Situating privacy online: complex perceptions and everyday practices

Abstract

Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behaviors and experiences. However, it is well recognized within privacy advocacy circles that ?privacy? is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this paper we view privacy as mediating between individuals and their online activities and not standing above them; as being constantly redefined in actual practice. It is necessary to ask, therefore, what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. This paper is based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, a neighborhood based ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada that investigates how people integrate online services in their daily lives. We further propose that there are three organizing ?moments? of online privacy perceptions: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of the interactions with it, and the moment after the data has been released in ?cyberspace?. We argue that while the third has been given much media coverage, mainly through surveillance?Big Brother?reports and stories the other two moments have not been sufficiently researched. This may be crippling the formulation of effective privacy principles and practices by policy makers and the public.