Informed Consent to Address

Trust, Control, and Privacy Concerns

in User Profiling

Thea van der Geest, Willem Pieterson, Peter de Vries

Administrative burden

Background: Governments as form factories• Jobseekers allowances• Tax repayment• National insurance• Child care benefits• Incapacity benefits• Reduced earnings allowance• Study loans• etc, etc, etc

PEP05 Edinburgh July 25 2005

Objectives of e-government

UK Inland revenue, for example:

“a target of 100% all government services to be available on-line by 2005 and to achieve 50 % take up of those services”

“ Delivering public services that are high quality and efficient, […] exploiting to the full technological opportunities and seeking to operate simpler processes”

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E-strategy

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Customer focus

[…] personalised services […] focused on needs of different customer segments

Effective contact

[…] effective handling of customer contact […] automatic calculation […]

Range of channels

[…] provide customers with relevant and tailored information services

Simplification […] selfserve […] infrastructure for automatic exchange of data […]

Consistency Providing accurate, up to date information to customers […]

From: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/

The Alter Ego projecton user profiling

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Organisation ICT application User

User profile system

A thought experiment

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Defining the user profileA user profile is a (structured) data record, containing user-related information, such as ….

– Identifiers– Characteristics– (Dis-)abilities– Needs and interests– Preferences– Personality traits– Previous behaviour in contexts relevant for

predicting and influencing future behaviour

…. supporting communication, interaction and transaction between organisations and their clients.

PEP05 Edinburgh July 25 2005

Literature review

What are the conditions for acceptance and intention to use by users?

- Acceptance of the technology- Acceptance of the collection of data for

creating and maintaining a user profile- Acceptance of the use/application of the

user profile

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Major factors determining acceptance

• Trust

• Control

• Privacy concerns

• Access

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Trust

Multilayered, e.g.• Propensity to trust

– “Stable” personality trait• Trust in the organisation

– Perceived shared values, commitment– Quality of communication, experience– Perceived benefits, perceived risks

• Trust in the technology– Consistency, perceived ease of use– Perceived benefit of technology

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Control

Sense of being in charge of:- Technology used (self-efficacy)- Transaction with organisation

But also in charge of: - (The quality of the) personal information- To whom information is provided- Application of the information in new situations

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Privacy concerns = data protection?

What they say ≠ what they do

What they say ≠ what they are

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•Improper acquisition of information

•Improper use of information

•Privacy invasion

•Improper and insecure storage and delivery

Informed consent- Required by EU law: 1995 and 2002 Data Protection

Directives - ??? Consent can be dealt with by ticking off checkbox

on web site???

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Informed consentis a continuous process

• Disclosure– Nature of the personal data collected– Organisation’s objectives and its effects for users, including

sharing data with other organisations and their objectives– Alternatives when no or just some information is collected – Relevant risks, benefits and uncertainties

• Comprehension• Voluntariness• Competence• Agreement

PEP05 Edinburgh July 25 2005