Understanding and managing data privacy in the digital world can be
challenging for sighted users, let alone blind and low-vision (BLV) users.
There is limited research on how BLV users, who have special accessibility
needs, navigate data privacy, and how potential privacy tools could assist
them. We conducted an in-depth qualitative study with 21 US BLV participants to
understand their data privacy risk perception and mitigation, as well as their
information behaviors related to data privacy. We also explored BLV users'
attitudes towards potential privacy question answering (Q&A) assistants that
enable them to better navigate data privacy information. We found that BLV
users face heightened security and privacy risks, but their risk mitigation is
often insufficient. They do not necessarily seek data privacy information but
clearly recognize the benefits of a potential privacy Q&A assistant. They also
expect privacy Q&A assistants to possess cross-platform compatibility, support
multi-modality, and demonstrate robust functionality. Our study sheds light on
BLV users' expectations when it comes to usability, accessibility, trust and
equity issues regarding digital data privacy.Comment: This research paper is accepted by USENIX Security '2