Testing privacy awareness

Abstract

In web-based business processes the disclosure of personal data by the user is an essential part and mandatory for the processes. Privacy policies help to inform the user about his/her rights and to protect the user’s privacy. In this paper we present a test to empirically measure how the user’s privacy awareness changes by presenting specific elements of the privacy policy in close proximity to the required data items. We compare an experimental group using an enhanced interface to a control group using a conventional interface regarding their capability to recall the agreed privacy-related facts. A concrete online survey has been performed. The major results are presented.