Computer-Mediated
Communication
Social Privacy in a Networked World
Coye Cheshire & Jen King
// 21 September 2016
Quick Review
 Personal disclosure is a fundamental
human activity
 Disclosure in CMCs is a reflection of this activity
 What looks like a “Privacy Paradox” can be unpacked
into more nuance that contextualizes disclosure
 Disclosure is motivated by:
 Different aspects of privacy (psych, social, info)
 The need/desire to build social capital
 Lack of privacy “literacy” (people are unaware of
info gathering by CMC platforms, or they don’t care)
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Today: Implications of Disclosure
 Social Consequences
 Turbulence:
interpersonal
consequences, such as
embarrassment, loss of
friendship, loss of
privacy
 Objective harms: loss of
job, discrimination,
reputational harms
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2009/12/10/either-mark-zuckerberg-got-a-whole-lot-less-private-or-facebooks-ceo-doesnt-understand-the-companys-new-privacysettings/#7f3f4b721c61
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
What’s happening on the
ground?
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Silent Listeners (Stutzman et al.)
 Facebook users over time became more privacy
seeking by progressively limiting data shared
publicly with strangers
 Facebook’s 2009 changes reversed this
 amount of info users revealed to connected
friends increased, as well as to third party apps;
often occurred w/o explicit consent or awareness;
the network remains an “imagined” community
that does not map to actual audiences
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Facebook privacy settings circa Dec 2009
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Facebook privacy settings circa July 2010
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Implications of “Silent Listeners”
 How much is our expectation of privacy bound to
the platform we are using?
 “Power of the environment in affecting individual
choices: the entity that controls the structure . . .
Ultimately remains able to affect how actors
make choices in that environment.”
 Privacy by overexposure?
 How much of this study is just specific to FB?
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Boundary Management
 Litt & Hargittai’s paper
 Incorporates the work of Sandra Petronio (using
an updated version of Altman’s theory:
Communication Privacy Management)
 Privacy == individuals’ information boundary
(rule) management w/r/t others
 Turbulence == breakdown in expectations when
personal info goes beyond a person’s desired
boundaries
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Key findings
 Skill is a key concern in Hargittai’s work – found those with more
Internet skills less likely to experience negative outcomes
 Self monitoring: “ability & motivation to pick up on social cues and
modify their self-presentations”
 Higher self-monitoring skills & privacy behaviors == more turbulence
 Context collapse, or perceived vs. actual privacy misaligned, also control
paradox
 Higher self monitors might be more sensitive, more aware negatives
exist, better at ID’ing it, not necessarily more likely to experience
 Prior negative experiences may also contribute
 While we can cause our own turbulence, more often generated by
what others share about us – how do we design for this?
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Misplaced Confidences –
Control Paradox
 Individuals’ perceived control over release and
access of private info increases willingness to
disclose
 Questions assumptions about rational, informed
choice
 Part of a larger body of research by Acquisti
questioning decision-making models; role of
heuristics
 Posits that privacy preferences are contextual
and subject to manipulation
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
Design solutions?
 Better (re)designed
privacy controls
 Privacy “nudges”
 Predictive privacy
preferences
 Incorporating
longitudinal aspects
 How do we design for
social privacy?
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016
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Cheshire & King - CMC i216 Fall 2016