The Stories People Tell
Previous research suggests that people form their mental models of privacy and security threats based on reasoning about information provided by informal stories recounted by other people, which could impact security and privacy-relevant decisions. For example, people tell stories ("urban legends") they have heard from their friends (or the Internet) about Alexa eavesdropping on people's conversations and then recommending certain products/items, which they believe can only be traced to their eavesdropping on their conversation. Stories like this form the mental models and conceptualizations of IoT devices, influencing their attitude and perception towards IoT devices.
Using PrivacyToon, we aim to collect and study people's conceptualizations and mental models of Internet of Things (IoT) devices through stories recounted by other people. We aim to study privacy stories using the visual narrative power of comics. The user-generated drawing will give the researcher insight into people's conceptualizations and mental models of privacy relating to IoT devices. In addition, the project will help to identify trends in the conceptualizations and symbols people associate with privacy to aid the design of privacy interfaces, risk communications, and educational tools.
Our data analysis is currently in progress. Stay tuned!