We don’t tend to think of the words “privacy” and “personalization” to be opposites. But in the article, “Privacy-Enhanced Personalization”, the author Alred Kobsa, proves that these concepts can but heads, so to speak. In other words, their argument is that personalization on the Internet can sacrifice privacy. The article begins by explaining how “personalization” (an example: product suggestions on websites as you shop online) is a win-win: consumers value it (easier shopping experience, you feel special, etc.), and businesses profit from it (it may influence us to buy more products). But there is a catch: privacy is also a huge concern for consumers. However, the level of concern for privacy differs among different types of people. People have been grouped into 3 groups based on their degree of concern for privacy: the Privacy Fundamentalists (those who are extremely concerned about privacy), the Privacy Unconcerned (those who do not have much concern at all for privacy), and those in the middle, the Privacy Pragmatists. More people fall into the Privacy Pragmatists group than the other two (the ratio of people in these groups is reported in the article as 1:1:2).
Different factors affect people’s perception of a website. They are more willing to trust a website (and therefore feel less like personalization poses a privacy issue) due to factors like:
-personality
-culture (According to the article, people in the US are more concerned about online privacy than people in India)
-trust in the website (factors like positive past experience, website design, reputation, privacy statement and/or seal)
-they are only willing to disclose some information (demographic info but not Social Security number or contact info)
The end of the article was a description of ways to make privacy and personalization meet in the middle. The solutions proposed included Privacy Laws, the Principles of Fair Information Practices, client-side personalization instead of server-side, and even the simple technique of users having pseudonyms instead of using or disclosing their real names/identities.
After reading this article, I have one question to pose regarding privacy: Is our generation at more of a risk of losing our online privacy than older generations? It’s not that we don’t care about privacy or other important safety factors online, but are we at more of a risk, even due to our increased time spent online? We use nearly all the social media sites, we spend hours online daily. All of the sites we use give us extremely lengthy Terms of Agreement, which we simply accept in order to get on with our lives. Is this going to bite us in the long run? What do you think?
Haley,
ReplyDeleteI think you've asked a good question. I think that many people our age tend to be Privacy Pragmatists. Like your blog post and the article mentioned, people in this group aren't really as concerned about giving away private information. We've grown up in an environment that we expect to be quick and personalized. So, we skip out on reading lengthy Terms of Agreement and often don't realize just how much information we're giving away. Overall, I think many of us favor convenience and so we are at greater risk to lose our privacy than older generations.
Your writing is so eloquent and clean, I love it! Anyway, in my opinion you brought up one of the most important aspects of personalization: it acts as both a "win-win" for consumers and businesses but at the cost of the consumers' privacy. As a segway into your question, I feel like this is something this generation is going to have to focus on extensively. Older generations were far less connected than we are today; everyday we carry around a smartphone or tune into our social media outlets we put ourselves on the online grid, exposing ourselves to possible privacy breaches. I feel that, while we are starting to fix issues with privacy protection options, technology is advancing too fast for us to fully secure ourselves safely online. So yes, we are less protected privacy-wise than older generations and I feel that these privacy issues might bite us in the long run if we don't adapt to the technology fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI had actually asked this same question in a comment before I read your post because I thought the exact same thing. I think that the older generation might not share as much information, but in contrast I have seen how they do share a lot of their information. Speaking from experience, my grandparents often post everything they are doing on Facebook, such as when they leave the house, what they buy, and their favorite places to go camping. I sometimes think that they might not realize how much information they are actually sharing and how many people can access it, but then again this is just what I have noticed from my family members. I think that our generation is more aware that anyone or any business can access our information so we are a little more hesitant to give them that information outright, but they are able to access that information through other sources, like our cell phones. I think that the fact we are always online is what is going to "hurt" us the most in regards to privacy. I think another thing that might hurt us is the fact that we want things quickly and right away which causes us to skip over the terms and agreements page. Over all I think if we don't want our information shared and we want to keep our privacy we are going to have to stop using our phones as frequently and I don't see this happening.
ReplyDeleteI would hate to admit it but I really think that our generation and the generation under us is going to make or break the regulations and overall thought-process of how privacy is on the internet. As you stated in your question, we spend an increased amount of time on the internet which is why the privacy topic is such a concern amongst our society. I feel with such an uprising in apps and other internet activities that are delving into our personal lives is bringing the topic attention to our generation and those younger than use. Although we seem to ignore the idea of our privacy being invaded, there are more and more individuals who are actually realizing that this is a topic that should be brought to our attention. In short, what I am trying to get at is that the more our internet expands the more our society will understand that this is a topic that needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteOn the question: I think in some ways, yes. The older generations tend to be far more cautious about this. My grandma can barely use Facebook, and she doesn't trust anything bought online at all, so obviously she has trouble inputting her information on just any site out there. But I'm not sure it's us that'll be the deciding factor on this, but I do think it'll be the next one. And whatever attitude we develop will be what gets passed onto them. We're so much more comfortable that it could easily led us to being more lax on the safety of the next generation, and that could end up badly, since they didn't grow up with the same scaremongering we did.
ReplyDelete