This project illuminates what data youth believe online advertisers and social media companies collect about them. We situate these findings within the context of current advertising regulations and compare youth beliefs with what data social media companies report collecting based on their privacy policies. Through interviews with 21 youth ages 10-17 in the United States, we learn that participants are largely aware of how their interactions on the website or app are used to inform personalized content. However, certain types of information like geolocation or how long data is retained is less clear to them. We also learn about what school and family factors influence youth to adopt apps and websites. This work has implications for design and policy related to companies' personal data collection and targeted advertising, especially for youth.
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Pursuing Usable and Useful Data Downloads Under GDPR/CCPA Access Rights via Co-Design
Data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA define a right of access empowering consumers to view the data companies store about them. Companies satisfy these requirements in part via data downloads, or downloadable archives containing this information. Data downloads vary in format, organization, comprehensiveness, and content. It is unknown, however, whether current data downloads actually achieve the transparency goals embodied by the right of access. In this paper, we report on the first exploration of the design of data downloads. Through 12 focus groups involving 42 participants, we gathered reactions to six companies’ data downloads. Using co-design techniques, we solicited ideas for future data download designs, formats, and tools. Most participants indicated that current offerings need improvement to be useful, emphasizing the need for better filtration, visualization, and summarization to help them hone in on key information.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2047827
- PAR ID:
- 10319424
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) 2021
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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