Privacy in location-based social networks: privacy scripts & user practices

Abstract

The seamless integration of smartphones in the everyday practices and routines of people is a typical example of the ‘disappearance of media’ (Deuze 2012). Although the actual device is currently still very tangible and visible, it can be defined as the first step in the direction of a world that exists out of Internet-connected objects and people. With the increasing adoption of smartphones, location-based social networks (LBSNs) and platforms gain widespread popularity. However, these context-aware applications also bring along new privacy concerns. Privacy practices now take place in a context in which multiple contextual factors define the interplay between the technology and user. In this article, we study this mutual shaping between LBSNs and mobile users' privacy practices from a Science & Technology Studies perspective and following the work of Madeleine Akrich (1992). We explore how the user script, or the design and features of the LBSNs, can frame users' privacy practices, but also how users invent new ways to manage their privacy beyond the embedded user script. A qualitative user study was conducted to study users' location-sharing behaviour along the privacy-related user scripts (privacy scripts). In this study, couples of friends were asked to use and execute tasks with two different types of LBSNs. Results indicate that the privacy script of a technology influences users' perceived control over their personal information. Although perceived control does not always reflect the actual control, this can mitigate privacy concerns, and as a consequence, also influence users' privacy practices.

Keywords::

• location-based social networks
• location privacy
• user script
• qualitative research
• science and technology studies

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3.https://foursquare.com/; Since July 2014, the check-in feature of Foursquare has been moved to a new app called Swarm.

^4.http://www.glympse.com/.

^5. For more information, see http://locaccino.org/.

^6. For more information, see http://www.everywaretechnologies.com/apps/pcube.

^7. The qualitative study described in this paper is part of bigger mixed method research project in which we explore mobile users' location privacy experiences. See also Veeckman et al. (2014).

^8. ‘Save time by letting friends check you in.’ This setting allows friends to also check you at their current location.

^9. A User-Controllable Location-Sharing Tool (http://locaccino.org/).

^10. A location-aware app that alerts you about the proximity of your friends without acquiring your location data (http://www.everywaretechnologies.com/apps/pcube).

Additional information

Funding

This research project has been supported by the Flemish Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology through the ICON-project SoLoMidem (http://www.iminds.be/en/projects/2014/03/18/solomidem) and by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme through the USEMP project [grant agreement number 611596] (http://www.usemp-project.eu).