Investigating perceptions of personalization and privacy in India

Abstract

Technological products are increasingly equipped with data collection and personalization mechanisms that allow them to adapt to an individual user’s needs [4]. However, the value and perception of these practices for users is still unclear. This field trip proposal investigates users’ mental models of personalization as well as perceived benefits and drawbacks using semi-structured interviews. The interviews make use of the critical incident technique and drawing tasks. We expect that findings from the field trip will result in rich understanding of the prospective of a collectivist society on personalization and privacy. Results of the field trip can, hence, be contrasted to the results of an equivalent study conducted in Germany, an individualistic society. The overall goal of our studies is to highlight differences in user needs of collectivist and individualistic societies for researchers and practitioners who develop highly personalized systems.