Abstract
In March 2018, news of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal made headlines around the world. By inappropriately collecting data from approximately 87 million users’ Facebook profiles, the data analytics company, Cambridge Analytica, created psychographically tailored advertisements that allegedly aimed to influence people's voting preferences in the 2016 US presidential election. In the aftermath of this incident, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with 30 participants based at a UK university, discussing their understanding of online privacy and how they manage it in the wake of the scandal. We analysed this data using an inductive (i.e. ‘bottom-up’) thematic analysis approach. Contrary to many opinions reported in the news, the respondents in our sample did not delete their accounts, frantically change their privacy settings, or even express that much concern. As a result, individuals often consider themselves immune to psychographically tailored advertisements, and lack understanding of how automated approaches and algorithms work in relation to their (and their networks’) personal data. We discuss our findings in relation to wider related research (e.g. crisis fatigue, networked privacy, Protection Motivation Theory) and discuss directions for future research.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 102498 |
Journal | International Journal of Human-Computer Studies |
Volume | 143 |
Early online date | 13 Jun 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Nov 2020 |
Funding
This work was partfunded by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (Economic & Social Research Council Award No. ES/N009614/1).
Keywords
- Cybersecurity
- Data breach
- Networked privacy
- Privacy fatigue
- Targeted advertising
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Human Factors and Ergonomics
- Education
- General Engineering
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Hardware and Architecture
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Joanne Hinds
- Management - Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor)
- Information, Decisions & Operations
- Applied Digital Behaviour Lab
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security
- Centre for Business, Organisations and Society (CBOS)
- Centre for Future of Work
- Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB)
Person: Research & Teaching, Core staff, Researcher