Hidden within a Group of People - Mental Models of Privacy Protection

Eva-Maria Schomakers, Chantal Lidynia, Martina Ziefle

2018

Abstract

Mental models are simplified representations of the reality that help users to interact with complex systems. In our digitized world in which data is collected everywhere, most users feel overtaxed by the demands for privacy protection. Designing systems along the language of the users and their mental models, is a key heuristic for understandable design. In an explorative approach, focus groups and interviews with 18 participants were conducted to elicit mental models of internet users for privacy protection. Privacy protection is perceived as complex and exhausting. The protection of one’s identity and, correspondingly, anonymity are central aspects. One research question is how scalable privacy protection can be visualized. Physical concepts, like walls and locks, are not applicable to the idea of adjustable privacy protection. The concept of kanonymity – visualized by a group of people from which the user is not distinguishable – can be related to by most of the participants and seems to work well as symbolization, but it is not yet internalized as mental model. Initially, users see privacy protection as binary – either one is protected or not. Thus, the concept of adjustable privacy protection is new to lay-people and no mental models exist, yet.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Schomakers E., Lidynia C. and Ziefle M. (2018). Hidden within a Group of People - Mental Models of Privacy Protection.In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS, ISBN 978-989-758-296-7, pages 85-94. DOI: 10.5220/0006678700850094

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iotbds18,
author={Eva-Maria Schomakers and Chantal Lidynia and Martina Ziefle},
title={Hidden within a Group of People - Mental Models of Privacy Protection},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS,},
year={2018},
pages={85-94},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006678700850094},
isbn={978-989-758-296-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security - Volume 1: IoTBDS,
TI - Hidden within a Group of People - Mental Models of Privacy Protection
SN - 978-989-758-296-7
AU - Schomakers E.
AU - Lidynia C.
AU - Ziefle M.
PY - 2018
SP - 85
EP - 94
DO - 10.5220/0006678700850094