Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Fourth Amendment jurisprudence explicitly relies on “expectations of privacy” in evaluating the reasonableness of a search. Courts compare defendants’ subjective expectations of privacy, society’s perceptions of social custom and of what constitutes inappropriate interference in that privacy, and more objective definitions of those constructs. Little research, however, examines such perceptions, typically viewing “privacy” as unidimensional. Using multidimensional scaling, we demonstrate the multidimensional nature of lay understandings of “privacy,” identifying three dimensions that constitute lay perceptions. We show that stimulus context influences these dimensions and overall perceptions of different law enforcement searches. We discuss doctrinal implications and avenues of further research.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: In our current world, we often face the concomitant needs of maintaining privacy and revealing to others to attain medical care, establish friendships, sustain family relationships, open bank accounts, get a passport, and talk to our clergy. In all cases, to achieve these goals, we have to tell others our private information. When we make these disclosures, we create a bond with the recipient. There is an implicit or explicit contract that we establish with the “confidant.” We think about the targets of our disclosure as people who are likely to keep our information “confidential.” Yet, there are many incidents where the contract of confidentiality is breached in ways that violate our trust, undercut our privacy, and compromise our expectations about the nature of confidentiality. While we see these issues in our everyday life, the instability of faith in maintaining privacy has both personal and societal consequences. As Kenneth Prewitt, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau points out, it is difficult to have the kind of democracy we enjoy in the U. S. without access to information. He notes, “if privacy issues [and the belief in confidentiality] begin to erode the information base of our democracy, there is a high price to pay” (Prewitt, 2005, p. 17). This manuscript uses Communication Privacy Management theory (Petronio, 2002) to explore the relationship between privacy and confidentiality to better understand the reasons why people are increasingly finding it difficult to have faith in the notion of confidentiality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Social networking websites change the communication behaviors of young adults. This study applies Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to the context of blogging and develops a validated, theory-based measure of weblog privacy management. Across two studies, 467 young adult bloggers completed an online survey. In study one (n = 176), exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques tested four potential models. Study two (n = 291) cross-validated with a separate sample the final factor structure.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The advent of information technologies has raised public concern regarding privacy, as documented by the results of several surveys. While several European Union member countries must follow strict and specific regulations that protect consumer privacy, the United States has followed a privacy policy of self-regulation; thus, individual companies themselves devise formulas for ensuring customer privacy online. As borders designed to protect the consumer, online privacy statements seldom provide explicit reassurance that consumer information will be kept confidential and will not be exploited. In this study, we focus on online privacy and investigate how consumer information is protected or exposed by online portal sites. Building on a previous content analysis, which found that privacy statements do not always protect customer interests as much as they serve as legal safeguards for the companies involved, we propose a textual analysis designed to supplement and strengthen our previous findings. We undertake this study because, whether or not consumers read these statements, they provide evidence of the internet industry's self protective efforts at the expense of consumer privacy of information.
Public discourse about the cultural impact of information technology often focuses on privacy concerns. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that 701f Internet users call for new laws to protect consumer privacy online (Fox and Lewis, 2001). Advanced data mining technologies have led to the proliferation of consumer database and management enterprises. Personal data is now a tradable commodity in capitalist societies (Hamelink, 2000), placing free market principles and privacy protection at odds with one another. Since digitally stored data can have an indefinite life span, public concern over the ability to control our own information is evident in consumer reluctance to provide personal data to online businesses (Fox and Lewis, 2001; Elgesem, 1996).
Whether or not consumer anxiety about information gathering is warranted, the online industry has responded to public concern and consumer advocacy efforts with voluntarily posted privacy statements to alleviate those concerns. Although governed by suggested industry guidelines, these privacy statements seldom provide explicit reassurance that consumer information will be kept confidential and will not be exploited. Instead, they frequently outline how companies intend to use private customer information so that, in the event of consumer complaints, the companies are absolved of responsibility. Companies such as Microsoft Passport Services are known for exploiting consumer information, and were finally pressured into revising their privacy policies and statements following a series of articles originating from Salon.com. Both Yahoo's and Microsoft's Hotmail email services reportedly divulged customer information in opposition to their stated privacy policies not to share personally identifiable information (Gillis, 2002).
Online privacy statements are often placed inconveniently at the bottom of the page and are often tedious, complex, and replete with legal language the average web user finds difficult to comprehend. Kandra (2001) finds that many of the security statements of e-tailers sound reassuring, but offer very little protection to the individual consumer. Additionally, web users often find privacy policies difficult to trust (Reagle & Cranor, 1999). Building on this evidence, we examine privacy statements posted by online companies to determine whether they effectively protect personally identifiable and non-identifiable data. A discourse analysis of privacy statements could provide in-depth analysis of privacy statement content, and examine how portals use statements to guarantee personal information privacy and/or legally protect themselves. Because this is ultimately a policy question, a discourse analysis would allow the detailed examination of language, both legal and technical, contained within these statements to determine how a document designed to guarantee consumer privacy protection transforms into a company legal safeguard. Qualitative textual analysis techniques (following Fairclough, 1995; 2000 and van Dijk, 1997) seek a deep explanation of meaning through the observation and interpretation of patterns displayed in a mediated text (web portal privacy statements in this study). Textual discourse analysis lends an empirical grounding to the abstract observations about the social character of language and its cultural functions offered by social theory (Fairclough, 2000). A sample of web portals chosen from phase I of this study are analyzed.
This work examines discourse (as defined by Fairclough) as a text. Fairclough characterizes discourse analysis as an examination of texts or language in concordance with the thematic structure of the text and speech. This interpretation of textual characteristics considers speech practices and sociocultural practices embedded within the text. Thus, the aim of discourse analysis, according to Fairclough, is to clarify the "systematic links between texts, discourse practices, and sociocultural practices" (1995, p. 17). Similarly, van Djik's (1997) stated purpose of discourse analysis is to study texts "not only as form, meaning and mental process, but also as complex structures and hierarchies of interaction and social practice and their functions in context, society and culture" (p. 6). For the purposes of this research, discourse will encompass written language in the text of the privacy sections in the sample of web sites. The unit of analysis in this study is the relation between two themes within the online text: consumer protection and legal safeguards for the web company. It examines the legal and computer-oriented vocabulary, grammar and syntax, and organization of web sites to interpret the meaning of the use of privacy in terms of the data-sharing practices of the companies who own the sites. It examines assumptions about rights, concepts of privacy, and data mining. Specifically, this research asks: to what extent does the language in online privacy statements serve to protect and reassure the consumer while allowing the web company to sell and mine consumer information? Are abstruse legal and computer terms used to confuse the consumer in order to obscure the company's data sharing policies? What terminology do these sites use to maximize their own protection while reassuring the user? These statements will be analyzed in terms of policy considerations for the protection of personally identifiable consumer information.
Building on a previous content analysis conducted by the authors, we hope that this study will expose the vulnerability of the privacy statement as a method of privacy protection. Constant technological changes and the interlocked nature of new media ownership combined with the miniscule number of users who ever notice or even read these statements further challenge the effectiveness of this instrument and indicate that privacy protection should involve more direct and legislative measures. Focusing on the use of language will help understand the process through which private information is compromised under the guise of offering personalized and improved services. We hope that this research would lend support to the FTC's recommendation for a legislative solution to online privacy concerns rather than industry-driven privacy initiatives.

References
Elgesem, Dag. (1996). Privacy, respect for persons, and risk. In Ess, Charles (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication. Albany: State University of New York Press, 45-66.

Fairclough, N. (2000). Critical analysis of media discourse. In P. Marris & S. Thornham (Eds.), Media Studies: A Reader, 2nd Edition, (pp. 308-325). New York: NYU Press.

Fairclough, N. (1995). Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold.

Fox, Susannah & Lewis, Oliver. (2001, April 2). Fear of online crime: Americans support FBI interception of criminal suspects' email and new laws to protect online privacy. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org.

Gillis, Cydney. (2002, May 16). Soft talk: Hotmail pushes for revenue. Eastside Journal,
http://www.eastsidejournal.com/92560.html.

Hamelink, Cees, J. (2000). The ethics of cyberspace. London: Sage.

Kandra, Anne. (2001, July). The myth of secure e-shopping. PC World, 19(7), 29-32.

Reagle, Joseph, & Cranor, Lorrie Faith. (1999, February). The platform for privacy preferences. Communications of the ACM, 42(2), 48-55.

van Dijk, T. A. (1997). Discourse as interaction in society. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as Social Interaction (pp. 1-37). London: Sage.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the assumption that a reduction in personal privacy is the necessary cost of improved national security. On the surface, it would seem uncontroversial that improved surveillance might assist a government in its law enforcement and national security efforts. Nevertheless, the relationship is not straightforward. First, a reduction in individual privacy may improve national security or law enforcement while creating new forms of insecurity. Second, a reduction in privacy might be an aspect of “security theatre” and might not actually produce any real improvements in national security or law enforcement. Third, a reduction in individual privacy may have distributional implications. While general security increases, certain individuals or groups may bear the bulk of the costs of the privacy reduction – for example, by being disproportionately included in the false positives turned up by government surveillance schemes. The paper will seek to make explicit the complexities hidden within the trade-off between privacy and security.