Online Privacy and Aging of Digital Artifacts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Online Privacy and Aging of Digital Artifacts Reham Ebada Mohamed and Sonia Chiasson, Carleton University https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2018/presentation/mohamed This paper is included in the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security. August 12–14, 2018 • Baltimore, MD, USA ISBN 978-1-939133-10-6 Open access to the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security is sponsored by USENIX. Online Privacy and Aging of Digital Artifacts Reham Ebada Mohamed Sonia Chiasson School of Computer Science School of Computer Science Carleton University Carleton University [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT two attitudes stem from two opposing forces or emotions: fear and This paper explores how the user interface can help users invoke happiness, respectively [18]. the right to be forgotten in social media by decaying content. The OSNs and other online repositories have contributed to making decaying of digital artifacts gradually degrades content, thereby be- ephemeral information permanent. In the European Union (EU), coming less accessible to audiences. Through a lab study with 30 the Right to be forgotten entitles individuals, after a certain time participants, we probe the concept of aging/decaying of digital arti- has passed and under other specific conditions, to ask search en- facts. We compared three visualization techniques (pixelating, fad- gine companies to de-index and delete potentially damaging per- ing, and shrinking) used to decay social media content on three sonal digital material. As a result, forgetting digital memories [45] platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). We report results has become an important principle to diminish the potential nega- from qualitative and quantitative analysis. Visualizations that most tive repercussions resulting from the persistent reproduction of our closely reflect how memories fade over time were most effective. digital footprints. While there exists a general emphasis on remi- We also report on participants’ attitudes and concerns about how niscing [21, 56], forgetting digital memories introduces a converse content decay relates to protection of their online privacy. We dis- emphasis on dissociating from obsolete and irrelevant digital arti- cuss the implications of our results and provide preliminary recom- facts. In this regard, there has been an emphasis on representing mendations based on our findings. the passage of time in the field of Human-Computer Interaction 1. INTRODUCTION (HCI) [42] to preserve the temporal contextual integrity of previ- Online sharing contributes to individuals’ well-being and social in- ously published information [5,10,48, 50]. teractions [1, 9, 13, 39]. For example, directed communication on One approach to dissociate from obsolete content is to visualize the Online Social Networks (OSN) can promote social bonding and passage of time within the user interface (UI) by having older con- positive feelings [13]. It can also facilitate the process of find- tent gradually age or decay. Aging of content has two conceivable ing and interacting with classmates [1] or maintaining relationships purposes. It provides temporal context to viewers and it provides with family and acquaintances [28]. In addition, the use of social some privacy advantages as posts become less accessible to view- media provides individuals with needed social support in case they ers. Different temporal cues for indicating the age of Facebook experience negative feelings such as grief [72] or loneliness [39]. online content were proposed by Novotny [50] who implemented Online communication and social media can also positively con- and partially evaluated one such prototype. tribute to adolescent development through increasing self-esteem and providing an outlet for identity experimentation [9, 68]. The literature suggests opportunities to design forgetting mecha- nisms that support users’ online identity management needs. How- However, many incidents and research have also demonstrated the ever, it is unclear how the UI can provide temporal context that is potential negative consequences of online sharing. For example, non-obtrusive and natural to users, while also protecting their pri- OSN data may be considered during important selection processes vacy. Our study examines the concept of aging of social media (such as in hiring or school admission decisions) [38,73], resulting digital artifacts from the user’s perspective. It aims to identify rep- in individuals’ professional [3, 23, 45, 46], or academic future [65] resentations that match users’ metaphor of aging and explores the being compromised by their digital footprints. Moreover, the Inter- representation of temporal cues [50] on OSN profiles for support- net exploits the fact that a privacy paradox [1, 2, 18, 33, 49, 58, 66] ing user privacy. In particular, we were interested in these two re- exists among users by making salient the desire to divulge while search questions: (RQ1) Which of the three studied visualizations downplaying the desire for privacy [33]. In addition, Coopamootoo best represents digital aging on social media from a user perspec- and Groß suggest that it may be challenging for users to follow both tive? and (RQ2) What are users’ attitudes and concerns relating to a privacy attitude and a sharing attitude simultaneously because the digital aging on social media? Through a lab study with 30 participants, we compare three differ- ent visualization techniques that decay OSN content visible to other users on three different social media platforms. Using both qualita- tive and quantitative analyses, we identify which visualization best Copyright is held by the author/owner. Permission to make digital or hard represents aging of digital artifacts. We report participants’ atti- copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted tudes and concerns, and discuss their preferences regarding content without fee. decay. We further offer some preliminary recommendations for us- USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2018. ing decay to enhance online privacy. August 12–14, 2018, Baltimore, MD, USA. USENIX Association Fourteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security 177 2. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK 4. Full functionality — positive-sum, not zero-sum Since the phenomenon of sharing data online is broad and includes 5. End-to-end security — full lifecycle protection various dimensions, some aspects are beyond the scope of our re- 6. Visibility and transparency — keep it open view. Among these dimensions are issues of practical implementa- 7. Respect for user privacy — keep it user-centric tion and enforcement of privacy laws. Other issues relate to sensor data privacy [57] and data collection and behavioural tracking by institutions or apps [15, 40, 59, 77]. While these are important con- The PbD principles serve as a framework for proactively embed- cerns, they are tangential to our current research questions. We ding privacy during the system engineering process and more broadly concentrate our literature review on privacy issues relating to inter- within organizational practices. The framework’s main goal is to personal sharing on OSNs. make central the concern for individual privacy by promoting user trust and accountability when handling personal data. 2.1 The Privacy Paradox Two decades have passed since these initial efforts, but many issues A dichotomy exists between online users’ reported attitudes and remain unresolved or only partially addressed. More recently, the their actual behaviour towards privacy, coined as a privacy para- right to be forgotten in the context of digital artifacts was described dox [1, 2, 4, 5, 18, 33, 49, 58, 66]. Online users report willingness as a fundamental need in Mayer-Schönberger’s [45] book, Delete: to protect their own privacy [2], but studies show that few actions The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. The book illustrated are performed for that purpose [2, 4, 5, 66]. Moreover, even pri- several examples of individuals who have had their professional vacy concerned individuals unknowingly disclose information that lives compromised because of their digital footprints, and empha- might be sensitive when they are in specific web contexts, such as sized the importance of “forgetting” in the digital age. online shopping [66], or when expecting a payoff or a reward [2]. 2.1.1 Regretting 2.2.1 Deletion Ochrat and Toch [4] and Ayalon and Toch [5] found that users’ Some information users disclose online might be regrettable in the willingness to re-share information decreases with time, as it be- future [33, 74]. Digital footprints may bring unintended negative comes less relevant. In the meantime, the probability that they consequences in important selection processes [3,23,38,45,46,65, delete such irrelevant information was low [4, 5] and there was no 73]. Furthermore, although users are keen to reveal details about obvious tendency of users to permanently change their old content. themselves through social media posts [13,33,58], their willingness Thus, users’ reported approaches towards sharing do not align with to re-share the same content significantly decreases with time [4]. their actual behaviour, which could be explained by the privacy 2.1.2 Preventing regret paradox [5]. However, other reasons also include the desire to keep past posts for reminiscing [5, 7]. Similarly, participants in Zhao et Researchers have investigated ways to embed privacy