CAREER: Usable, Data-Driven Transparency and Access for Consumer Privacy

收集的消费者数据支持在线个性化，但也引发了严重的隐私问题。减轻这些担忧需要让消费者意识到并获得收集的有关他们的数据。然而，迄今为止，消费者通过这些机制获得的洞察力有限。提供意识的尝试集中在有限效用的静态披露上。对所收集数据的访问权大多被忽视，或表现为毫无意义的数据库输出。不幸的是，消费者很难了解收集了什么，由谁收集，特别是这种收集对他们的隐私意味着什么。该项目旨在通过开发新的模型，用户交互和开源隐私工具来提高数据透明度和访问权限。这些技术和工具将使消费者能够在数据驱动的世界中保护自己的隐私。此外，该项目将加强教育和外联。调查人员将开发一个试点项目，让早期职业学生参与研究，为贫困高中生创建一个新的隐私课程，并开发和展出旨在引发对个人隐私的反思的艺术品，通过与芝加哥艺术学院和芝加哥科学与工业博物馆的合作。该项目将围绕互补工具的智力开发，消费者数据驱动的洞察（i）公司为行使数据访问权的消费者提供的庞大档案，以及（ii）在线第三方跟踪生态系统。几个智力上的挑战阻碍了这一进程。首先，海量数据的可用透明度需要自动化的方法来显示对消费者最重要的信息。该项目将通过形成性用户研究以及数据访问工具的迭代开发和评价来应对这一挑战。此外，该项目还将开发用于识别、整合和可视化数据档案的新技术。第二，由于收集到的关于消费者的原始数据只能提供部分透明度，该项目将开发新的方法，以个性化的方式传达从数据中可能得出的推论。第三，没有追索权，透明度就没有力量，因此该项目将了解用户希望追索的类型，并开发工具，以识别和减轻与隐私工具相关的大规模网站破坏。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Data collected about consumers underpins online personalization, yet raises critical privacy concerns. Mitigating these concerns requires giving consumers awareness and access to, data collected about them. To date, though, consumers have been given limited insight through these mechanisms. Attempts to provide awareness have centered on static disclosures of limited utility. Access rights for collected data have mostly been ignored or manifested as meaningless database exports. Unfortunately, consumers struggle to learn what has been collected, by whom, and especially what this collection implies for their privacy. This project aims to improve data transparency and access rights by developing novel models, user interactions, and open-source privacy tools. These techniques and tools will empower consumers to protect their privacy in a data-driven world. Furthermore, the project will enhance education and outreach. The investigator will develop a pilot program for engaging early-career students in research, create a new privacy course for underprivileged high school students, and both develop and exhibit artworks designed to provoke reflection on individual privacy, by collaborating with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.The project will center around the intellectual development of complementary tools that give consumers data-driven insight into (i) the huge archives companies give consumers who exercise data-access rights and (ii) the online third-party tracking ecosystem. Several intellectual challenges stand in the way. First, usable transparency about voluminous data requires automatic methods that surface the information that matters most to consumers. The project will address this challenge through formative user studies and the iterative development and evaluation of a data-access tool. In addition, the project will develop new techniques for identifying, integrating, and visualizing data archives. Second, because the raw data collected about a consumer provides only partial transparency, the project will develop new methods for communicating, in an individualized manner, inferences possible from data. Third, as transparency is powerless without recourse, the project will understand the types of recourse users desire and develop tools that identify and mitigate privacy-tool-related website breakage at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.