Privacy Issues in LocationAware Mobile Devices

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Privacy Issues in Location-Aware Mobile Devices

• (Selected Research Issues)

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Research Exists in Context . . .
Technologyfunctions,capabilities,methods,limi
tations,. . .
Privacydefinitions,theory,states,functions,at
titudes,prefer-ences,. . .
Privacy Issuesin Location-AwareMobileDevices
Application environmentgovernment
regulation,marketplace applications,standards,.
. .
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Research Goals for This Project

• Theory development and testing
• Issue identification
• Exploration of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes,
  feelings, preferences, behaviors, and actions of
  affected parties
• Making general conclusions about key issues and
  findings
• Making recommendations for practice and future
  research

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Privacy Theory

• The selective control of access to self1
• The claim of individuals, groups, or
  institutions to determine for themselves when,
  how, and to what extent information about them is
  communicated to others2
• Privacy theory pre-dates modern technology

1 Altman, I. The Environment and Social Behavior.
Monterey, CA Brooks/Cole, 1975. 2 Westin, A.
Privacy and Freedom. New York Athenaeum, 1967.
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States of Privacy (Westin1)

• Solitude
• Being free from observation by others
• Intimacy
• Close, relaxed, frank small group relationships
• Anonymity
• Freedom from identification and surveillance in
  public places
• Reserve
• Limiting disclosures to others

(These are said to be the means by which
privacy is achieved.)
1 Westin, A. Privacy and Freedom. New York
Athenaeum, 1967.
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Functions of Privacy (Westin1)

• Personal Autonomy
• Avoiding manipulation, domination, exposure by
  others
• Emotional Release
• Time out from social and role demands
• Self Evaluation
• Contemplation and integration of experiences into
  patterns
• Limited and protected communication
• Setting interpersonal boundaries and sharing
  personal information with trusted others

(These are said to be the whys of privacy.)
1 Westin, A. Privacy and Freedom. New York
Athenaeum, 1967.
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The Survey Research Process1
Information Needs
Sampling Design
Instrumentation
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Results and Conclusions
Modified from Alreck Settle, The Survey
Research Handbook
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To Be Measured Through Survey

• Technology familiarity and experience
• General privacy preferences1
• Location-specific privacy preferences1
• Respondent demographic information

Population of interest affected parties, but
initially limited to potential direct users of
location-aware mobile devices such as
E911-capable cell phones. A scale may be
developed to succinctly measure key location
privacy factors
1 May measure attitudes, beliefs, knowledge,
behaviors, preferences . . .
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This Surveys Components

• Knowledge/Belief Component
• Awareness of technologies, issues, laws . . .
• Unaided and true/false questions may be best . .
  .
• Attitudes/Feeling/Preferences Component
• Measure position on a positive/negative spectrum
• Measure intensity of those feelings
• Behavior/Action Component
• Past, present, future, and hypothetical . . .

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Population Sampling Issues

• Who to survey
• General population?
• People aware of the technologies and issues?
• People unaware?
• Current users?
• Prospective users?
• Reliability freedom from random error
  repeatability
• Validity measuring what we want to measure
  freedom from bias

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Questionnaire Format

• Greeting
• Introduction/initiation
• Body (order of questions is important)
• Knowledge
• Attitudes
• Action tendencies
• Demographic questions
• Conclusion

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Questions

• Goals
• Focus, brevity, simplicity
• Controlled bias
• Limit response biases
• Limit instrumentation biases
• Question type/format
• Unstructured
• Structured
• Scaled
• Likert e.g., Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree
• Verbal Frequency e.g., Never to Always
• Semantic Differential e.g., Hot to Cold

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Online Survey Issues

• Disadvantages
• Who can be and are your respondents
• Lack of supervision assistance
• Possibility of technical problems
• Advantages
• Wide reach at low cost
• Fast turnaround
• Varied, flexible response formats
• Flexible adaptive skipping branching
• Real-time input validation
• Easy feed into analysis tools