Privacy and Security in the Brave New World: The Use of Multiple Mental Models

Published

July 21, 2015

Author(s)

Susanne M. Furman, Mary F. Theofanos, Brian C. Stanton, Sandra S. Prettyman

Abstract

We live in a world where the flow of electronic information and communication has become a ubiquitous part of our everyday life. While our lives are enhanced in many ways, we also experience a myriad of challenges especially to our priva-cy and security. Survey data shows that the majority of people are ‘very con-cerned’ about privacy and security but that they don’t always act in ways to pro-tect their privacy. Our goal was to explore how participants understand and expe-rience privacy and security as they engage in online activities. To that end we used a qualitative approach to understand user’s mental models of online privacy and security. The data from our 40 interviews show that users have multiple men-tal models that guide their understanding of and experience with privacy and se-curity. These mental models not only operate simultaneously but are rarely fully formed and often contradict each other.

Proceedings Title

HCII 2015

Conference Dates

August 3-7, 2015

Conference Location

Los Angeles, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

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DOI Link

Keywords

mental models, online and computer privacy and security, qualitative study

Citation

Furman, S. , Theofanos, M. , Stanton, B. and Prettyman, S. (2015), Privacy and Security in the Brave New World: The Use of Multiple Mental Models, HCII 2015, Los Angeles, CA, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20376-8_24 (Accessed November 3, 2025)