“WTH..!?!” Experiences, reactions, and expectations related to online privacy panic situations
Venue
Eleventh Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2015), USENIX Association
Publication Year
2015
Authors
Julio Angulo, Martin Ortlieb
BibTeX
Abstract
There are moments in which users might find themselves experiencing feelings of
panic with the realization that their privacy or personal information on the
Internet might be at risk. We present an exploratory study on common experiences of
online privacy-related panic and on users’ reactions to frequently occurring
privacy incidents. By using the metaphor of a privacy panic button, we also gather
users’ expectations on the type of help that they would like to obtain in such
situations. Through user interviews (n = 16) and a survey (n = 549), we identify 18
scenarios of privacy panic situations. We ranked these scenarios according to their
frequency of occurrence and to the concerns of users to become victims of these
incidents. We explore users’ underlying worries of falling pray for these incidents
and other contextual factors common to privacy panic experiences. Based on our
findings we present implications for the design of a help system for users
experiencing privacy panic situations.
