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Investigating the Use of a Simulator to Support Users in Anticipating Impact of Privacy Settings in Facebook

Published: 09 November 2014 Publication History

Abstract

One of the challenges faced by Facebook users is that privacy settings change not only the visibility of the information, but also impact actions other users can take on a piece of information. These actions on their turn can also create changes to the visibility of that piece of information, sometimes granting access to people originally unintended by the user who posted the information. In this paper we investigate how a simulator that allows users to explore the different situations that can result from privacy settings may support them in anticipating the impact of their decisions. To do so, we have implemented a privacy setting simulator prototype, and evaluated it through a qualitative case-study which involved 12 regular Facebook users. Our findings indicate that the simulator improved users understanding of the effects of their privacy settings and allowed them to identify misunderstandings they had about the visibility of their information.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      GROUP '14: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work
      November 2014
      340 pages
      ISBN:9781450330435
      DOI:10.1145/2660398
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      Published: 09 November 2014

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      Author Tags

      1. collaborative systems
      2. configuration
      3. facebook
      4. privacy
      5. settings
      6. simulation
      7. social network sites
      8. user experience

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      GROUP '14
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      GROUP '14: 2014 ACM Conference on Supporting Groupwork
      November 9 - 12, 2014
      Florida, Sanibel Island, USA

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      GROUP '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 27 of 90 submissions, 30%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 125 of 405 submissions, 31%

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      • (2022)Helping People to Control Their Everyday Data for Care: A Scenario-Based StudyPervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare10.1007/978-3-030-99194-4_18(272-301)Online publication date: 23-Mar-2022
      • (2021)Measuring user confidence in social media security and privacyEducation for Information10.3233/EFI-21155637:4(427-442)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2021
      • (2019)Structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis of social media use and educationInternational Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education10.1186/s41239-019-0157-y16:1Online publication date: 22-Jul-2019
      • (2019)Privacy and Transparency within the 4IR: Two faces of the same coinCompanion Proceedings of The 2019 World Wide Web Conference10.1145/3308560.3317592(581-593)Online publication date: 13-May-2019
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      • (2018)Intermediated Semiotic Inspection MethodProceedings of the 17th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3274192.3274221(1-10)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2018
      • (2017)Privacy for Children and Teenagers on Social Networks from a Usability PerspectiveProceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference10.1145/3091478.3091479(63-71)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2017
      • (2017)An Overview of Semiotic Engineering Epistemic Tools for the Design of Collaborative SystemsConversations Around Semiotic Engineering10.1007/978-3-319-56291-9_9(81-99)Online publication date: 10-May-2017
      • (2016)Analysis of Configuration Decision Space Over TimeProceedings of the 15th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3033701.3033724(1-10)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2016
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