Hello there, Agnieszka Kitkowska …
… researcher and leader for the course “Consumer privacy – fundamentals”. Can you tell us about the course?
– The course explains the fundamental aspects of privacy in interacting with digital technologies. Although the course demonstrates the basics of theoretical and legal aspects of privacy, its focus is human-centered—on consumer privacy decision-making. The course contains a privacy introduction (e.g., short history, definitions, and theories) and a brief introduction to legal aspects of privacy (e.g., data protection principles and models). Since its consumer-centrism, the topics of usability and human-centered information flow are also discussed. The course also covers some of the theoretical models explaining consumers' privacy decision-making, concentrating on the economics of privacy and diverse factors that influence decision-making processes (e.g., privacy concerns, cognitive dependencies, trust). Significant attention is given to dark patterns, particularly dark privacy patterns, including the explanation of their psychological underpinnings. Lastly, the course presents specific frameworks and repositories to help companies overcome privacy issues.
Why is this important?
– Understanding what affects consumers' privacy choices is crucial to designing and implementing solutions, in particular e-commerce, that is legally compliant. Particularly in the European Union, businesses must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. The lack of compliance may result in high financial fines. However, as explained in our course, ensuring consumers' privacy can bring online companies other benefits. For instance, research shows that privacy is strongly linked to trust, and consumers may trust more companies that offer transparent and privacy-protective services. Trust, on the other hand, can affect consumer loyalty and satisfaction. Therefore, designing online solutions with privacy in mind becomes an asset.
Who will benefit with this course?
– The course is developed for working professionals. Understanding consumers and their privacy decision-making are essential for businesses, organizations and working professionals that collect or process personal information. Although the course focuses on human factors and design issues, implying that the course is crucial for designers or systems architects, it can be taken by anyone, especially by decision-makers such as managers or similar. On the other hand, understanding privacy in the digital context is important for anyone interacting with digital technologies. As societies, we increasingly rely on different technologies during our everyday activities, ranging from work-related tasks, maintaining well-being, and communication to other leisure-like activities. Such reliance increases the information that different businesses collect and process about us. Knowing about potential risks and solutions could help maintain our online privacy according to individual preferences.
How can the context of the course be useful on a daily basis?
– There are two primary contexts in which the course content could be helpful on a daily basis. The first one is the business context. For instance, the theoretical models of privacy, together with some guidelines and privacy patterns presented during the course, can be utilized by companies in their existing system designs or when designing new technological solutions that will collect or process consumer information. The second one is the private context. For instance, the information about privacy dark patterns can be utilized during any interaction with digital technologies—a simple website visit requires, most of the time to provide a cookie consent, which design is frequently based on dark patterns. During the course, participants will learn about dark pattern designs and likely become more aware of such manipulative practices, reflecting on their choices when interacting with different digital technologies.
How can I apply?
– You can register you interest on the course page (your registration is non-binding) and our course administrator will send further information to you. Hope to see you on the course this fall!