRLBCL-like NLPHL presented a histopathologic pattern more related to THRLBCL than NLPHL. In conclusion, NLPHL and THRLBCL may represent a spectrum of the same disease. The different clinical behavior of these lymphomas may be strongly influenced by differences in the lymphoma microenvironment, possibly related to the immune status of the patient at the timepoint of diagnosis