VOME Workshop:
An overview of the presentations from the keynote speakers
VOME Workshop – Delivering Public Services Online: How does it change the status quo? from VOME on Vimeo.
Delivering Public Services Online: How does it change the status quo?
VOME Workshop: Kieron O’Hara Presentation “Transparency & Privacy” from VOME on Vimeo.
“Exploring privacy: your privacy and the internet” took place on March 13th, in Winter Gardens, Sunderland. The event formed part of the nationwide Festival of Social Science which is run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to feature events from some of the country’s leading social scientists the festival and celebrates the very best of British Social Science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives – both now and in the future.
The VOME project has worked together with UK online to conduct a survey of privacy attitudes and behaviours. Focusing on our concerns about privacy while using the internet, the survey reveals that online identity theft is currently the greatest fear for internet users.
Other key concerns relate to individuals having their personal information compromised. Among these concerns, finance features prominently, as does the exposure of personal information and the potential for individuals and companies to misrepresent themselves. Gender, length of internet experience and education levels all contribute to affecting the level of general concern. The tracking of web pages visited by an individual is predominantly regarded as either harmful (43.1%) or both helpful and harmful (39.7%). Very few regard it as purely beneficial.
These results form part of the backdrop to a project called ‘Visualisation and Other Methods of Expression’ (VOME), which aims to produce methods and tools for negotiating and engaging with on-line privacy and consent. These tools could help service users define, agree and check levels of privacy when using the internet and might help service providers respond more effectively to the service user’s privacy concerns.
Dr Lizzie Coles-Kemp, VOME Project Manager, comments, “The survey results are a useful stepping stone to helping us understand the bigger picture when it comes to on-line privacy practices and behaviours. We look forward to developing a more complete picture with the results from our qualitative fieldwork.”
VOME is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the Technology Strategy Board, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The VOME partners are the Information Security Group (Royal Holloway), Cranfield and Salford Universities, Sunderland City Council and Consult Hyperion.
The survey was developed by VOME researchers from existing privacy scales which have been previously used to measure privacy attitudes and behaviours. The use of existing scales enables VOME researchers to compare their results with previous surveys of this nature. The survey was administered via an online platform known as ConfirmIT provided by UK online. Participants were recruited from UK online’s research panel known as “myopinion”.
The total number of valid responses for the survey was 1048. Of the 1048 respondents, 49.8% (523) were male and 50.2% (525) were female and the mean age was 41.0 years (range: 18 – 82 years).
Although a large proportion of respondents had not personally experienced an invasion of privacy, many had heard or read about the use and potential misuse of customers’ personal information collected on the web. 45% indicated that they had heard or read about such incidents “somewhat frequently” and 16% had heard or read about such incidences “very frequently”. 31% had heard or read about such incidences “not too frequently” and only 4% had not heard or read about such incidences at all.
VOME is currently undertaking qualitative research to explore the trends identified in the survey in order to develop a deeper understanding of the privacy protection practices and how these can be improved to become more usable by wider sections of the community.
Copies of the survey and further information about VOME can be obtained from here or by contacting Claire Hudson claire.hudson@rhul.ac.uk
VOME are holding an event titled ‘Exploring Privacy: Your Privacy and the Internet’” at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens on Saturday 13th March 2010.
This event provides an opportunity to share your thoughts about online identity and privacy. Beginning with a short performance to introduce the topic in a thought provoking manner, followed by a discussion and interactive activity to record your thoughts and conclusions.
If you are interested in attending this event, please contact us.
Dr. Lizzie Coles-Kemp, of the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, is a Primary Investigator on the Visualisation and Other Methods of Expression (VOME) project which is joint research between Cranfield University, Salford University, Royal Holloway (University of London), Sunderland City Council and Consult Hyperion. The project is funded by The Technology Strategy Board, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In this podcast she talks about the VOME project and explains how the visualisation of privacy is fundamental to informed consent and therefore e-government and e-business.
Listen here in either [Podcast MPEG4] or [Sound-only MP3] format.
You can download this and other podcasts in both iPod (MP4) and MP3 format from the Consult Hyperion podcast page, where you can also subscribe to the podcast RSS feed. If you have iTunes, you can find the podcasts in the iTunes Store: just search for “Consult Hyperion” in the podcasts area and you can click and subscribe. Alternatively, you can click on this iTunes link.
Original Post: Digital Identity Forum (DIF)
Click here to complete the survey.
This is a quantitative research assessment of the country’s online user population in its behaviours and privacy attitudes. In the course of expounding the conceptual models of on-line privacy, it is essential to first understand the users’ demographics, assets and infrastructure which may possibly influence the range of online activities they engage in. The different categories of online pursuits, ranging from simple emailing and information searches to social networking and entertainment, together with demographic and infrastructural differences, may result in diverse perceptions and attitudes of privacy risks in the on-line context. This survey is part of the on-going VOME research activity that uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to build a rich picture of our on-line privacy, consent and identity beliefs and behaviours.
The VOME team conducts focus group discussion on online activities, privacy concerns and associated privacy protective behaviours. These discussions bring up emergent themes, issues and questions and outlines key findings that may signal the future directions in privacy research.
We are now looking for additional user groups to act as research test beds. A suitable test bed will contain users of on-line services (either public or corporate), on-line services and a diverse technological infrastructure. User groups from public services, healthcare and the corporate sectors are particularly welcomed.
Two researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, are working within the AAC user community to better understand how AAC technologies are used in different settings, including the Internet. This information gathering exercise forms part of a UK national study into information disclosure and the Internet. This wider study is called Visualisation and Other Methods of Expression (VOME) and its focus is to develop technologies which help technology users decide how they wish to use the Internet.
VOME seeks to identify and understand the patterns of practice that technology users have when creating and disclosing information about themselves. VOME’s philosophy is to design technologies that are as inclusive and as accessible as possible. The issues relating to AAC users and their use of Internet-enabled technologies are of profound importance to a project such as VOME.
Each generation of AAC devices brings increased network connectivity which offers AAC users an ever-increasing range of opportunities for communication. Network connectivity in AAC use can be as simple as storing and downloading utterances from the Internet. However, new developments in AAC technology also enable AAC users to deploy wider Internet capabilities such as geolocation tools, increased accessibility through cloud computing and messaging technologies in their communication. Identifying patterns of communication skills and the vision AAC families have for AAC technologies, will help researchers develop a better understanding of how new developments in AAC technologies might be used and any safety or support needs that follow.
Engaging with any user community is a multi-stage process. In the early phase of the work, the research team would very much like to hear from families who would be happy to have a short, informal conversation to share their insights and views. This will help us focus the follow-on formal studies. The initial study will be conducted from the UK but we welcome inquiries and participation from everywhere.
Please contact claire.hudson@rhul.ac.uk if you would like to take part.