Grounding Privacy in Mediated Communication
Date
2011-04-01T16:41:31Z
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Abstract
This paper addresses interpersonal privacy coordination in the context of mediated
communication, emphasizing the dialectic and dynamic nature of privacy. We contribute
the Privacy Grounding Model − built upon the Common Ground theory − that describes
how connected individuals create and adapt privacy borders dynamically and in a
collaborative process. We present the theoretical foundations of the model. We also show
the applicability of the model, where we give evidence from two case studies that
illustrate how it can describe privacy coordination among users of an instant messaging
application and a desktop awareness system. More generally, we believe designers can
use the Privacy Grounding Model to reflect on how their system supports or fails to
support people’s lightweight privacy coordination mechanisms, and in particular how
communicators within the system create and use privacy border representations as
common ground. Finally we briefly consider the design of interactive and lightweight
privacy grounding mechanisms.
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Keywords
Mediated Communication, Grounding Privacy