An Investigation of Smart Applications, Social Relations and Privacy
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University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+ University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2020 The Privacy Paradox: An Investigation of Smart Applications, Social Relations and Privacy Joanne K. McQuilty Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1 University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. 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McQuilty Associate Professor Richard Howson & Associate Professor Brian Yecies This thesis is presented as part of the requirement for the conferral of the degree: Doctorate of Philosophy This research has been conducted with the support of the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship University of Wollongong Law, Humanities and the Arts Humanities and Social Enquiry March 2020 1 Abstract Privacy on the internet has increasingly become an issue of grave importance to citizens, businesses and governments alike evidenced in the recent breaches involving Facebook, WhatsApp and WikiLeaks, where large amounts of data have been disseminated to corporate and government entities. The aim of this research is to investigate applications operating through ‘smart’ software that can be specifically referred to as privacy applications and the implications the use of these applications has for user social relations on the internet and beyond. The thesis applies a case study methodology that incorporates a theoretical synergy based on the key components from the work and conceptions of Jean Francois Lyotard, Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens. This knowledge framework is then used to examine the data collected from surveys, interviews and focus groups. In the end, this thesis will show that the nature of both privacy and social relations differs from how both may be understood beyond the internet and this in turn throws up considerable problematic to moving forward. 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, I owe enormous gratitude to my Supervisor, Associate Professor Richard Howson, who was willing to take on this project with me and who recognised its importance. His guidance and support have been invaluable and his patience has been unending. I cannot think of a teacher who is more dedicated and generous. Thank you for helping me to regain my life so that I can help others do the same. I am also grateful to Associate Professor Brian Yecies for helping me to develop and introduce my three privacy app categories, sincerely thank you. Importantly, I also owe enormous gratitude to David McQuilty without whose unconditional love and support this thesis would never have been completed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you also to Chelsea, Morgan and Genevieve McQuilty who are an unending source of joy and pride in my life and whose support in this project has always been given without question. Finally, I would like to thank my dear school friends, Laura Hens-Vogl and Tanya Plibersek, both of whom have always been such an enormous source of inspiration. I am sincerely blessed to have crossed paths with these two amazing women in my childhood. In addition, I would like to acknowledge that this research has been conducted with the support of the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. 3 Certification I, Joanne Karen McQuilty, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Joanne K. McQuilty March 2020 4 Table of Contents Page Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Certification 4 Table of Contents 5 Chapter 1: Introduction 10 The Issue of Privacy 11 What are ‘Privacy Apps’? 14 How Do Privacy Apps Operate? 15 Why Research Privacy Apps? 17 Research Hypothesis 18 Three Theorists 19 The Postmodern Perception 21 The Games and Rules of Language 22 The Logic of Fluids 22 Transforming Intimacies and Social Relations 23 What Research Method? 23 Expected Results 24 Chapter Summaries 25 Chapter 2: The Gradual Dismantling of Privacy 30 What is Privacy? 31 Conceptualising Privacy 32 Privacy Defined 33 The Value of Privacy 34 A Review of the Literature on Privacy 34 Individual Types of Privacy 36 Society Types of Privacy 38 5 Four Significant Historical Moments in Privacy 40 Ancient Greek Origins 40 The Public Sphere 41 Forfeiting Privacy 42 Feudal Pros and Cons 44 The ‘Nether World’ Surfaces in Property 45 Women as Objectified and Fixed 47 A Dialectic of Rights and History 48 Controlling Nature – The Right to Privacy 49 The Commons Embodied 50 The Internet and Division 51 The Great Public-Private Shift 52 Emptying Out 53 Concluding Comment 55 Chapter 3: Developing a Privacy Solution 57 What is a Social Relation 58 Social Relations on the Internet 59 Establishing a Privacy Model on the Internet 61 Email 62 Networking 63 Intimacy 64 The Deception of the Serpent 65 What Privacy App Websites Look Like 65 Three Privacy App Categories 67 Online Connect 67 The Snapchat App 68 The Whisper App 68 Activistic 70 The Wickr App 70 The Threema App 71 Offline Connect 72 The Yo App 73 The Cloak App 74 6 Concluding Comment 75 Chapter 4: Methodology – Developing a Theoretical Framework 76 Theory 77 The Modern/Postmodern Divide 77 Theoretical Framework 80 Locating Privacy App Frameworks in the Literature 80 The Dead-End of Privacy 86 Artificial Intimate Relations 89 What the Theoretical Framework Will Do 94 Concluding Comment 94 Chapter 5: Methodology – Method of Data Collection 95 Method 95 Researching Privacy Apps 95 Overcoming Obstacles 96 Representative Sample 97 Case Study 98 Ethical Considerations 98 Methods Used to Collect the Data 99 The Survey 99 App Developers 99 The Semi-Structured Interview 101 Technology Journalists 101 Users 102 Focus Group 103 Users 103 Concluding Comment 104 Chapter 6: The Data Presentation 105 Developer Surveys 105 The Fragmentation of Privacy 106 The Western Pursuit for Privacy 107 Privacy Apps Are Political 107 7 Youth Takes Priority Through Smart Software 108 Doing Time 109 Developers Invite User Feedback 110 Increasing User Engagement 111 Journalists Interviews 112 Only Apps 112 Only Anonymity 113 Only the Internet 114 User Interviews 116 Users Are Establishing Rules 116 Rules About Support 117 Rules About Misrepresentation 119 Rules About Monitoring 120 Segmented Regions 122 Lack of Images 123 User Focus Group 116 Focusing on the High 124 Episodic Encounters 125 The Dilemma of Gaining Trust 126 Rules and Intimate Social Relations 127 Concluding Comment 129 Chapter 7: Analysis 130 Developing a New Privacy 130 Developers 131 Journalists 134 Users Contribute to Privacy Apps 137 Rules About Support 138 Rules About Misrepresentation 140 Rules About Monitoring 142 What the Focus Groups Reveal 144 Concluding Comment 148 8 Chapter 8: Conclusion 149 The Significance of Privacy 150 The Current Sociological Field 152 The Importance of a Case Study Approach 152 Future Policy Development 153 Future Research 154 References 155 Appendix A 177 Appendix B 180 Appendix C 181 Appendix D 182 Appendix E 183 Survey 184 9 Chapter 1 Introduction Privacy on the internet has increasingly become an issue of grave importance to citizens, businesses and governments alike evidenced in the recent breaches involving Facebook (Facebook 2017), WhatsApp (WhatsApp 2018) and WikiLeaks (WikiLeaks 2019), where large amounts of data have been disseminated to corporate and government entities. As a result, internet users increasingly look for ways to access privacy on the internet. However, the internet is an inherently public space and although privacy is often referred to on the internet, it does not appear to be the same thing as privacy as traditionally understood. Nonetheless, in response to such privacy breaches on the internet various types1 of privacy software have been regularly released with privacy applications (apps)2 being the most recent version of privacy available on the internet. Yet where users pursue privacy on the internet through the use of ‘smart’ software, this creates a whole new set of issues surrounding privacy. At its most fundamental privacy is understood to be that which is hidden or withheld from public view, however as will become apparent in the thesis, privacy also seems to operate in a way that is more complex than this. Here privacy is addressed in terms of the various discourses surrounding privacy as well as the various ways that privacy may be conceptualized, defined and valued (Rossler 2004, pp2-11). These ideas are discussed in further detail in Chapter Two.