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Lessons Learnt from Comparing Whatsapp Privacy Concerns Across Lessons Learnt from Comparing WhatsApp Privacy Concerns Across Saudi and Indian Populations Jayati Dev, Indiana University; Pablo Moriano, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; L. Jean Camp, Indiana University https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2020/presentation/dev This paper is included in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security. August 10–11, 2020 978-1-939133-16-8 Open access to the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security is sponsored by USENIX. Lessons Learnt from Comparing WhatsApp Privacy Concerns Across Saudi and Indian Populations Jayati Dev Pablo Moriano∗ L. Jean Camp Indiana University Oak Ridge National Laboratory Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA Oak Ridge, TN, USA Bloomington, IN, USA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract 1 Introduction WhatsApp is a multimedia messaging application with a The purpose of this study is to understand the privacy con- range of capabilities beyond traditional text messaging: asyn- cerns and behavior of non-WEIRD populations in online mes- chronous chat, photo sharing, video sharing, synchronous saging platforms. Analysis of surveys (n = 674) of WhatsApp voice and video chat, and location sharing [14]. WhatsApp users in Saudi Arabia and India revealed that Saudis had sig- supports two-person conversations, ad-hoc discussions, and nificantly higher concerns about being contacted by strangers. larger long-lived structured groups. Due to the penetration In contrast, Indians showed significantly higher concerns with of WhatsApp in several non-western countries and it being respect to social contact from professional colleagues. Demo- widely considered for peer-to-peer information sharing, there graphics impinge privacy preferences in both populations, but is an opportunity to study differences and similarities in pri- in different ways. Results from regression analysis show that vacy concerns across these nations and design corresponding there are statistically significant differences between the pri- privacy defaults for users. Here we focus on two populations vacy behaviors of Saudis and Indians. In both cases, privacy where WhatsApp is the dominant social network platform: concerns were strongly correlated with their reported privacy Saudi Arabia and India. We targeted the nation with the most behaviors. Despite the differences, we identified technical intensive use of WhatsApp (Saudi Arabia) [33] and the nation solutions that could address the concerns of both populations where WhatsApp has its largest user base (India) [62]. In fact, of participants. We close by discussing the applicability of WhatsApp is so widely used in Saudi Arabia and India that our recommendations, specifically those on transparency and it is a frequent topic for national debate, having been con- consent, to other applications and domains. demned for being a tool for political propaganda [53] and for instigating mob violence with misinformation [60]. Prior research on social networking applications have ∗Research performed while author was at Indiana University. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE- found that privacy concerns vary significantly across nation- AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States alities [48, 69]. Yet much research has focused on WEIRD Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) pop- acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published ulations [25]. While there have been independent studies on form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Govern- WhatsApp for Saudi Arabian users [57] and Indian users [18], ment purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these there is not previous work that has directly compared the results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public privacy choices of these two geographically and culturally Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). distinct populations, without a comparison with western popu- lations where privacy is more broadly studied. Having similar surveys about identical features with the same settings in two very different populations offers an opportunity for a compar- ison of privacy preferences and behaviors. Privacy concerns of non-WEIRD populations, including Saudis and Indians, Copyright is held by the author/owner. Permission to make digital or hard are relatively understudied in comparison to WEIRD popu- copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted lations. Platform adoption is also different in non-WEIRD without fee. USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2020. populations with WhatsApp more widely used in Saudi Ara- August 9–11, 2020, Virtual Conference. bia and India than in the United States or Europe. There is USENIX Association Sixteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security 81 a need for further studies to understand how origin reflects cross-cultural studies, we also hope to contribute to the dis- different priorities for managing boundaries in non-WEIRD cussion about methods of research on privacy perceptions and populations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first em- behavior, e.g. [20,55] by operationalizing behavior in terms pirical study that compares users’ concerns and attitudes on of feature and profile settings. The comparison between the social networks between Saudis and Indians. To explore how two populations using a similar experimental approach may privacy concerns influence privacy behavior, we formulated provide general insights on privacy decision-making, which the following specific research questions: can further inform design considerations on platforms like RQ1: To what extent are privacy concerns of Saudis differ- WhatsApp. ent from Indians? We analyzed survey responses of 674 participants who We found that certain privacy concerns were similar be- self-identified as Saudis and Indians. While these participants tween the participant groups, validating the work by Alt- might or might not be currently residing in the respective man [7] who found similar privacy concerns across non- countries, they identify themselves as being Saudi or Indian western cultures. For example, both populations were equally citizens. We used snowball sampling; asking Saudis to share concerned about being added to conversation groups without the survey with other Saudis and Indians to share the sur- consent. However, there were differences in other privacy vey with other Indians. This helped ensure that we captured concerns like being contacted by strangers (Saudis more con- as many participants possible who were culturally homoge- cerned than Indians) and workplace acquaintances (Indians neous. more concerned than Saudis). Even when nationality was In the following section, we present an overview of other the only measure of difference, these differences seemed to cross-population privacy studies. Section3 details our recruit- stem from cultural values often represented in previous re- ment, data compilation, and analysis procedures. Section4 search [51, 57]. presents the results of the analyses of individual populations, RQ2: To what extent does gender impinge on privacy con- and comparisons between them. We then discuss the implica- cerns for both the populations? tions of the results in Section5, making recommendations for Gender has been found to be an important factor in privacy changes in WhatsApp and supporting these with our analysis. research since the 1980s [6, 59]. We consider gender sepa- We conclude the paper in Section6, illustrating avenues for rately to measure if it is an important factor in user privacy future work. concern in our population samples as well. For women, the concern about being contacted by a stranger was found to 2 Related Work be statistically significant greater for Saudis than for Indians. Conversely, concern towards being contacted by professional Prior work has long considered if privacy is a cultural phe- contacts for personal interactions is statistically significant nomenon. As early as 1977, Altman recognized “privacy [as] greater for Indian women than for Saudi women. a universal process that involves culturally unique regulatory RQ3: How do privacy concerns affect privacy behavior mechanisms” [7]. Thus, there are aspects of privacy that are for both of the populations? pervasive across cultures and those that are culturally distinct. We analyzed the effect on privacy concern on selected However, due to the concentration of technology in western behaviors for each of our participant groups. Privacy behavior populations, practical reasons have made privacy studies to was operationalized in terms of feature settings and profile be largely geographically constrained. information sharing boundaries which are common for most For example, a study of 201 Facebook users in the United messaging platforms including WhatsApp. Kingdom found that participants’ perceived risk of sharing in- We found that while privacy concerns did influence privacy formation on Facebook was a significant predictor of privacy behavior, they did so differently in the two groups. For in- concerns and precautionary behaviors [68]. King, Lampinen stance, Saudi participants who expressed concerns over being and Smolen report privacy attitudes to be a
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