Authors:
Eva-Maria Schomakers
;
Chantal Lidynia
and
Martina Ziefle
Affiliation:
RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Keyword(s):
Privacy, Privacy Protection, Mental Models, User Interface Design, Privacy Literacy, k-anonymity.
Abstract:
Mental models are simplified representations of the reality that help users to interact with complex systems.
In our digitized world in which data is collected everywhere, most users feel overtaxed by the demands for
privacy protection. Designing systems along the language of the users and their mental models, is a key
heuristic for understandable design. In an explorative approach, focus groups and interviews with 18
participants were conducted to elicit mental models of internet users for privacy protection. Privacy protection
is perceived as complex and exhausting. The protection of one’s identity and, correspondingly, anonymity are
central aspects. One research question is how scalable privacy protection can be visualized. Physical concepts,
like walls and locks, are not applicable to the idea of adjustable privacy protection. The concept of kanonymity
– visualized by a group of people from which the user is not distinguishable – can be related to by
most of the particip
ants and seems to work well as symbolization, but it is not yet internalized as mental
model. Initially, users see privacy protection as binary – either one is protected or not. Thus, the concept of
adjustable privacy protection is new to lay-people and no mental models exist, yet.
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