Masooda Bashir - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Students: Spring 2025, unless noted otherwise, sessions will be virtual on Zoom.
Online Privacy Agreements, is it Informed Consent?
Apr 16, 2014
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Abstract
Considering that most consumers do not read Privacy Policies and Terms of Service agreements before accepting them, considerable informational asymmetry exists between consumers and cloud service providers regarding the collection and processing of personal information online. One potential method for reducing this informational asymmetry is the application of informed consent to online environments. Informed consent online will mean upholding principles such as disclosure, competence, comprehension, voluntariness, and agreement. Comprehension and voluntariness are arguably the hardest principles to achieve under current Internet business models and consumer behavior patterns. In this talk I will present the results of an extensive, two-part privacy survey that assessed knowledge and opinions concerning comprehension and voluntariness in online consent agreements. Results expose comprehension gaps with respect to the contents of consent agreements as well as the background knowledge that would be necessary to understand the significance of the terms within the documents. In addition, our survey results highlight the coercive nature of the online consent process and suggest ways for better facilitating voluntariness in online interactions. We found substantial support for alternative service delivery models concerning privacy and for legislation that would endorse standardized consent agreements. These findings provide thought-provoking information which can be used to guide future efforts aimed at increasing consumer awareness about online privacy issues.About the Speaker

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