What is it about?
When shopping for new smart devices, users consider the design, price or brand. Yet, one feature remains "invisible": their privacy. Selecting a device decides about which consumer data will be collected, how it will be used and with whom it will be shared. In this work, we aim to make the "invisible" visible. Using Augmented Reality (AR), we visualize the privacy information of fitness trackers in a shopping scenario. The results from our study with a first prototype highlight AR as a promising tool to help consumers make more informed purchase decisions.
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Why is it important?
Consumers may find the privacy information in (lengthy) terms and conditions and privacy policies. However, these texts are difficult to understand, time-consuming to read and most importantly, not available during a shopping scenario. In this work we provide insights in how privacy information may be represented in an interactive and visual manner and how this may impact purchase decisions. Further, we show the potential of Augmented Reality to engage and educate consumers.
Perspectives
Technologies are virtually everywhere - and so is our data. Working on this article showed us how deeply people care about their (online) privacy, yet how easy it is to overlook it. The aim of our project was not to point a finger at fitness-tracker companies or people who enjoy using them. On the contrary, with this work, we hope to increase people's knowledge about technologies and help making informed consumer decisions. We are excited to continue our research in this field!
Frederike Jung
OFFIS - Institute for Information Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Informed ShoppAR - Visualizing Privacy Information in Augmented Reality, September 2022, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3543758.3549884.
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