Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are on the rise, yet the knowledge about privacy preferences by different types of drivers in this context needs to be improved. This paper presents survey-based research (N = 528) focusing on preferences of drivers from South Africa and the Nordic countries for data processing and sharing by ITS, including future vehicular ad hoc networks. Our results indicate regionally framed drivers’ privacy attitudes and behaviours. South African participants have higher privacy concerns and risk perception. However, their preferences to share location data with police, family and friends, emergency services, and insurance companies are higher. Moreover, the region significantly affects preferences for transparency and control and sharing frequency, as well as willingness to pay for privacy, which are higher among the South Africans. We discuss how our results on factors, including region, impacting drivers’ privacy preferences can contribute to the design of usable privacy and identity management for ITS.

Increasing dependency on digital technologies introduces queries related to well-being–when and how digital technology poses a threat, or when it is the most appreciated by users? People have some expectations before using technology, which sometimes may be met, but there might be a mismatch at other times. Nevertheless, the digitalization of services advances and companies modify existing or produce new technologies that do not satisfy users' demands, putting their well-being at risk. Through an empirical inquiry, the present research explores experiences with technologies to shed more light on the main factors that enrich or diminish technology value and influence well-being. Exploiting the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic that fast-forwarded technology use and development, an online inquiry was conducted to assess positive and negative experiences of technologies, focusing on the contexts of work, learning, entertainment, information-seeking, and health. The findings from 578 participants indicate that depending on the role of technologybeing a substitute for certain activities or an opportunity to perform them differently–consequences on well-being can more or less follow expectations. The results are discussed in the context of past research and practical implications for, e.g. technology design or managerial changes that could help overcome users' current challenges.

People typically enhance their online personas by sharing favourable personal information. Nevertheless, sharing of unfavourable information about oneself still occurs and is essential in some online contexts (e.g. allowing negative reviews). It remains unclear why people reveal potentially damaging information. We conducted an online experiment (N=462) to explore the effects of feedback properties and individual characteristics on online information sharing in two contexts (social and socioeconomic) where personal ratings are essential. We allowed users to conceal their personal rating if it dropped below a threshold. The context was the primary determinant of the threshold users chose. Control availability and feedback content triggered additional considerations and caused some users to change their (non)disclosure choices. However, many users relied on their priors (experience, assumptions) rather than on new information. Our findings show how people may fail to identify the impact of nondisclosure, which may signal undesirable information to others. These findings challenge the reliance on holding users solely accountable for their ‘informedness’ vis-à-vis disclosure of their personal information.

Consenting to digital services' privacy policies is standard practice. It often occurs at the early stage of interactions with a given service—during the sign-up process. Still, the most common way of acquiring consent from users is through their acknowledgment of policies by ticking a box. Consequently, users consent, mostly blindly, as they are unlikely to review the full text of policies. The current article presents research investigating factors that may impact user interaction with privacy policies, focusing on the underresearched topic of affective states (valence and arousal). The results of an online experiment (N=88) indicate that privacy policy design can elicit specific affective responses and, when accounting for some characteristics of individuals (e.g., personality traits), it can influence users' attitudes and behaviors. Particularly, the findings show that privacy awareness and willingness to disclose information might be impacted. Additionally, the analysis of collected data suggests significant associations between some personality traits and affective states, as well as a strong relationship between privacy concerns and willingness to disclose information, contradicting the concept of privacy paradox, often discussed in the privacy literature. Moreover, the results of our qualitative inquiry, where the study respondents had a chance to elaborate on their decisions to agree or disagree with the privacy policy by answering an open-ended question, confirm the quantitative findings, and reveal some of the users needs considering the sign-up process.

Information sharing on social networks is ubiquitous, intuitive, and occasionally accidental. However, people may be unaware of the potential negative consequences of disclosures, such as reputational damages. Yet, people use social networks to disclose information about themselves or others, advised only by their own experiences and the context-invariant informed consent mechanism. In two online experiments (N = 515 and N = 765), we investigated how to aid informed sharing decisions and associate them with the potential outcomes via notifications. Based on the measurements of sharing attitudes, our results showed that the effectiveness of informing the users via notifications may depend on the timing, content, and layout of the notifications, as well as on the users’ curiosity and rational cognitive style, motivating information processing. Furthermore, positive emotions may result in disregard of important information. We discuss the implications for user privacy and self-presentation. We provide recommendations on privacy-supporting system design and suggest directions for further research.

Too often, while interacting with online technologies, we blindly agree to services’ terms and conditions (T&Cs). We often disregard their content—believing it is not worth engaging with the long, hard-to-understand texts. The inconspicuous display of online T&Cs on the user interface (UI) adds to our lack of engagement. Nevertheless, certain information included in T&Cs could help us make optimal decisions. In this replication research, we investigate this issue in the purchasing context. We confirm and extend previous findings through an online experiment (N = 987), showing that differently presented T&Cs (icons, scroll, and cost-cue) compared to hyperlinked text affect whether people open them, becoming aware. We also show the effect of decision-making style on the relationship between awareness and satisfaction. We discuss the possible use of these findings to improve users’ informed decisions. We also highlight problems that different designs may pose, potentially increasing the information gap between users and service providers.

As people's offline and online lives become increasingly entwined, the sensitivity of personal information disclosed online is increasing. Disclosures often occur through structured disclosure fields (e.g., drop-down lists). Prior research suggests these fields may limit privacy, with non-disclosing users being presumed to be hiding undesirable information. We investigated this around HIV status disclosure in online dating apps used by men who have sex with men. Our online study asked participants (N=183) to rate profiles where HIV status was either disclosed or undisclosed. We tested three designs for displaying undisclosed fields. Visibility of undisclosed fields had a significant effect on the way profiles were rated, and other profile information (e.g., ethnicity) could affect inferences that develop around undisclosed information. Our research highlights complexities around designing for non-disclosure and questions the voluntary nature of these fields. Further work is outlined to ensure disclosure control is appropriately implemented around online sensitive information disclosures.