Privacy: how we do it and when it matters most

Transcription

1 Privacy: how we do it and when it matters most Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology Chair, Department of Social Sciences Illinois Institute of Technology Institute for Security, Technology and Society and the Department of Sociology Dartmouth College September 26, 2012

2 Today s talk How do we think about privacy? How do we actually do it? What, exactly, is the anatomy of a privacy violation? How does technology give us a useful entry point for understanding when privacy really matters?

3 Islands of Privacy, 2010 University of Chicago Press 3-year study in Chicago funded by AIM Research Council, Intel Corporation Ethnographic observation of workplaces, homes, public spaces Archival/historical research (academic and popular literature) Content analysis of print media, including 52,500+ newspaper articles from formal interviews, 1-1/2-17 hours long

4 What does privacy mean to you? (n = 57) 1) The ability / power to control access to some thing, place, or piece of information and its dissemination (n = 45) 2) The condition of being: alone / without others demands, interruptions, intrusions / secure, safe, at peace (n = 17) 3) The freedom to do / live / make decisions, without regulation / restriction (n = 7)

5 What does it mean to you if something is private? (n =54) 1) only one person has access to it or it is shared only selectively (n = 52) 2) it is a thing that is mine, part of me, who I am, what I do, what I think (n = 32) 3) it is a thing that is not generally accessible for agreed upon interpersonal and/or socialinteractional reasons (n = 17) 4) it is a thing that is inaccessible under legal, institutional, professional codes (i.e., protected from others use, interest, interference) (n = 12)

6 For more on what s more private or public, time for a tour of people s wallets and purses (with Jay Melican)

7 A two-pile protocol: more private v. more public Okay. Here will be my private pile. Okay. On the back of this card I have the home address and phone number of one of my co-workers. And I was saying, ordinarily, I would consider this whole card all of her personal information to be private. I do consider her home address and phone number private. Ordinarily, I would consider her cell phone to be private, too, with the exception of the fact that she put it on the business card. So, since she put it on her business card, I would-- I would consider this to be public stuff. I ll leave that. That s sort of a category by itself. Okay. I think pretty much-- Now this is [my university] ID, and ordinarily I would consider this to be public, except that it has my Social Security number on it, which makes it go over here [in the more private pile]. And the same thing for the driver s license. You really can t call that private, because you have to produce it for just about everything. But it has your driver s license number on there, which is useful information. All of this other information which people could use against you for, you know, use in order to steal your identity, is on there. So this is sort of in a category by itself, too, because it s actually private information, but you have to produce it every time somebody asks for it. So I don t know how to call that.

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9 Talk About the Piles 1) Multiple intended Audiences (i.e., For whom is this carried?) Self Self & Selected Others Self & Institutions Self & Anybody 2) Control is the Goal I decide who needs and gets to access this. The more an object reveals identity, the more important it is to control it. 3) Is this object personally meaningful? 4) Would it be bad if I lost it?

10 Sorting model of wallet and purse contents by level of responsibility, meaningfulness of object, and reasons carried. Is this object personally meaningful to me? no yes ATM card Membership cards Credit cards Soc. Sec. Card Carried for self & institutions Alcoholics Anonymous coin Letter from friend Extra money (esp. coins) Gum Tissues Carried for self & anyone Seashell Photos of children Movie stubs Most public/ least private objects Most private/ least public objects Prescription medicine Carried for self, only yes College ID (expired) Carried for self and selected others no Would it be bad for me/those for whom I am responsible if I lost control of this object?

11 Shared on a need-to-know basis, wallet and purse contents help us address both The individual burden of publicity + The (increasingly?) individual burden of privacy

12 The wallet and purse analysis also supports the idea of a privacy continuum based on accessibility. Privacy......Publicity The condition of The condition of (Pure) inaccessibility (Pure) accessibility ( Private Public ) That which is That which is completely inaccessible completely accessible See Zerubavel 1987, Allen 1988, Hall 1968, Westin, 1967, Altman 1976, Etzioni 1999, Schwartz, 1966, Warren and Brandeis 1890, Rosen 2000, and Smith 2000

13 How does one actually try to achieve privacy? Selective Concealment and Disclosure Trash management Leave a message Paper trails A trip to the ER

14 For these participants good privacy exists when the things an individual wants to be private are as private (i.e., as inaccessible) as she or he wants them to be. e.g., one s body, a thought, a behavior, relationship, piece of information, chunk of time, a certain space, an object, etc.

15 A violation of privacy occurs when one has not been able to selectively conceal and reveal to control access -- as desired. i.e., Something turns out to be more public than one believes it is, was, should be, or should have been. Look what the cat dragged in

16 Figure 1: A Frame Analysis of Privacy Violations Public B External ( Objective ) Framing of situation/ object/matter of concern (i.e., How private/public others demonstrate this to be) A In-frame (No sense of mismatch) Private Internal ( Socio-Subjective ) Framing of Situation/Object/Matter of Concern (i.e., How private/public the individual understands this to be) Public

17 How is it that the same objective situation the same violation -- can be experienced with such different degrees of magnitude? problem problem problem

18 Factors affecting the experience of a violation 1) Distance from the diagonal (i.e., degree to which one was mistaken) 2) Practical v. Symbolic consequences of violation 3) Difficulty of the recovery process (of getting back into frame) Public External ( Objective ) Framing of situation/ object/matter of concern (i.e., How private/public others demonstrate this to be) Figure 1: A Frame Analysis of Privacy Violations Private B A In-frame (No sense of mismatch) Internal ( Socio-Subjective ) Framing of Situation/Object/Matter of Concern (i.e., How private/public the individual understands this to be) Public

19 Concern about one s privacy being violated at some point in the future of not being able to conceal and reveal as desired has led to a variety of privacy fears. Much of participants everyday behaviors are designed to prevent these fears from coming true. It s a constant, dynamic, adaptive process, though.

20 Formal, interrelated dimensions of fears: 1) The thing one fears will happen 2) The act of violation 3) The information/item lost or uncovered 4) The defensive strategy taken to prevent the violation Diagram by J. Melican, E. Swanson

21 Yet not all fears are serious, nor do even the serious ones always cause us to change our behaviors. When does privacy *really* matter to us?

22 technology + privacy newspaper article coverage Number of articles January 1985 January 1986 January 1987 January 1988 January 1989 January 1990 January 1991 January 1992 January 1993 January 1994 January 1995 January 1996 January 1997 January 1998 January 1999 January 2000 January 2001 January 2002 January 2003

23 Privacy, Families, and ICTs: Privacy Socialization n How do we learn about privacy what it is, how important it should be, how we re supposed to do it? n Focus on the interactional context of the family and the home n Special emphasis on ICTs and social media use to supplement previous findings n 3-month study, again in Chicago n 18 interviews, 9 college students, 9 parents of year olds + 1 family therapist focused on college student population n Again, funded by the Intel Research Council

24 How do the uses of technology in this story reveal 1) The circumstances under which Molly desires more and less privacy, 2) Molly s family role-related expectations of herself and each of her relatives, and 3) the specific nature of the relationship she has with each of them?

25 Overall, privacy seems to especially matter to us when: 1) we enact specific social roles and relationships that have clear privacy-related expectations embedded in them; 2) we experience conflicting desires and demands for others access to us due to membership in multiple social groups; 3) an intimate relationship goes bad, resulting in a real or potential threat to one s identity, reputation, property, etc; 4) we experience a significant violation of our privacy, bringing our self, our privacy expectations, and the likelihood of achieving them into sharp relief.

26 Privacy is culturally specific. In the U.S., it is: socially gifted about the self about our relationships with others something to be actively, constantly, personally managed in order to protect it

27 Which big brother are you worried about? This one. For sure.

28 Privacy Why does privacy matter so much in the USA? Individual freedom Membership in social groups Thank you!