How do multilevel privacy controls affect utility-privacy trade-offs when used in mobile applications?

Abstract

In existing mobile computing environments, users need to choose between their privacy and the services that they can receive from an application. However, existing mobile platforms do not allow users to perform such trade-offs in a fine-grained manner. In this study, we investigate whether users can effectively make utility-privacy trade-offs when they are provided with a multilevel privacy control method that allows them to recognize the different quality of service that they will receive from an application by limiting the disclosure of their private information in multiple levels. We designed a research model to observe users’ utility-privacy trade-offs in accordance with the privacy control methods and other factors such as the trustworthiness of an application, quality level of private information, and users’ privacy preferences. We conducted a user survey with 516 participants and found that, compared with the existing binary privacy controls, both the service utility and the privacy protection levels were significantly increased when the users used the multilevel privacy control method.