Privacy Value Networks (2009-2011)

Within the Privacy Value Networks project I work on 4 research topics:  
 

1. Online self-disclosure and self-presentation of first and final year undergraduate students

This study seeks to examine students’ online disclosure and students’ online privacy perception. I focus on the use of personal websites, social networking sites, photo or video sharing websites and blogs. While the widespread use of social networks and blogs offer new opportunities for interaction and communication they also raise new privacy concerns. There are many potential negative consequences for individual students of online (self-) disclosure (e.g. legal or institutional disciplinary consequences, rejection from employment or internship opportunities). I will examine the extent of online disclosure among first year and final year students. We hypothesize that students in their final year at university, who are about to enter the job market, might become more aware of the consequences of online disclosure and change their online behaviour accordingly. I use a questionnaire to capture online disclosure among first year students and final year students. This same survey will be repeated after 2 years among the first group of students to see if their behaviour/attitudes and opinions have changed. I shall also organise focus groups with first and final year students to elicit more qualitative data.

2. Online self-disclosure and self-presentation of weight loss bloggers

This study seeks to examine bloggers’ online disclosure and online privacy perception. I will focus on the use of personal weblogs about weight loss. Research shows that overweight has a social stigma in western society which leads to discriminatory attitudes towards overweight/obese people. Despite the offline reluctance to talk openly about weight issues, there is an abundance of personal weblogs about weight loss with remarkably open accounts of everything to do with obesity. While the widespread use of personal blogs offer opportunities for interaction and communication they also raise privacy concerns. There are both many potential positive and negative consequences for individuals of online (self-) disclosure. I will examine the extent of online disclosure among weight loss bloggers and investigate the bloggers’ understanding of the privacy issues around their voluntary disclosure. I use an online questionnaire to capture disclosure of personal information, as well as privacy attitudes and behaviour among adult weight loss bloggers. I will do a content analysis of 10 to 15 weight loss blogs and will have follow-up email interviews with the writers of these blogs. 

3. GPS tracking of children

This study examines user acceptance of GPS tracking technologies among parents in the UK. What are their motivations to either use or not use these technologies? We have used a pilot survey among 125 participants on Mumsnet, a survey among 1200 parents (representative sample of UK) and some interviews with parents.

4. Privacy dictionary

With this collaborative research we try to create an automated privacy dictionary. The first phase of our research applied prototype theory, a classic linguistic approach, to develop a new definition of the concept of privacy. Building on these findings, we employed an integrated top-down and data-driven linguistic analysis to an existing dataset of qualitative interviews in different contexts, in order to identify privacy specific markers. Apart from its theoretical contribution, this work aims at providing a novel methodological tool to assist researchers in detecting privacy relevant discourse.