Addressing Privacy Online: A Study of Privacy in Context

通知和同意已经成为处理网络隐私的主要标准，然而，通知和同意对于个人在特定环境中对传输信息的适当性和不适当性的评估可能并不重要。因此，尽管越来越多的社交活动和商业活动是在线进行的，但消费者、组织和监管机构都在努力解决各种活动中的隐私期望。这个项目的目标是更好地理解在线环境下的隐私期望。该研究将测试以下假设：(a)个人根据其在线活动的背景持有不同的隐私期望；(b)通知和同意在不同背景下处理在线隐私期望的有效性不同。由于解决在线隐私期望是组织和监管机构的目标，了解这些价值观在不同环境下的变化将有助于管理人员和监管机构确定哪些环境需要不同的隐私保护。该研究实证地考察了在线环境中的隐私规范以及每种环境中通知和同意的作用。研究人员将进行一个全国性的调查使用因子小插曲的方法，其中受访者回答基于一系列假设的小插曲的问题。本研究的结果将确定在线环境中的隐私期望和价值观，并解释通知和同意政策在解决在线隐私期望方面的适当作用。因此，这项研究对政府迫切的需求和社会对网络隐私的关注做出了回应，并对研究人员、商业领袖、政策专家和客户/用户有直接的影响。具体而言，研究结果将通过以下方式为政府政策、自我监管指南和行业最佳实践提供信息：(1)确定具有类似隐私期望的重要在线环境（例如，购物、银行等），(2)优先考虑通知和同意在解决不同环境中隐私期望方面的作用，以及(3)确定在制定特定在线环境隐私期望方面的因素及其相对重要性。

Notice and consent have become the dominant standard in addressing online privacy, yet notice and consent may be immaterial to individuals' assessments about the appropriateness and inappropriateness of the information transmitted within a particular context. Therefore, while an increasing amount of social activity and commerce is performed online, consumers, organizations, and regulators struggle to address privacy expectations across a diverse set of activities. The proposed project's goal is to better understand privacy expectations across contexts online. The study will test the hypotheses that (a) individuals hold different privacy expectations based on the context of their online activity and (b) notice and consent varies in its effectiveness in addressing online privacy expectations across different contexts. Since addressing online privacy expectations is the goal of organizations and regulatory bodies, understanding how those values change in different contexts would help managers and regulators identify which contexts require different privacy protections. The study empirically examines privacy norms across online contexts and the role of notice and consent within each context. The researcher will conduct a nationwide survey using factorial vignette methodology in which respondents answer questions based on a series of hypothetical vignettes. The results of this study will identify privacy expectations and values across online contexts and explain the appropriate role of notice and consent policies in addressing online privacy expectations. As such, this study is responsive to pressing government needs and societal concerns around online privacy and has direct implications for researchers, business leaders, policy experts, and customers/users. Specifically, the results will inform government policy, self-regulation guidelines, and industry best practices by (1) identifying important online contexts with similar privacy expectations (e.g., shopping, banking, etc.), (2) prioritize the role of notice and consent in addressing privacy expectations within different contexts, and (3) identify the factors and their relative importance in developing privacy expectations for specific contexts online.