Interdependent privacy (IDP) violations among users occur at a massive scale on social media, as users share or re-share potentially sensitive photos and information about other people without permission. Given that IDP represents a collective moral concern, an ethics of care (or “care ethics”) can inform interventions to promote online privacy. Applied to cyber security and privacy, ethics of care theory puts human relationships at the center of moral problems, where caring-about supports conditions of caring-for and, in turn, protects interpersonal relationships. This position paper explores design implications of an ethics of care framework in the context of IDP preservation. First, we argue that care ethics highlights the need for a network of informed stakeholders involved in content moderation strategies that align with public values. Second, an ethics of care framework calls for psychosocial interventions at the user-level aimed toward promoting more responsible IDP decision-making among the general public. In conclusion, ethics of care has potential to provide coherence in understanding the people involved in IDP, the nature of IDP issues, and potential solutions, in turn, motivating new directions in IDP research.
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Modeling User Characteristics Associated with Interdependent Privacy Perceptions on Social Media
‘Interdependent’ privacy violations occur when users share private photos and information about other people in social media without permission. This research investigated user characteristics associated with interdependent privacy perceptions, by asking social media users to rate photo-based memes depicting strangers on the degree to which they were too private to share. Users also completed questionnaires measuring social media usage and personality. Separate groups rated the memes on shareability, valence, and entertainment value. Users were less likely to share memes that were rated as private, except when the meme was entertaining or when users exhibited dark triad characteristics. Users with dark triad characteristics demonstrated a heightened awareness of interdependent privacy and increased sharing of others’ photos. A model is introduced that highlights user types and characteristics that correspond to different privacy preferences: privacy preservers, ignorers, and violators. We discuss how interventions to support interdependent privacy must effectively influence diverse users.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2053152
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10408862
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
- ISSN:
- 1073-0516
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3577014
