Communication Privacy Research Articles

Disclosing Bipolar Disorder in Romantic Relationships

Utilizing communication privacy management (CPM) theory as a framework, we explored the privacy boundaries that individuals with bipolar disorder have around their diagnosis information in romantic relationships. Participants’ (n = 92) responses to an online survey were coded and analyzed, resulting in themes that evidenced consideration of possible individual and relational outcomes when contemplating renegotiating or fortifying boundaries around diagnosis, and the use of both core and catalyst criteria in deciding when to make romantic partners co-owners of diagnosis information. Results of this study provide empirical support for CPM theory and implications for privacy boundary management decisions for individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Transforming Vehicular Networks: How 6G can Revolutionize Intelligent Transportation?

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) have enabled intelligent transportation systems by facilitating communication between vehicles and roadside infrastructure. However, the current 5G and 4G networks that support VANETs have certain limitations that hinder the full potential of VANET applications. These limitations include constraints in bandwidth, latency, connectivity, and security. The upcoming 6G network is expected to revolutionize VANETs by introducing several advancements. 6G will provide ultra-fast communication with significantly reduced latency, enabling real-time and high-bandwidth data exchange between vehicles. The network will also offer highly reliable and secure connectivity, ensuring the integrity and privacy of VANET communications. Precise localization and sensing capabilities will be enhanced in 6G-based VANETs, enabling accurate positioning of vehicles and improved situational awareness. This will facilitate collision avoidance, traffic management, and cooperative driving applications. Moreover, integrating edge computing in 6G networks will bring computing resources closer to the edge, lowering response times and facilitating faster decision-making in time-critical scenarios. This paper explores the key features and capabilities of 6G technology and how it can revolutionize intelligent transportation, addressing challenges and opportunities for adopting 6G in VANETs.

Self-Disclosure Counsel in Revealing Psychological Problems (Study On Online Counseling Service Counselives)

People with psychological problems generally find it difficult to express themselves and have poor communication skills. This research focuses on the counselor's self-disclosure in revealing his psychological problems in online counseling services. The research used a qualitative approach with descriptive research type. Data collection techniques using interviews, observation, documentation, and literature study. This research uses the concept of self-disclosure as well as the theory of the Johari Window and Communication Privacy Management. The results showed that the main factors that influence the counselee's self-disclosure are listeners and channels. The counselee's trust in the listener and the response given by the listener is the counselee's consideration. The channel factor in the form of a disinhibition effect affects the counselor's self-disclosure in online counseling services. The supporting factors for self-disclosure were found, namely the topic. The reasons for the counselor's self-disclosure include the tendency of dangerous psychological problems, physical pain, complaints, emotional support, asking for help, and psychological control. The counselor tends to get positive effects from self-disclosure such as catharsis, self-knowledge, and self-acceptance. The effects felt different for each individual, a negative effect was found in the form of vulnerability.

Communication Privacy Management Theory in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Studies from the Philippines

Information management during the COVID-19 pandemic ranges from personal to institutional level of agencies. This was highly observable at the onset of the national health emergency in the Philippines when most Filipinos who had symptoms did not know what to do. They, as well as their relatives, were in a fearful situation, and so were the government and private agencies involved in health care services. When in need of medical attention, will they tell the truth about their travel history or their exposure to anyone who is infected? The researchers studied the turbulence that occurred when mutually held rules by a community were breached by its members through concealment and gatekeeping during national health emergencies. The study elucidates how the management of private information prevents boundary turbulence and maintains personal relationships, but results in uncontrolled social turbulence during the pandemic. Applicability of the system and principles of Communication Privacy Management Theory such as privacy ownership, privacy control, privacy turbulence, and information stakeholders were studied qualitatively through data generated from nine participants of varying points of view - a) patients and/or relatives who managed their private information; and b) patients, their relatives, and health workers such as doctors, nurses, and medical staff who were adversely affected by such management of private information. Keywords: COVID-19, communication, privacy, ownership, control.

Institutional framework for the Financial Supervision Authority's control over the activities of an insurance agent

ObjectivesThe subject of consideration is the supervisory powers of the Financial Supervision Authority in terms of the control of insurance agents. Act of 15 Dec 2017 on Insurance Distribution introduced the possibility of conducting inspections of insurance agents' activities by supervisory authorities. The Financial Supervisory Authority is the body that supervises the financial market, including the supervision of activities related to the distribution and redistribution of insuranceMaterial and methodsThe article has been drawn up mainly using the formal-dogmatic method. It involves the description and systematization of legal norms, interpretation of regulations, as well as an analysis of the practice of application of the law by both state administrative bodies and courtsResultsKNF inspectors, in the course of their inspection, have the authority to demand from the inspected insurance agent access to the documents of the inspected entity and to the data and information contained in the information and communication systems. However, this entitlement is not absolute. Such a request may only concern the documents and data of the controlled entity, and moreover, it is only updated when it falls within the substantive scope of the inspectionConclusionsNotwithstanding the above, the agent also remains the disposer of information covered by the secrecy of communication . The contents of the mailboxes of insurance agents, like any correspondence, are protected by the secrecy of communication, regardless of the content (art. 49, para. 1 of the Polish Constitution). In order for the supervisory authority to effectively demand access to information contained in the correspondence of an insurance agent, it should first obtain this access through a separate procedure provided for by the law.

Understanding smartphone users’ app usage with restricted permissions

PurposeSmartphone apps collect users' personal information, which triggers privacy concerns for app users. Consequently, app users restrict apps from accessing their personal information. This may impact the effectiveness of in-app advertising. However, research has not yet demonstrated what factors impact app users' decisions to use apps with restricted permissions. This study is aimed to bridge this gap.Design/methodology/approachUsing a quantitative research method, the authors collected the data from 384 app users via a structured questionnaire. The data were analysed using AMOS and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).FindingsThe findings suggest privacy concerns and risks have a significant positive effect on app usage with restricted permissions, whilst reputation, trust and perceived benefits have significant negative impact on it. Some app-related factors, such as the number of apps installed and type of apps, also impact app usage with restricted permissions.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors provided several implications for app stores, app developers and app marketers.Originality/valueThis study examines the factors that influence smartphone users' decisions to use apps with restricted permission requests. By doing this, the authors' study contributes to the consumer behaviour literature in the context of smartphone app usage. Also, by explaining the underlying mechanisms through which the principles of communication privacy management theory operate in smartphone app context, the authors' research contributes to the communication privacy management theory.

Lightweight three-party key agreement for V2G networks with physical unclonable function

Electric vehicles (EV) are gradually replacing traditional fuel-based vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and protect the human living environment. EVs can be easily integrated into the smart grid infrastructure, and achieve the rapid demand response of power exchange in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) ecosystem, and achieve optimal energy allocation. However, it is a challenge to simultaneously solve the security, privacy and efficiency of communication in V2G. To meet this challenge, we propose a three-party key agreement protocol based on Physical Unclonable Function (PUF). The proposed protocol just uses a small amount of XOR operations, PUF functions, and hash functions with low computation cost. It is a truly lightweight and efficient three-party key agreement protocol. It realizes the privacy protection of one-time random pseudonym under the condition that the server only needs to store two pseudonyms. And it also provides a supplementary sub-protocol for pseudonym error conditions to achieve high robustness of the authentication system. Strict security formal proof shows the proposed protocol meets various security requirements. Compared with similar protocol, the proposed protocol reduces the total communication cost by 73% and the computing cost by 79%.

Efficient Security and Privacy of Lossless Secure Communication for Sensor-Based Urban Cities

Efficient Security and Privacy of Lossless Secure Communication for Sensor-Based Urban Cities

To Tell or Not to Tell: Disclosure Experiences and Perceived Microaggressions Among Adopted Adolescents With Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents

There is limited research on stigma experiences and disclosure practices among adolescents who: (a) are adopted, (b) who have LGBTQ+ parents, and (c) who are sexual or gender minorities themselves. At a time when LGBTQ+ identities are both increasingly visible and also publicly debated, we conducted interviews with 50 adolescents ( M age = 14.86 years) in 12 two-father, 20 two-mother, and 18 father/mother families. Following protocols approved by Clark University’s Institutional Review Board and through the frameworks of sexual stigma, microaggressions, and communication privacy management, we used thematic analysis to explore themes of disclosure practices, peer responses to disclosure, and parent responses to sexual and gender identity disclosure. Adolescents described various disclosure decisions around their adoptive status, LGBTQ+ parent family structure, and their own sexual and gender identities, ranging from rare to reactive to proactive disclosure. Such decisions were in some cases shaped by the intersections among participants’ race, gender, and family structure. Participants often selectively disclosed because of concerns related to privacy and negative peer reactions. Many adolescents reported instances of microaggressions from peers around their identities. Parent reactions to their children’s sexual and gender identity disclosure were more complex than peers’ reactions. Findings have implications for therapists and other professionals working with adolescents and their families.

Physical Layer Security of the MIMO-NOMA Systems under Near-Field Scenario

In this paper, we propose a secure transmission framework for near-field MIMO-NOMA systems. This architecture integrates beamforming mechanisms for both transmission and reception, allowing the base station to send encrypted information to authorized users, effectively countering eavesdropping attempts in a near-field environment. To optimize the secrecy communication capability in the near field, a two-phase alternating optimization algorithm is introduced. In the first phase, the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method is used to relax constraints in the problem and convert it into a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem. In the second phase, the successive convex approximation (SCA) algorithm is employed to transform the original non-convex problem into a convex optimization problem, obtaining a locally optimal solution through multiple iterations. Simulation results validate that the proposed near-field communication strategy exhibits superior secrecy communication capabilities under various parameter settings compared to far-field communication strategies.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ МОДЕЛЕЙ АНОНІМНОЇ МАРШРУТИЗАЦІЇ

Numerous solutions have been created for online anonymous communication. We do evaluations of security on several systems. We examine features such as Onion Routing, anonymous VPN services, probabilistic anonymity, and deterministic anonymity among different systems. There are also additional forms of anonymous communication that are discussed, including messaging, peer-to-peer communication, using the web, emailing, and using other Internet apps. We then go on to show several attack methods that aim to identify people who communicate anonymously. The objective of the research is to achieve an exact adjust between guaranteeing the adequacy and dependability of message delivery and ensuring customer anonymity. The NIAR model's non-interactive highlight makes it more valuable since it licenses secure communication without requiring nonstop client support. Communication privacy is threatened by an ever-growing volume of data generated by an ever-growing number of networked devices. Because of this, Anonymous Communication Systems (ACSs)—which offer the privacy qualities of anonymity, unsinkability, and observability—are recommended to conceal the relationship between transmitted communications and their senders and recipients. The objective of this essay is to evaluate the literature on Dining Cryptographers Networks (DCNs) in the subject of ACSs. Since the DCN-based techniques offer unconditional guarantees of observability, they are information-theoretically safe. Their computation and communication expense was considered high at the time, and scalability issues arose, which originally impeded their use for anonymous communications. By satisfying these targets, the research improves the state of encrypted communication systems and opens the door to a day when protecting client security will be a best need without sacrificing message delivery's significant dependability and efficiency.

Snapchat's disappearing messages: Balancing entertainment and privacy in digital communication

Modern instant messaging platforms often default to permanent data retention, raising concerns about data privacy and users' ability to manage their digital artifacts. In contrast, emerging applications like Snapchat introduce ephemeral communication, where messages automatically vanish after being viewed. This paper investigates the motivations and experiences of users utilizing Snapchat's disappearing message feature. The study employs semi-structured interviews with young adults aged 18-24, who are active Snapchat users. Findings reveal that Snapchat's primary appeal lies in entertainment, creative expression, and maintaining casual relationships. While the disappearing feature contributes to privacy perceptions, users' trust in the feature's privacy protection is not absolute. The paper highlights the challenge of conducting task-oriented or deep conversations due to the ephemerality, emphasizing Snapchat's utility for informal and lighthearted interactions. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of aligning user experiences with application design, providing insights for practitioners seeking to enhance user-centered product development in the evolving landscape of digital communication.

“I would not want to be viewed as someone that complains”: a mixed methods analysis of the factors that contribute to concealment and disclosure of workplace cyberbullying

ABSTRACT Almost half of all U.S. employees have experienced some form of workplace bullying . Stress and decreased job satisfaction are just some of the negative impacts victims or bystanders of workplace bullying can undergo . With the increased use of computer-mediated communication and social media, workplace cyberbullying is a concern in addition to face-to-face workplace bullying. The current study explored decisions to disclose workplace cyberbullying from a communication privacy management perspective. Quantitative results from 185 participants show the contextual criteria of important reason and conversational appropriateness to predict the depth of workplace cyberbullying disclosures and important reason to predict the breadth of disclosures. Qualitative results show factors that influenced concealment of workplace cyberbullying include fear of potential negative outcomes, lack of trust, and unwelcome culture, whereas factors that influenced disclosure of workplace cyberbullying included an open and safe space, impact of cyberbullying, the ‘greater good effect,’ and confidence in the situation improving. Results of this study can assist organizations and leaders in creating environments and trainings that encourage employees to disclose workplace cyberbullying.

Self-disclosure and received social support among women experiencing infertility on reddit: A natural language processing approach

The intricate interplay between self-disclosure strategies and the social support received has garnered limited scholarly attention. Guided by communication privacy management theory, the functional theory of self-disclosure, social support theory, and social penetration theory, this study seeks to delve deeper into this dynamic within the context of female infertility. Fertility challenges among women remain sensitive and veiled by societal silence, thereby compelling them to seek information and support through online channels. By leveraging natural language processing techniques, we examined 11,714 posts and 76,022 comments from the Subreddit IVF over a three-year period. Our investigation shows that online support forums provide a convenient and beneficial channel for women dealing with infertility issues to exchange information and express distress. However, a discrepancy exists between the types and intended functions of self-disclosure and the types of social support received. Posts aiming to clarify personal identities negatively predict the network support received. Moreover, disclosing thoughts in posts often fail to elicit esteem support in comments. The results highlight that online support communities exhibit inherent limitations in offering opportunities for sharing good news and seeking validation. These findings offer guidance to policymakers, practitioners, and the public in enhancing support for women experiencing challenges in childbearing.

Core and Catalyst Criteria Motivating CrossFit Athletes to Reveal or Conceal Their Non-Visible Health Conditions

Despite robust literature concerning the illness disclosure decision making process, it remains unclear how individuals choose to reveal and conceal non-visible health conditions in group exercise. At the intersection of non-visible illness management and group exercise, the purpose of this study is to apply communication privacy management theory (CPM) to better understand the core and catalyst criteria athletes with non-visible health conditions utilize when determining whether to reveal or conceal their conditions in the context of the CrossFit gym. CrossFit is an international fitness program with more than 14,000 affiliate gyms in more than 155 countries. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 CrossFit athletes. Findings indicate that core criteria prompted athletes to conceal because of identity and stigma threats but reveal as a way to break the stigma and advocate for themselves and others. Catalyst criteria shaped athletes’ disclosure decisions in two ways, including concealing to avoid burdening others and revealing to foster relationships. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

Conceptualizing and measuring privacy boundary turbulence in technological contexts: Constructing a measurement scale

Digital platforms have provided convenience, but they increase information misuse risks, which can cause privacy boundary turbulence, a key concept of Communication Privacy Management theory. Contrary to previous measurements of turbulence that mostly focus on actual privacy violation experiences, I propose a new measurement scale incorporating the perceived privacy violations. To construct the scale, I first used in-depth interviews (N = 33) to identify four dimensions of privacy turbulence through coding: sense of surveillance, sense of betrayal, sense of harm, and sense of helplessness. Drawing on interview data, I developed items for each dimension and tested the items to refine the scale. In Study Two (N = 283), exploratory factor analysis was used to test potential models. Study Three (N = 687) cross-validated the final factor structure using a separate sample. Study Four (N = 293) tested the discriminant and predictive validity of the measure by comparing it to the Privacy Management Measure scale.

Factors influencing college teachers' adoption of live online teaching: a conditional process model of technology acceptance, user satisfaction and privacy concerns.

In recent times, live online teaching has emerged as a prominent trend in online education. However, teachers are confronted with the challenge of not only acquainting themselves with the associated technologies but also effectively integrating them into their teaching practices. This dual challenge exerts pressure on teachers to adopt live online teaching. This study aims to explore the factors and mechanisms influencing teachers' attitudes and continuance intention toward live online teaching. It covers both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as well as both enabling and inhibiting factors, thus providing valuable suggestions for encouraging teachers to engage in live online teaching actively. This study proposed a conceptual model based on the Technology Acceptance Model, Uses and Gratifications Theory, and Communication Privacy Management Theory. A simple random sampling method was employed to recruit participants from a university in eastern China. With 224 college teachers participating in the study, various analyses, including descriptive analysis, regression analysis, and simple slope analysis, were conducted to explore the factors and mechanisms influencing college teachers' adoption of live online teaching. The study revealed the following key findings: (a) perceived easy of use had a positive impact on perceived usefulness and user satisfaction; (b) perceived usefulness had a positive effect on user satisfaction; (c) both perceived usefulness and user satisfaction positively influenced teachers' adoption of live online teaching; (d) perceived easy of use did not directly affect teachers' adoption of live online teaching; (e) privacy concerns exhibited a moderated effect on the relationship between perceived easy of use and perceived usefulness, as well as the relationship between perceived easy of use and user satisfaction. The study reveals a conditional process model elucidating teachers' adoption of live online learning. The model incorporates perceived ease of use as a predictor, perceived usefulness and user satisfaction as two mediators, and private concerns as a moderator. The findings suggest that stakeholders should collaborate closely to enhance the design and development of the live online teaching platforms. Additionally, efforts should be made to support and improve teachers' information literacy, fostering their enthusiasm and facilitating their professional development in live online teaching practice.

A cryptographic method to have a secure communication of health care digital data into the cloud

Cloud computing is a technology that holds great promise and has potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector. Many security and privacy issues are brought up by the cloud’s centralization of data for both patients and healthcare professionals. There is a need for maintaining secrecy in communication in exchanging medical data between the sender and the receiver, which can be done by cryptography. This article presents a cryptographic algorithm (encryption and decryption) to have a secure communication of digital health care confidential data using DNA cryptography and Huffman coding. The interesting property is the cipher size obtained from our algorithm is equal to the size of the cipher obtained from the character set of given data. Security analysis is provided to show the security of data when stored and transmitted to the cloud. The cryptographic requirements, key space analysis, key and plain text sensitivity, sensitive score analysis, sensitivity and specificity, optimal threshold, randomness analysis, uniqueness of implementation, entropies of binary bits, DNA bases, DNA bases with Huffman code, Huffman encoded binary bits and cloud service provider’s risk are analyzed. The method proposed is compared with other cryptographic methods and results that it is more secure and stronger than other methods.

Survey Study Image Cryptography System

Encryption is vital for data security, converting information into an unreadable format to ensure privacy in online communication and sensitive sectors. Advanced encryption balances innovation and security in user-friendly applications. Image encryption employs techniques to protect image data from unauthorized access during transmission or storage, particularly crucial for safeguarding sensitive images in various applications. The goal is to prevent unauthorized access and ensure the safety of associated information. In this paper, I present a study on previous research related to my investigation, which focuses on encryption in general and image encryption in particular. The paper also discusses the methods used, particularly those closely related to my work, involving either SHA-256, MD5, or a combination of both. The review will look at the many strategies and techniques employed, as well as how precisely the task was completed by applying a set of parameters in comparison to earlier studies.

IOPES, a new full-fledged approach to provide an end-to-end tracking system for emergency staff

The IOPES (Indoor-Outdoor Positioning for Emergency Staff) project aimed at developing an end-to-end solution able to provide a positioning and tracking system for emergency teams, no matter whether their members were located either outdoors or indoors or if there are available communication services.The opinion and views of experts involved in emergency response were collected to answer their requirements. Three important issues were highlighted by these experts: (1) the lack of information about the location of the members of the emergency teams, especially when operating indoors; (2) the use of cartography not recent enough to identify obstacles interfering with the operations of the aforementioned teams; (3) limitation of the TETRA communication system related to the area it covers and the low capacity of data transmission, which makes the exchange of information difficult beyond voice itself. Furthermore, the use of civil infrastructures like 3G or 4G communications should be avoided since these might not be available after a disaster occurs.This led to the identification of a series of improvements to develop: a personal, wearable, indoor & outdoor positioning system that should be integrated into an Emergency Management System to provide tracking information, the use of an ameliorated communications system overcoming the limitations stated above and the capacity to produce very quickly good cartography covering the affected area.Within the project, all technologies giving responses to that requirements were used and tested with success in field exercises simulating different kinds of emergency situations. The system encompasses the whole set of elements required to start working in an area affected by a disaster: up-to-date cartography built in very short times which facilitates the decision-making process (for instance, helping to find more suitable ways to access the area); an Emergency Management System collecting and displaying all the information relevant for such decision-making process, including the location of people or vehicles (thanks to the wearable positioning device) shown on maps that depict the terrain and the effects of the emergency; finally, everything is connected by means of an easily deployable, private communications network guaranteeing, wherever and whenever the emergency happened, that information is flowing on time.