Privacy in Social Information Access

• Published in: Social Information Access Vol. 10100; pp. 19 - 74
• Main Author: Knijnenburg, Bart P.
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 01.01.2018; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• ISBN: 9783319900919; 3319900919
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-90092-6_2

Social information access (SIA) systems crucially depend on user-provided information, and must therefore provide extensive privacy provisions to encourage users to share their personal data. Even though the information SIA systems use is usually considered public, they often use this information in novel ways, and the outcomes of this process may at times lead to unintended consequences for their users’ privacy. Indeed, even if a SIA system is deemed generally beneficial, privacy concerns can play a limiting role in its adoption. This chapter analyzes the privacy implications of several types of SIA systems (aggregators, public content systems, and social network-based systems) from various angles, and discusses a wide range of solutions (both technical and decision-support solutions) to potential privacy threats. Acknowledging that SIA systems are not just a threat to users’ privacy, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the use of social information access as a solution to privacy threats, i.e. by using it to provide social justifications, or by means of adaptive privacy decision support.