Mark Ackerman Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and School of Information University of Michigan HCI Issues in Privacy DIMACS July, 2004

2 Overview of talk 1.HCI 2.What is “privacy”? 3.The “privacy problem” 4.Why is privacy hard?

3 HCI Human-Computer Interaction qUser control aka User-centered –Not just about user interfaces –Cognitive versus micro-sociology –Broad view of HCI -Combined social and technical co-design space qEmpirically driven (both as science and development process)

4 Privacy What is “privacy” qDiffering but connected senses in social psychology, micro-sociology, policy literatures –Solitude -Regulation of social interaction (Altman) –A private (versus public) space or activity –Avoiding unwanted personal disclosure or noise –Freedom from surveillence –Control over release and dissemination of personal data -Control over one’s persona (Goffman)

5 Privacy What is “privacy” qControl over one’s personal data –Control over release and dissemination qOverlapping with security but different qInherently a tension between person and others qThought to be critical element in using a commercial Web site, adoption of ubicomp

6 The “Privacy Problem” Privacy is important –Growing problem for users Consumers see privacy as a big problem –41% of sampled US consumers very concerned about their privacy [Harris Poll, 2000] – 92% of respondents indicated that even when companies promised to keep personal data private, they would not actually do so [Light 2001] –57% of sampled US consumers want better legal protection [Harris Poll, 2000]

7 The “Privacy Problem” But privacy is not a monolithic problem qDiffering attitudes in different cultures

8 The “Privacy Problem” But privacy is not a monolithic problem qDiffering types of privacy concerns (Culnan and Armstrong 1999) –Unauthorized access –Risk of secondary use -Reuse of personal data for unrelated purposes without consent -Sharing with third-parties -Creation of profiles

9 The “Privacy Problem” But privacy is not a monolithic problem qAttitudes are hardly monolithic –3 basic groups in US (Ackerman, Cranor, Reagle 1999, based on Westin 1991) -Marginally concerned (27%) -Privacy fundamentalists (17%) -Privacy pragmatics (56%) –Spiekermann et al. found similar in Germany –Based on what people both said they would do in an activity and their actual activity

10 The “Privacy Problem” But privacy is not a monolithic problem q Large gap between most people's stated preferences and their actual behavior q But most people want a feeling of control –For example, no automatic transfer of data (86% of sample in Ackerman, Cranor and Reagle 1999)

11 Why is privacy a hard problem for HCI? Social theoretic background q Goffman (1961)  Release of personal info is highly nuanced  Presentation of “face” is critically important to people  An everyday activity  Garfinkel (1967)  People expect to be able to make sense of their environments and their activities

12 Why is privacy a hard problem for HCI? Social activity is fluid and nuanced q Details of interaction matter (Garfinkel 1967, Strauss 1993) q People handle this detail with agility (Suchman 1987) q What people pay attention differs according to the situation (situated activity, Suchman 1987)

13 Why is privacy a hard problem for HCI? HCI problem (also CSCW problem)  Information space is horrendous  At least nine dimensions of analysis (e.g., what, who, intended use, duration of use)  And  Critically important to people  Highly nuanced  An everyday activity  Social-technical gap (Ackerman 2001)  We know what we need to do, but we don’t know how to do it.

14 Why is privacy a hard problem for HCI? Ubicomp makes user control even harder: qAn individual will operate within many social and organizational contexts, and surrounding social and organizational environments may make use of many individuals' data. qA pervasive software environment, consisting of many systems, may be in a complex relation to “the user.”

15 More info? Mark Ackerman

16 Privacy Critics Privacy critics (Ackerman and Cranor 1996)

17 Privacy Critics