Testing for Transparency: designing privacy-informing systems for young people

我的博士学位的目的是通过研究他们对儿童和年轻人的影响来评估新兴的隐私政策演示技术（“政策演示”）。众所周知，目前管理用户隐私的“同意和通知”方法在网上并不有效[5] [7]。同意和通知是指在用户与在线服务接触时提供隐私通知，然后要求用户同意的方法（或撤回同意）对隐私的做法，已在其中解释。这种做法已被批评，其冗长，通知时显示的时间，以及权力不对称，它鼓励，除此之外[2] [3]。解决征求同意固有问题的一种方法是改变网站隐私惯例呈现给人们的方式。隐私研究人员建议并测试使用替代格式，视觉和其他媒介，包括简短或“分层”通知，隐私营养标签，图形和隐私仪表板等。据认为，替代政策介绍可以提供一种手段，提高网上隐私政策的透明度，从而积极影响互联网用户的习惯。虽然存在相反的论点，支持这一假设的证据也是混合的[4][6]，但这似乎是该行业正在改变实践的方向，特别是当它与儿童有关时：最近，信息专员办公室（ICO）建议在其《年龄适宜设计规范》（Age Appropriate Design Code）的透明度指导方针中使用新颖的演示格式，面向儿童的互联网服务。年轻人对他们的数据被使用的方式以及隐私政策如何呈现给他们表示担忧，并且有证据表明他们欢迎尝试为他们量身定制解决方案[1] [7]。如果前一个关于透明度的假设是正确的，那么为年轻人设计的替代政策演示可以鼓励他们参与，引导他们更好地理解服务条款，并导致他们采取更好的隐私做法。然而，缺乏关于展示由年轻人设计和为年轻人设计的隐私政策的新方法的研究。我的博士学位将探讨这些替代隐私政策的演示文稿，看看他们的使用是否会对年轻人的隐私实践产生影响，以及在多大程度上共同创建的政策演示格式可以提高其有效性。

The aim of my PhD is to assess emerging privacy policy presentation techniques ("policy presentations") by studying the impact they have on children and young people. It is well established that the current 'consent-and-notice' approach to managing user privacy has not been effective online [5] [7]. Consent-and-notice refers to the approach of providing a privacy notice at the point of a user's contact with an online service, and then asking for that user to consent (or to withdraw consent) toward the privacy practices that have been explained within it. This approach has been criticised for its lengthiness, the timing of when notices are displayed, and the power asymmetry it encourages, amongst other things [2] [3]. One method of addressing the problems inherent in notice-and-consent is to alter how website privacy practices are presented to people. Privacy researchers have suggested and tested using alternative formats, visual and other mediums including short or 'layered' notices, privacy nutrition labels, graphics and privacy dashboards to name a few. It is assumed that alternative policy presentations could provide a means of enhancing the transparency of online privacy policies, and therefore positively affect the habits of internet users. Although counter-arguments do exist, and the evidence supporting this assumption is mixed [4][6], this appears to be a direction that the industry is taking to alter practice, particularly as it relates to children: Recently, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) recommended using novel presentation formats in their guidelines for transparency within the Age Appropriate Design Code, their guidelines for creating GDPR-compliant, child-facing internet services. Young people have expressed concerns about the ways their data is used and how privacy policies are presented to them, and there is some evidence that they would welcome attempts to tailor solutions to them [1] [7]. If the former assumption about transparency is correct, alternative policy presentations designed with young people in mind could encourage their engagement, lead them to better understand terms of service, and result in them adopting better privacy practices. However, research on novel approaches to displaying privacy policies designed by and for young people is lacking. My PhD will explore these alternative privacy policy presentations to see whether their use can have an effect on young people's privacy practices, and to what extent the co-creation of policy presentation formats can increase their effectiveness.