Roundtable at the 2018 AoIR conference.
Anatoliy Gruzd, Jenna Jacobson, Ryerson University, Canada
Jacquelyn Burkell, Western University
Joanne McNeish, Ryerson University
Anabel Quan-Haase, Western University
Abstract
The transnational flows of information across nations and borders make it difficult to introduce and implement privacy-preserving policies relating to social media data. Social media data are a rich source of behavioural data that can reveal how we connect and interact with each other online in real time. Furthermore, the materiality of new digital intermediaries (such as the Internet of Things, AI, and algorithms) raises additional anticipated and unanticipated privacy challenges that need to be addressed as we continue to speed towards an increasingly digitally-mediated future.
A by-product of the large-scale social media adoption is social media data mining; publicly available social media data is largely free and legally available to be mined, analyzed, and used (Kennedy 2016) for whatever purposes by third parties. Researchers have begun to suggest that ethics need to be considered even if the data is public (boyd & Crawford 2012).
In the wake of the EU's recent legislation of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Right to be Forgotten, as well as increasing critical attention around the world, the roundtable will discuss how to navigate the transnational and material, as well as the complex and competing, interests associated with using social media, including ethics, privacy, security, and intellectual property rights. By balancing people's individual rights to exercise autonomy over "their" data and the societal benefits of using and analyzing the data for insights, the roundtable aims to generate theoretically-rich discussion and debate with internet researchers about the ethics, privacy, and best practices of using social media data.
Roundtable: Social Media Users' Privacy Expectations & the Ethics of Using Their Data by Third Parties
1. Social Media
Users' Privacy
Expectations
& the Ethics
of Using Their Data
by Third Parties
Anatoliy Gruzd Jenna Jacobson Jacquelyn Burkell Joanne McNeish Anabel Quan-Haase
@gruzd @jacobsonjenna @Profpaper @anabelquanhaase
1
5. Social Media Data Stewardship
Social Media Data + Data Stewardship =
processes related to all aspects of managing social media data including
Collection Storage Analysis Publishing Reuse Preservation
@gruzd
http://socialmediadata.org
6. Social Media Data Stewardship
Social Media Data + Data Stewardship =
processes related to all aspects of managing social media data including
Collection Storage Analysis Publishing Reuse Preservation
@gruzd
Ethical Considerations
http://socialmediadata.org
7. Ethical Considerations For
Researchers
Research more ‘acceptable’ if:
• “it’s going to a good cause”
• “morally right”
• “general public good”
• non-profit or academic
Social media users care about data quality,
accuracy, representation.
Special consideration when studying
sensitive topics and vulnerable groups
(e.g., minors, the deceased, mental health).
(Golder et al. 2017)
8. Ethical Considerations For
Third Parties
• Gruzd & Hernández-García. (2018). Privacy
Concerns and Self-Disclosure in Private and
Public Uses of Social Media. Cyberpsychology,
Behavior, and Social Networking 21(7), 418–428.
• Dubois, Gruzd, & Jacobson. (2018). Journalists’
Use of Social Media to Infer Public Opinion:
The Citizens’ Perspective. Social Science
Computer Review.
• Jacobson & Gruzd. (2018). Employers’ Use of
Young People’s Social Media: Extending
Stakeholder Theory to Social Media Data. In
Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol.
2018, p. 18217).
9. Survey of Online Adults in Canada
• Academic researcher
• Marketer
• Financial institution
• Employer
• Journalist
• Government
• Legal professional
• …
• Credit check
• Insurance claim
• Public health
monitoring
• Law enforcement
• Political polling
• Suicide prevention
• Tenant application
review
• …
• Posting frequency
• Location
• Photos
• Posts
• Topics
• Sentiment
• Communication
network
• Friends’ list
• …
Who Why What data
@jacobsonjenna
(Gruzd, Jacobson, Mai, & Dubois, 2018)
10. Examples of Social
Media Data Use
Banks
Who
Determine
credit score
Why
Aggregated
data
What data
http://uk.businessinsider.com/yasaman-hadjibashi-at-barclays-africa-banks-
using-big-data-and-social-media-2016-9@jacobsonjenna
11. Examples of Social
Media Data Use
Security
Agency
Who
Identify real
or potential
threats
Why
Location-
based
information
What data
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/10/12/geofeedia-is-just-the-tip-
of-the-iceberg-the-era-of-social-surveillence/#10b6941a40e2@jacobsonjenna
12. Examples of Social
Media Data Use
Car
insurance
company
Who
Price car
insurance
Why
Facebook
posts and
likes
What data
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/02/admiral-to-price-car-
insurance-based-on-facebook-posts@jacobsonjenna
13. Examples of Social
Media Data Use
Cambridge
Analytica
Who
Political
targeted ad
campaigns
Why
Facebook
user data
What data
https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files
@jacobsonjenna
14. Comfort by
Third Party
How comfortable would
you be if one of the
following entities
accessed information
about you or posted by
you publicly on social
media?
% Uncomfortable
@jacobsonjenna
15. $
Comfort by
DataType
How comfortable
would you be if a third
party accessed the
following information
about you or posted by
you publicly on social
media?
% Uncomfortable
@jacobsonjenna
16. KeyTakeaways
•Social media research ethics = not a ”one size fits all”
framework
•Privacy varies across uses, users, and data types
•Ethical considerations for researchers using publicly
available social media data
@jacobsonjenna
20. Study Purpose: to measure change in Facebook
user attitudes and behaviour toward privacy after
exposure to Data Selfie intervention
Method: 214 Facebook users from large urban
Canadian university
Results:
• Use of Data Selfie increased privacy concerns
about organizations and other users
• Increase in privacy concern was especially
pronounced in those who completed study before
Cambridge Analytica scandal
• When Data Selfie was perceived to be an accurate
and useful tool, information privacy-protective
responses (IPPR) increased
• Change in privacy concern, number of social media
accounts, and exposure to Cambridge Analytica
scandal did not predict users’ engagement in IPPR
Knowledge May Not Be Power:
The Difficult Job of Changing Facebook Users’ Behaviour
@Profpaper (Gruzd, McNeish, Dahoah Halevi, & Phillips, Under Review).
21. Examples of social privacy concerns
mentioned by our participants
Examples of institutional
privacy concerns noted by our
study participants
Examples of legitimacy privacy
concerns expressed by our study
participants
• Losing control of one’s information
and how it might be used
• Giving out too much information
• Not wanting the whole world
knowing everything; what one is
doing, location, personal things
happening, etc.
• Not wanting people knowing
harmless things about one
• Not wanting people knowing what
is going on
• Exposing oneself
• Organizations collecting
information about one
• Organizations having one’s
information–donation,
adverting, marketing,
political, insurance
organizations
• Organizations passing one’s
name and information to
someone else
• Organizations selling one’s
information
• Government checking one’s
Facebook
• Being scammed
• Unsolicited mail, junk mail or spam
• Being hacked
• Identity theft
• Stealing one’s knowledge
• Unauthorized/illegal access to one’s
bank account
• Unauthorized/illegal access to one’s
credit card numbers (compromise of
credit card number)
• Stealing one’s credit card numbers
• Virus/cookies
• Wire tapping/surveillance
• Intellectual property
Types of Privacy Concerns of EastYork Older Adults (N=40)
@anabelquanhaase
23. Social Media
Users' Privacy
Expectations
& the Ethics
of Using Their Data
by Third Parties
Anatoliy Gruzd Jenna Jacobson Jacquelyn Burkell Joanne McNeish Anabel Quan-Haase
@gruzd @jacobsonjenna @Profpaper @anabelquanhaase
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