The Price of Privacy

1
The Price of Privacy

• Rivka Ribak
• Department of Communication
• University of Haifa, Israel

2
Outline

• The prevalent discourse
• About technology
• About globalization
• The Israeli case research findings
• The argument
• Privacy is a culturally-specific notion
• Its price is negotiated between local practices
  and global forces

3
The inevitable eyeTechnological determinism

• Surveillance is inevitably implicated in advanced
  communication technology
• Evidence for this link may be found in
• The scope of academic publications on the issue
• The growth of data protection industry
• The recurrence of popular depictions of this link
  and its consequences

4
Big Brother comes from the USCultural
Imperialism

• American culture is preoccupied with privacy
• This preoccupation is built into the technology
  produced for and by it
• Globalization consists of the spread of US
  technology, and the ideology that is embedded in
  it, to the world

5
Qualifying unidirectional determinism

• Technology as a dialogic practice
• Privacy is constructed at the interface of
  hardware, software and user, as they are embedded
  in cultural and political contexts, over time
• Globalization as a dialogic practice
• Privacy is constructed at the meeting of local
  cultures and global political-economical forces,
  in history

6
The price of privacyTwo case studies

• Captain Internet HaAretz supplement
• Discursive construction of privacy for/among
  Israeli surfers
• Cross-cultural inter-generational survey
• Privacy practices of Israeli parents and their
  adolescent children as compared to their US
  counterparts

7
Captain Internet

• Weekly supplement, March 1997 April 2002
  (Jan. 2004 on-line edition)
• As compared to being Wired, The Captain adopts a
  distant perspective
• Views the internet in the historical context of
  books, radio and television
• Is conscious of local practices that undermine
  global trends

8
The discourse of privacy

• Growth in the number of references
• 11 in 1998 17 20 30 in 2001
• The pragmatic discourse, translated into a
  calculation of the price, remains

9
Privacy and culture

• Privacy is a basic American value, 9.98
• Were Americans, that is, were right, 9.01
• In Israel, privacy protection means storing your
  information in the closet, 8.99

10
Privacy and technology

• Doubtless there is nothing that concerns the
  average surfer more than the violation of his/her
  privacy, 6.01
• Privacy is like the weather, 1.02
• Information can be easily protected using
  software, 6.01

11
Privacy and the price

• You have zero privacy anyway, get over it
  (McNealy).
• Birnhak, 4.02
• If the price of light is a little less privacy,
  then I am willing to pay it.
• Rafaeli, 2.02
• If everybody would enter using nicknames, it
  would ruin it.
• Unger, 4.02

12
The surveyIn collaboration with Prof. Joe Turow

• Questionnaire 1,000 adults, 300 adolescents, US,
  January 2000
• http//www.appcpenn.org/04_info_society/family/FAM
  ILY.HTM
• Questions translated into Hebrew
• Questionnaire 1,000 adults, 300 children,
  Israel, January 2001
• General perceptions and use patterns
• Ideas about privacy and practices of information
  exposure

13
Privacy findingsCross-cultural resemblance

• Is it OK for a teenager to answer questions like
  these on a web site?
• Israelis tend to agree more BUT
• For most items, no more than 40 of the parents
  in both cultures agree that their children will
  expose information
• Few parents in either culture are willing to
  expose this information themselves (20 of the
  Israelis, 24 in the US)

14
Privacy findingsDifferences in the concern

• My concern about outsiders learning sensitive
  information has increased since we've gone
  online 37, 60
• I am nervous about web sites having information
  about me 52, 72
• When I go to a web site, it collects information
  about me even if I do not register 31, 54

15
Privacy findingsDifferences in loci of
responsibility

• Teenagers should have to get their parents
  consent before giving out information online
  80, 96
• Agree strongly 43, 84
• I should have a legal right to know everything
  that a web site knows about me 71, 95 (43,
  88)
• I look to see if a web site has a privacy policy
  before answering any questions 46, 72 (18,
  53)

16
Privacy findingsDifferences in experience

• Have any of your children ever given out
  information he or she shouldnt to web sites?
  47, 10
• Do you currently use an internet monitor on your
  home computer? 4, 19
• Have you heard of an internet monitor before?
  33, 78
• If someone offered to help you put an internet
  monitor for free, would you want it? 43, 82

17
Findings Access

• Have you personally ever gone on-line? 64, 94
• No significant differences between parents who do
  and do not surf
• Abilities to go on-line similar
• Expert advanced 26, 30
• Intermediate beginner 64, 66
• I often worry that I wont be able to explore the
  web with my children as well as other parents do
  48, 26

18
FindingsDifferences in enthusiasm

• Access to the internet at home helps my children
  with their school work 17, 86
• Online, my children discover fascinating, useful
  things 10, 85
• The internet is a safe place for my children to
  spend time 25, 51

19
FindingsDifferences in concern

• Going online too often might lead children to
  become isolated from other people 31, 59
• I am concerned that my children might view
  sexually explicit images on the internet 28,
  72
• View violent images 31, 62
• I am concerned that children give out personal
  information when visiting web sites or chat
  rooms 24, 74

20
Findings Practice

• How often have you read a privacy policy on the
  web? 25, 60
• Have you ever bought anything over the internet?
  30, 53

21
ConclusionCross-cultural differences

• Cross-cultural differences in
• Appreciating the promise and the threat of the
  web
• Patterns of use
• The meaning of privacy
• THUS, technology does not determine (the price
  of) privacy

22
ConclusionComplicated interrelationships

• Israeli parents the kids are responsible
• US parents tripartite responsibilityparents,
  state, suppliers
• Israeli parents mellow
• US parents enthusiastic, concerned
• Both resent excessive exposure
• THUS Globalization works in many levels and
  directions

23
References, links, contact

• Internet power and social context A
  globalization approach to Web privacy concerns
  Rivka Ribak, Joseph Turow. Journal of
  Broadcasting Electronic Media. Washington Sep
  2003. Vol. 47, Iss. 3  pg. 328
• http//www.hevra.haifa.ac.il/com/faculty-panorama/
  rivki.htm
• Video-conference lecture by Prof. Joseph Turow,
  Annenberg School for Communication, University of
  Pennsylvania Americans and internet privacy,
  sponsored by CRI, Sept 26, 2003
• rribak_at_research.haifa.ac.il

24
Thank You Toda

• rribak_at_research.haifa.ac.il