Project in LISS Call 2018
Researchers: B. Struminskaya (Utrecht University),  F. Keusch (University of Mannheim & University of Maryland)

Presently, a lot of detailed data about individual behaviour is being collected. While data collecting research organisations are concerned with maintaining participants’ anonymity, research participants who are asked to share passively collected data such as GPS location, call and text logs, or social media posts, are concerned about privacy and confidentiality of the information they provide. There is an indication that concerns about privacy and confidentiality of smartphone data collection are related to the smartphone use skills of a research participant. If potential research participants are not willing to allow collecting sensor data or not willing to share their passively collected data due to privacy and confidentiality concerns, the conclusions reached by researchers using the data can be biased.

In this project the researchers propose to solve the nexus between privacy concerns and technology skills. Using a questionnaire in the LISS panel (N about 2000) with questions from existing instruments and newly developed ones, they will build a framework of concerns for sensor data collection. The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between smartphone skills and privacy and confidentiality concerns. The researchers will investigate the role of skills and concern as mechanisms of willingness to participate in passive data collection.

Image: TheDigitalArtist for Pixabay