Ralf De Wolf

Privacy by Design Through a Social Requirements Analysis of Social Network Sites form a User Perspective

The paper operationalizes the concept of privacy by design for social network sites (SNS), defined as evaluating and embedding privacy in the development and adjustment of SNS technology. More in particular we identify the necessary social requirements of SNS in order to optimize the privacy from a user perspective. For this, one of the application domains of privacy by design, the seven laws of identity proposed by Kim Cameron, is assessed and adjusted. This should help to mitigate the responsibilization of individuals who use or are affected by social networking services.

Who Shares What with Whom and Why

Successful online publishers like BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post have mastered the art of making news go viral. In order for this to happen, it needs to be shared by a large number of online media users. Understanding what makes a piece of content worth sharing with others then becomes a key element in understanding current news flows. User-oriented studies about what incites people to share news are limited. Content characteristics, personal dispositions towards news and new media, and self-presentation have proved to be relevant indicators, but people might differ considerably in the way they share news. We hypothesize that different “sharing profiles” are discernible amongst online news users, based on their motivations to share, but also considering internet skills and news-sharing behaviour. In order to identify these profiles, we draw on a survey amongst Dutch-speaking Belgian online media users (N = 1237). The results illustrate how motivations to share are important predictors of online sharing activity; especially staying socially connected with others. Yet, self-confidence in internet skills was found to be a second, important predictor for online sharing behaviour. Drawing on these insights, we discuss whether viral news forms a threat or an opportunity to news reporting.

Who’s my audience again? Understanding audience management strategies for designing privacy management technologies

Social network site users are often confronted with invisible audiences. Although various settings for managing audiences are available, we argue that these do not always match the users’ interpretations. This study explores the audience-management strategies of 18 young adults when categorizing their (invisible) audiences in Facebook, using card sorting as a research method. Approximately 1254 out of 1800 people (cards) were categorized based on the shared-community strategy, in which the participants referred to multiple community roles. The theoretical framework of Symbolic Interactionism and the Communication Privacy Management Theory are used to frame the problematic nature of invisible audiences. Implications for designing privacy-management technologies are discussed.

The promise of audience transparency. Exploring users' perceptions and behaviors towards visualizations of networked audiences on Facebook

We study the affordances of visualizations of Facebook friends using an interview and survey study.We study how users interact with visualizations of Facebook friends by logging mouse interactions.The data indicate that audience visualizations are especially perceived useful for grouping and reflection purposes.The data suggests a shift from audience control to audience transparency. The presence of multiple audiences and the collapse of boundaries between them in Facebook make it difficult for users to know and to control who has access to their online contributions. Previous research has shown how visualizations of Facebook friends are useful, but mainly focused on the instrumental goal of controlling access. It is unclear, however, what value users themselves see in visualizations and whether knowledge and/or control are important to them. In this research, these questions were studied by evaluating FreeBu, a semi-automatic and interactive grouping technology that visualizes Facebook friends. The results indicate that audience visualizations are especially perceived useful for grouping and reflection purposes. Moreover, we found how users are attracted to larger groups, those with whom they communicate more, bridges and outliers in their network. The combined findings suggest that awareness is considered at least as important as control. Therefore, a shift from audience control to audience transparency is recommended.

From persuasive messages to tactics: Exploring children’s knowledge and judgement of new advertising formats:

Despite that contemporary advertising is decreasingly about persuading children through persuasive messages and increasingly about influencing them through implicit tactics, little attention has been given to how children may cope with advertising by understanding and evaluating the new advertising tactics. Drawing on 12 focus groups entailing 60 children of ages 9–11 years, this article investigates children’s advertising literacy by exploring their knowledge and judgements (and accordingly reasoning strategies) of the new advertising formats. In particular, insight is provided into children’s critical reflection on the tactics of brand integration, interactivity and personalization in the advertising formats brand placement, advergames and retargeted pre-roll video ads on social media. It is shown that while children not spontaneously do so, they appear to have the ability to understand these tactics and form judgements about their (moral) appropriateness, thereby considering a wide range of societal actors.

Group privacy management strategies and challenges in Facebook: A focus group study among Flemish youth organizations

A large body of research has studied young people’s privacy practices and needs in Facebook. Less is known about group privacy. In this study 12 focus groups were organized with a total of 78 adolescents and young adults of local Flemish youth organizations to discuss their privacy practices. Findings describe how different strategies are used to coordinate the group information flow. The study also shows how online group privacy management can be challenging because ‘implicit’ privacy rules need to be made ‘explicit’, personal boundaries may conflict with those of the group one belongs to and privacy turbulence is difficult to define.