Since 2018, privacy notices are required by websites to inform users of their use of cookies where the users can choose whether or not they want to accept the cookies. While the use of privacy notices theoretically provides the ability for users to be in charge of their own privacy online, there are issues regarding privacy notices that lead to that they hardly ever work in practice. The reasons for this are many but center around that privacy notices are designed to manipulate users to accept cookies rather than to inform and encourage users to make deliberate choices. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not the two principles from choice architecture, defaults and mappings, are an appropriate approach to improve users' understanding and affect their decision-making process regarding privacy notices. The study used a combination of qualitative methods and contained a screening survey, prototype testing and interviews. The screening survey was used to select appropriate participants who later conducted the prototype testing and interviews. Four prototypes displaying four different privacy notices were designed and presented to the participants. Each participant was randomly assigned one of the prototypes and later asked questions regarding their interaction with and understanding of the privacy notice. The data collected was analyzed using a thematic analysis. The results derived from the analysis revealed that a majority of the participants did not read the privacy notice. Further, the factors that influenced participants’ interactions with the privacy notice were mainly habitual rather than affected by the specific prototype they were presented with. Based on the results, it can be concluded that defaults may impact the user’s decision due to visual cues. However, neither defaults nor mappings worked as an encouragement for the user to make a well-informed and deliberate choice.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-60964 |
Date | January 2023 |
Creators | Gey, Isabella, Varvne, Vilma |
Publisher | Jönköping University, JTH, Avdelningen för datateknik och informatik |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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