Victoria Groom & M. Ryan Calo, User Experience As A Form Of Privacy Notice: An Experimental Study

Victoria Groom & M. Ryan Calo, User Experience As A Form Of Privacy Notice: An Experimental Study

Comment by: Lauren Willis

PLSC 2011

Published version available here:

Workshop draft abstract:

This study and paper represent a collaboration between a privacy scholar and a PhD in human-computer interaction aimed at testing the efficacy of user experience as a form of privacy notice.  Notice is among the only affirmative requirements websites face with respect to privacy.  Yet few consumers read or understand privacy policies.  Indeed, studies show that the presence of a link labeled “privacy” leads consumers to assume that the website has specific privacy practices that may or may not actually exist.

One alternative to requiring consumers to read lengthy prose or decipher complex symbols is to influence a user’s mental model of the website directly by adjusting the user interface.  Use of particular design elements influences users’ cognitive and affective perceptions of websites and can affect behaviors relevant to privacy.

We intend to present the results of an ongoing, experimental study designed to determine how strategies of “visceral notice” compare to traditional notice.   Drawing on a rich literature in human-computer interaction, social psychology, and cognitive psychology, we examine whether anthropomorphism, formality, self-awareness, and other website features can instill in people a more accurate understanding of information practice than a privacy policy.