Utopia
Dystopia
- a community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizen
- a community or society that is undesirable or frightening
Functions of utopian worldview:
- Optimism about the future
- Strong belief in technologie development
- Push to invest in technological developments
- Cultural change toward individuation and individual empowerment
4 industrial revolutions
1784: Mechanical production, railroads and steam power
1870: Mass production, electrical power and the advent of the assembly line
1969: Automated production, electronics, and computers
Now: Artificial intelligence,
Uncertainty avoidance
The extent to which a society, or group relies on social norms, rules and procedures to minimize the unpredictability of future events
Privacy is defined by
cultures, times, individuals
Three theoretical perspectives:
Westin, 1967: Political-scientific approach:
→ Privacy in interaction with others; society as a whole
Altman, 1975: Psychological approach:
→ privacy for the self; wellbeing and identity regulation
Petronio, 2002: Communication approach:
→ privacy as information ownership and sharing
Westin: privacy as a basic need:
- A dynamic process: we regulate privacy so as to serve momentary needs and role requirements.
- Non-monotonic: you can have such a thing as too little, just enough, or not enough privacy.
Purposes of privacy: what is privacy for?
- Personal autonomy
- Self evaluation
- Emotional release
- Limited and protected boundaries
States of privacy: how can privacy be achieved?
- Solitude
- Intimacy
- Reserve
- Anonymity
Irwin Altman formulated the Privacy Regulation Theory;
understanding why individuals alternate between states of sociality and solitude
Five elements of privacy:
- Dynamic process: Individuals regulate what they (do or not) want to share differently, depending on the situational or social context.
- Individual vs Group level: Individuals perceive their own privacy differently from that of their community / family
- Desired vs Actual level: desired level of privacy might be lower / higher than individuals have in a given context
- Not monotonic: there is such a thing as both too much and not sufficient privacy
“the stranger on the train”
the sauna principle - By-directional (inwards and outwards): Individuals might have different sensitivities for their actions towards others’ privacy and others’ actions towards them.
Sharing benefits: are generally classified as belonging to three main categories:
- Financial rewards: discounts, earnings, time saved
- Social benefits: gaining access to specific groups you like, are important, or are beneficial to you
- Personalization: personalized offers, validation
Sharing risks. In considering these risks, people need to distinguish between:
- The likelihood of the risk → the change that information is “misused”
- The severity of the risk → consequences of this “misuse”
The privacy paradox
Assessing users’ perception of privacy versus their privacy protecting behavior scholars have often found the results paradoxical
Limits of the privacy calculus. Behavior quite often guided by “heuristics”
Social proof
Persuasive techniques by platforms
Foot in the door
Door in the face
Affect heuristics
“Framing” effects
Privacy fatigue
Privacy fatigue consit of
Cynism & Emotional exhaustion
Media affordances:
- Data permanence
- Communal visibility of social information and communication
- Message auditability
- Associations between individuals, as well as between a message and its creator
Rationale of expectancy theory
Maximize positive consequences and minimize negative ones. Costs/Bennefits
Privacy
- Informational privacy (individual control)
- Social privacy (dialectic process)
- Psychological privacy (emotional/cognitive inputs/outputs)
- Physical privacy (personal freedom)
Attitudes consist of:
- Instrumental (cognitive)
- Experiential (affective)
Differences privacy attitudes/privacy concerns:
Privacy concerns: unipolar –> negative
Privacy attitudes: bipolar
Information sharing online is considered to happen in a trade-off. What are the two forces involved?
Usefulness and security
