On Agency, Authority and Trust

Privacy, Trust, and Disclosure Online

Most of the research cited in this article by Carina B. Paine Schofield and Adam N. Joinson goes back a number of years, showing that the issue of online privacy has and remains a very big deal. It seems that we need to continue to divulge more and more about ourselves to have access to what we want to find and purchase online. No doubt that if data miners really wanted to compile a file on any of us, they'd likely be able to do so. 

Indeed, just as the authors remark about actual (objective) privacy and perceived (subjective) privacy, (p. 15) although they coexist, there's often a mismatch between the two. We think we have a lot of control when we limit what we divulge in an online store, but we really don't know who or what is compiling our "footprint" or click path (which divulges a ton about us) to get there or anywhere else we go online and whether this information gets released to a 3rd party unbeknownst to us. I don't even want to know what Google knows about me. I've always found it curious that we trust our credit card numbers to high schoolers at convenience stores but get all fired up about the same card number online, as if people are somehow less nefarious if we see them in person.

Regarding building trust online, the authors allude to techniques (p. 21) that are important in building trust, including linguistic cues. This reminds me of the importance of establishing ethos from Dr. Anheier's course. I'll go the authors one more and say what's personally important in web site trust-building to me is a FAQ section and even better is a Forums section where real folks have posted their opinions about the site's products and service. I think predictability and dependability are the most important components to trusting a web merchant. The longer I use the merchant and receive the same results, the more I tend to trust it.

I had to buy some cold medicine the other day at Walgreens. It used to be on the shelves, now it's over the counter at the pharmacy. Apparently it has an active ingredient in it can be used to make methamphetamine. To purchase it, I had to provide my drivers license. The clerk inputted everything on it into a monitoring database. I asked her why she did this. She said it was a federal law that she must do this and she also needed it to monitor my purchasing behavior to limit how often I can purchase it. She assured me that my information would go no further than Walgreens. I don't believe her.

A Social Skill Account of Problematic Internet Use

Author Scott E. Caplan refers to what are now fairly old studies in his article. The model proposed and tested here predicted that individuals who lack self-presentational skills are especially likely to prefer online social interaction over face-to-face communication. Further, this model predicted that a preference for online social interaction fosters compulsive Internet use, which results in negative outcomes. I don't think there's any surprise to these results, knowing what we now have come to know over the last decade about those that spend too much time on the Internet.

I'm surprised that the researchers, Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) and Young (1998) could identify problematic Internet users, (those with psychosocial problems like anxiety, loneliness, and depression) well enough through their survey techniques to confidently make this correlation. I'd think these types of subjects might not be so objective about themselves and also, that psychosocial problems seem to me to be so nebulous. But apparently they were able to.

These studies make me think about the msnbc show, To Catch a Predator with Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen. It's obvious from the show that sexual predators using chat rooms to lure children come in all shapes and sizes - those with psychosocial issues and those without. This is what makes these study correlations so intriguing to me. 

Young's study observed that whereas nondependent Internet users spent most of their time online using email and the web, dependent users spent most of their time online using synchronous interpersonal communication applications like chat rooms and interactive multiplayer games. I know some big-time gamers. One's a nephew and another's a tenant. I'd profile both of them as lacking social skills in this way, so considering my survey of two, I think there's merit to this.

I agree with the authors. I'm surprised as well that Internet researchers have not devoted more attention to this subject.