Communication Privacy Research Articles

Analysis of the access to electronic communications metadata for the purposes of criminal law enforcement in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Objective: This research intended to analyse the adequacy of the legal frameworks of the access to electronic communications metadata in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the purposes of law enforcement with the current Law of the European Union, an essential topic for balancing the effectiveness of criminal investigations with the fundamental rights of citizens in the current connected societies, moreover as the negotiations for accession are currently ongoing. Methodology: The Comparative Method of Legal Research, in the strict sense, was mostly followed, also taking into consideration the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the privacy and data protection policies of the main electronic communications operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Results: After identifying and evaluating in detail the main issues arising from the current national legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this research shows that, in general terms, it is already compatible with the rules and principles in force in the European Union, following the case-law of its Court of Justice. Contributions: The research puts into evidence the current state of the Sources of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and how they are adjusting to the standards of the European Union, especially regarding privacy and data protection in electronic communications, as well as points out the necessary legislative initiatives in order to achieve a full compliance of criminal investigations with such standards, that may serve as guidelines for the other countries also in accession processes.

A Black-Box Privacy Analysis of Messaging Service Providers' Chat Message Processing

Online messaging has rapidly emerged as today's primary communication platform, extending from personal, to business and even to government channels. But can these services be trusted to maintain the privacy of your communication? This paper addresses this question by evaluating 105 different online messaging platforms. Utilizing “honey” messages and active HTTP(S) , WebSocket, and WebRTC traffic monitoring, along with continuous observation of honey token access, we determine which messaging services process user messages beyond mere transmission. We conduct a large-scale honey token-based study on 69 popular web and 36 mobile messaging applications. Our findings reveal that 34 % of messaging services show capabilities of server-side message analysis. Seven of these messengers evidently conduct an extended analysis of the messages, reusing the results hours to an observed maximum of a month after the chat concluded. This shows that one cannot automatically expect the same confidentiality when chatting via messengers compared to in-person communication.

Adolescents’ narratives about parents’ separation processes and participation in mandatory family mediation: Exercising agency through managing privacy boundaries

Children’s participation in mandatory family mediation is an aspect of parents’ separation process in Norway. In this article, we aim to explore what adolescents emphasise in their narratives about their participation. Eleven adolescents aged between 12 and 17 participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. Drawing on Communication Privacy Management theory, the results show that, during participation in mandatory family mediation, adolescents are provided with opportunities to exercise agency by managing privacy boundaries. Family mediators have the potential to assist adolescents during and after disclosures of private information.

Secureimagesec: A privacy-preserving framework for outsourced picture representation with content-based image retrieval

Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) uses complicated algorithms to analyze visual attributes and retrieve relevant photos from large databases. CBIR is essential to a privacy-preserving feature extraction and protection method for outsourced picture representation. SecureImageSec combines essential methods with the system’s key entities to ensure secure, private and protected image feature processing during outsourcing. For a system to be implemented effectively, these techniques must be seamlessly integrated across critical entities, such as the client, the cloud server that is being outsourced, the component that protects secure features, the component that maintains privacy in communication, access control, and authorization, and the integration and system evaluation. The client entity initiates outsourcing using advanced encryption techniques to protect privacy. SecureImageSec protects outsourced data by using cutting-edge technologies like Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC). Cloud servers hold secure feature protection entities and protect outsourced features’ privacy and security. SecureImageSec uses AES and FPE to protect data format. SecureImageSec’s cloud-outsourced privacy-preserving communication uses SSL/TLS and QKD to protect data transmission. Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) and Functional Encryption (FE) in SecureImageSec limit access to outsourced features based on user attributes and allow fine-grained access control over decrypted data. SecureImageSec’s Information Leakage Rate (ILR) of 0.02 for a 1000-feature dataset shows its efficacy. SecureImageSec also achieves 4.5 bits of entropy, ensuring the encrypted feature set’s muscular cryptographic strength and randomness. Finally, SecureImageSec provides secure and private feature extraction and protection, including CBIR capabilities, for picture representation outsourcing.

Sharing Culture and Management of Sex Work Information on Mobile Phones by Female Sex Workers in Nepal: Implications for mHealth Practice and Research

ABSTRACT Female sex workers (FSWs) in Nepal continue to be disproportionately at risk for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), including HIV. Due to stigma related to sex work and HIV, FSWs keep their sex work information hidden, which poses a barrier to seeking health services. Emerging research indicates a high uptake of mobile phones among FSWs in Nepal. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions can provide health information and linkage to care. However, largely missing from the literature is FSWs’ experience of managing the information about their involvement in sex work in a culture where sharing personal information and belongings is a part of the social norm, and maintaining privacy could have negative social repercussions. The current study aims to understand how FSWs perceive and manage privacy when they share their mobile phones. Using the Communication Privacy Management theory, we explore FSWs’ perception of the threat to their privacy posed by mobile phones. We conducted 30 in-depth interviews among FSWs in Kathmandu, Nepal. Results showed that all participants owned mobile phones, and sharing devices was common. Mobile phones pose a considerable challenge in keeping sex work information private, and FSWs use various communication strategies to circumvent privacy threats. The findings highlight the mental and emotional burden FSWs face trying to conceal their private information in a sharing culture. The study discusses the importance of theorizing privacy in the cultural context of the Global South and the practical implications for developing mHealth interventions for this population.

BLSTM convolution and self-attention network enabled recursive and direct prediction for optical chaos.

Chaotic time series prediction has attracted much attention in recent years because of its important applications, such as security analysis for random number generators and chaos synchronization in private communications. Herein, we propose a BLSTM convolution and self-attention network model to predict the optical chaos. We validate the model's capability for direct and recursive prediction, and the model dramatically reduces the accumulation of errors. Moreover, the time duration prediction of optical chaos is increased with comparative accuracy where the predicted sequence length reaches 4 ns with normalized mean squared error (NMSE) of less than 0.01.

Exploring non-disclosure practices among male university job seekers through communication privacy management theory

This study aims to investigate the phenomenon of non-disclosure of personal information among male individuals, employing the Communication Privacy Management Theory as a guiding framework. The objectives of the study encompass identifying the specific types of personal information male students refrain from disclosing, examining the underlying reasons for their non-disclosure practices, and assessing the impact of non-disclosure on their interpersonal relationships. Qualitative research methods, primarily in-depth interviews, were employed to gather insights, with six male students from Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI) participating in the interviews. The findings reveal that male students at UPSI do engage in non-disclosure of personal information, albeit to a certain extent. Specifically, the findings discovered four types of personal information—secrets, traumas, dark history, and family matters—that these students commonly choose not to disclose. Notably, there are four categories of personal information they tend to withhold, namely secrets, traumas, dark history, and family matters. The reluctance to disclose stems from factors such as insecure attachment, a reluctance to worry about their parents, and strained relationships with their family members. Furthermore, the study highlights that non-disclosure of personal information has both negative and positive repercussions on the participants’ relationships with others. Moreover, the study underscores that non-disclosure of personal information can have both negative and positive effects on the participants’ relationships, shedding light on the complexities of navigating personal privacy choices in the university and job-seeking context. The study contributes valuable insights into the challenges of employability dilemmas faced by male university students concerning the management of personal information.

Somebody's watching me: boundary turbulence and its impact on employee engagement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use the concept of boundary turbulence from Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to better understand how employee monitoring impacts employee engagement. This study is one of the first in corporate communication to combine the frameworks of CPM and employee engagement to better understand employee experiences.Design/methodology/approachTo answer the research question, we conducted an online, open-ended survey that asked 633 participants to provide feedback regarding being monitored at work and how these experiences impacted their engagement with their employer.FindingsThis study sought to understand how boundary turbulence occurs in relation to employee engagement when employees are monitored at work. In total, four examples of boundary turbulence were illustrated in the data: employer monitoring creates distrust; employees find ways to resist being monitored; monitoring doesn’t accurately capture employee engagement; and monitoring leads to disengagement.Originality/valueThe findings from this study lead to important conclusions regarding what happens when employees experience boundary turbulence, and how it relates to employee engagement. This study illustrates how employee monitoring is interpreted as an attempt to control employees, which can lead to distrust and negatively impact employee engagement. Furthermore, boundary turbulence can threaten psychological safety and presence, which can cultivate employee disengagement. Therefore, employees may seek out ways to actively resist, which reiterates that internal publics are distinctive, active, and agentic audiences that cannot be forgotten or assumed.

Pelanggaran Batas Privasi Anak dalam Praktik Sharenting pada Kalangan Selebriti Indonesia

The use of social media is increasingly massive, parents uploading photos, videos or other information about their children on social media has become increasingly common and has become a source of controversy in Indonesia recently. This research aims to investigate violations of children's privacy boundaries that occur due to sharenting practices among Indonesian celebrities. Using document study methodology, researchers compiled data related to sharenting practices that occurred in the latest Indonesian celebrity controversies and analyzed them in accordance with Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory. The results of the research show that YouTube Adsense is a reward that is expected from parents who practice sharenting. Children are considered to have no awareness of their ownership of privacy so they are deemed unable to regulate their privacy rules. The failure to coordinate privacy boundaries between children and parents causes the boundaries of ownership of children's personal information to become blurred. The practice of sharenting by parents among Indonesian celebrities can raise ethical concerns regarding children's privacy rights and weak ownership of children's privacy in accordance with the concept in CPM theory.

Theorizing Interpersonal and Technological Dimensions of Privacy in the Exchange of Sexual Communication

As technology continues to evolve, so too do privacy concerns individuals have about technology. This is especially true when individuals share highly sensitive, personal content through technology. When individuals sext, they are sharing sexually explicit messages, photos, and videos with another person. Two theories are interrogated in how they may apply to sexting and privacy: communication privacy management theory and privacy calculus. Utilizing these theories, privacy is highlighted in this article as a negotiation process between partners and technologies. Individuals must consider who they share material with and the channels they use, and these theories can help in developing a better understanding of these processes. Sexting can be a positive influence on adults’ romantic relationships, whether serious or casual; yet, they need to be able to engage in these behaviors in ways that encourage trust both interpersonally and with their technology.

Sharenting in China: perspectives from mothers and adolescents

PurposeMothers sharing images and information on social media about their children is a contemporary cultural norm. While the practice has been heavily discussed in popular media, there is a lack of empirical research examining the phenomenon from the perspectives of parents and adolescent children in China. The current study aims to find out whether or not mothers and their children engage in discussions about sharenting and how adolescents negotiate their privacy concerns with their mothers.Design/methodology/approachThe current study examined how parents and their children make sense of sharenting via semi-structured interviews with 16 Chinese mothers. In addition, the study enlisted 21 adolescents to examine their perspectives on sharenting. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsResults showed that although documentation is articulated as the primary sharenting motivation, identity management is a major drive behind sharenting. The dynamics between mothers and their children, as well as between adolescents and their parents, are also explored regarding the issues of consent, privacy and identity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has theoretical implications for the communication privacy management (CPM) theory, as it underscores the dynamic nature of privacy management, shaped by cultural norms, family dynamics and evolving communication technologies. It also adds value for campaign practitioners to provide education programs on the serious consequences of sharenting.Originality/valueThis research serves as a starting point to further explore a child’s entrance to adulthood as our culture’s first true digital natives who will bear extensive online and offline identities.

Public attitudes towards surveillance and privacy of personal communications in 34 African countries

This paper examines public attitudes regarding the privacy of personal communications across several African countries. The study additionally investigates factors influencing an individual’s expression of the right to privacy and rejection of state surveillance. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted on survey data gathered from 48,084 interviews completed in 34 countries. The findings reveal that, among the surveyed countries (34 out of 54 on the continent), a majority (54.87%) advocate for the protection of private communications. This indicates an increasing inclination among individuals to assert greater control over their personal information, which is being collected and utilized by governmental organizations and often by extension, private entities. The results demonstrate that education, gender, occupation, institutional trust, frequency of newspaper reading, perceptions of social media, attitudes towards internet regulation, opinions on government accountability, and the frequency of internet usage all significantly influence an individual’s stance on personal data privacy. Governments must strive for more effective communication with citizens to foster support for surveillance programs that achieve a delicate equilibrium between state security and the protection of privacy rights. This study provides an evidence base that policymakers, practitioners and academics can utilize to make informed decisions about data privacy attitudes and predict privacy actions.

From Interpersonal Privacy to HumanTechnological Privacy: Communication Privacy Management Theory Revisited

Purpose: Communication privacy management (CPM) theory is a major theory explaining the tensions between disclosing and concealing private information in interpersonal communication. By considering differences in interpersonal and human-technology information disclosure and drawing on existing work related to privacy and technology, this article presents CPM theory as a broad theoretical framework for human-technology privacy boundary management. Method: This research employed a speculative theoretical approach by drawing on existing literature and synthesizing it to both apply and extend CPM theory’s propositions to human-technology privacy boundary management. Results: CPM theory can be applied to understand the dynamics of human-technology information disclosure and should incorporate technological literacy as a key consideration in human-technology privacy boundary management. Legal ties characterize human-technology privacy boundary coordination instead of social ties. Additionally, in human-technology information disclosure contexts, CPM theory should provide guidance regarding managing third parties that may gain access to information. Conclusion: CPM theory is the most comprehensive framework for how individuals manage privacy boundaries, be it in interpersonal or human-technology contexts. By considering technology as a property of technological actors instead of an actor itself, CPM theory in human-technology contexts becomes a flexible theoretical framework for understanding information disclosure and privacy boundary management, both for existing technologies (e.g., social media, online shopping platforms, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things) and future technologies.

Data encryption with chaotic light in the long wavelength infrared atmospheric window

In environments where traditional fiber optic cables are impractical, free-space optical communications offer a promising solution for transmitting large amounts of data, especially in the mid-infrared wavelength range. Despite the advantages of minimal atmospheric interference and stable signals, the vulnerability of wireless optical communications to eavesdropping poses a significant challenge. This study addresses this challenge by demonstrating a method for privately transmitting optical data using photonic chaos from distributed feedback quantum cascade lasers operating at 9.3 µm. Signal processing techniques are applied to enhance the quality of the transmission over distances exceeding 30 m, accompanied by a comprehensive analysis of the photonic chaos complexity to ensure data confidentiality. These findings mark a significant advancement in developing private communications systems within the thermal atmospheric window, with a substantially reduced risk of interception by adversaries. The research not only contributes to secure communications but also has potential implications for enhancing security of data transmission in challenging environments, impacting various industries and applications.

HSM4SSL: Leveraging HSMs for Enhanced Intra-Domain Security

In a world where digitization is rapidly advancing, the security and privacy of intra-domain communication within organizations are of critical concern. The imperative to secure communication channels among physical systems has led to the deployment of various security approaches aimed at fortifying networking protocols. However, these approaches have typically been designed to secure protocols individually, lacking a holistic perspective on the broader challenge of intra-domain communication security. This omission raises fundamental concerns about the safety and integrity of intra-domain environments, where all communication occurs within a single domain. As a result, this paper introduces HSM4SSL, a comprehensive solution designed to address the evolving challenges of secure data transmission in intra-domain environments. By leveraging hardware security modules (HSMs), HSM4SSL aims to utilize the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol within intra-domain environments to ensure data confidentiality, authentication, and integrity. In addition, solutions proposed by academic researchers and in the industry have not addressed the issue in a holistic and integrative manner, as they only apply to specific types of environments or servers and do not utilize all cryptographic operations for robust security. Thus, HSM4SSL bridges this gap by offering a unified and comprehensive solution that includes certificate management, key management practices, and various security services. HSM4SSL comprises three layers to provide a standardized interaction between software applications and HSMs. A performance evaluation was conducted comparing HSM4SSL with a benchmark tool for cryptographic operations. The results indicate that HSM4SSL achieved 33% higher requests per second (RPS) compared to OpenSSL, along with a 13% lower latency rate. Additionally, HSM4SSL efficiently utilizes CPU and network resources, outperforming OpenSSL in various aspects. These findings highlight the effectiveness and reliability of HSM4SSL in providing secure communication within intra-domain environments, thus addressing the pressing need for enhanced security mechanisms.

Analysis of the Ethical Lapses in Journalism When Using Chat Records for Reporting

In the current era, news stories that utilize private chat records from social media as source material have attracted a substantial audience. However, there has been public debate regarding whether this practice breaches individual privacy management primarily and crosses the boundaries of journalistic ethics. This paper investigates the phenomenon of using private chat records from social media as news material, and its impact on personal privacy management and the boundaries of journalistic ethics. Specifically, the study focuses on how this practice disrupts the privacy management of chat record subjects, particularly in terms of boundary linkage, boundary permeability, and boundary ownership, thereby leading to issues of journalistic ethical lapses. The aim of the research is to propose methods for regulating journalistic practices and promoting the establishment of a "right to be forgotten" for social media users, in order to standardize journalistic boundaries, achieve boundary coordination, and reshape journalistic ethics. The main methodology of this paper is case analysis, complemented by literature review. The article employs Communication Privacy Management Theory as its theoretical framework and analyzes relevant journalistic cases. This paper finds that by standardizing the way journalists use news materials and promoting the establishment of the "Right to be Forgotten" for social media users, it is possible to regulate their news boundaries, achieve boundary coordination, and reshape their journalistic ethics.

Safe Communication Using Steganography

This research aims to propose a method of safe communication using steganography, which involves hiding information in other information to conceal the fact that communication is taking place. Digital images are one of the most popular file formats used for steganography due to their frequency on the internet. The project focuses on hiding secret information within images using steganography techniques. Different techniques have their respective strong and weak points, and their application requirements vary. The proposed technique allows users to choose the bits for replacement instead of using the least significant bit (LSB) replacement from the images. In this technique, the sender selects a cover image with the secret text or text file, hides it in the image, and sends it to the receiver through a private or public communication network. The receiver retrieves the secret text hidden in the stego-image using the software. This method provides a secure and user-friendly interface for individuals to exchange confidential messages. It leverages the power of image steganography to address the growing need for privacy and confidentiality in digital communication. By hiding messages within images, it ensures a covert and secure means of transmitting information while maintaining the visual appearance of harmless images. Keywords: Encryption, decryption, steganography, safe communication.

Gender-Specific Non-Disclosure of Mental Distress

Research suggests that non-disclosure of mental distress is associated with poorer mental health. While men are more reluctant to communicate about personal issues with informal and professional social contacts, little is known about the reasons for and factors associated with non-disclosure among men and women. Based on the Disclosure Decision-Making Model and the Communication Privacy Management Theory, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey with a quota sample of 2,471 participants in Germany. In the study, we (a) examined gender differences regarding non-disclosure of distress, (b) aimed to identify individual and relational factors associated with non-disclosure for both genders, and (c) studied men’s and women’s reasoning for non-disclosure of mental distress. Findings demonstrate that (a) non-disclosure was not higher in the male subsample but men had less trusted contacts; (b) individual level factors, particularly the conformity to traditional gender norms, were associated with non-disclosure among both genders; (c) men stipulated the superficiality of the relationship as more relevant reasons, while women indicated privacy and feelings of shame/self-blame as more important. The study findings might inform gender-sensitive mental health campaigns in the sense that questioning traditional gender norms could contribute to disclosure of mental distress among both men and women.

Antara Hasrat dan Privasi Diri: Anonimitas Penggemar Cerita Alternative Universe Harry Potter dengan Genre Homoseksual di Twitter

Understanding the diversity of sexuality is still taboo in Indonesia. This directly leads to the practice of marginalising groups with homosexual sexual orientation. Those who have homosexual tendencies cannot freely express themselves, both in the virtual and real worlds. This hegemony of heteronormativity then began to receive a kind of counter-hegemony from various parties, one of which was from the writers and readers of the Alternative Universe (hereinafter referred to as AU) Harry Potter on Twitter. Harry Potter itself is a fictional story with the theme of the wizarding world written by J.K. Rowling, which is often reproduced by fans through various media; AU is one of them. Through AU, fans can imagine creating their own stories using the characters in the Harry Potter story series. One of the highlights of this AU version is when fans make the people in the Harry Potter characters homosexual. Not only does it involve fantasy and imagination, fans also pay attention to their personal identity when interacting with homosexual stories. This study aims to find out how writers and readers of Harry Potter AU stories on Twitter play out homosexual fantasies, as well as how privacy management is used to feel safe interacting with homosexual subjects. To answer these questions, the author conducted research using the netnography method on Twitter. In the process, the author not only looked at user interactions on each Harry Potter AU story but also distributed questionnaires and interviews to the author and readers of the AU story. As for data analysis, the author uses the concept of schizoanalysis from Deleuze and Guattari and combines it with Sandra Petronio's communication privacy management theory. The results of this study show that writers and readers of Harry Potter AUs with homosexual characters have a tendency to want to hide their personal information. They do not want to be recognised when interacting with homosexual stories, even though they are actually very interested in them. This is partly due to social pressure that still upholds heteronormativity.

Reconfigurable Holographic Surface-Assisted Wireless Secrecy Communication System

This new antenna, called the reconfigurable holographic surface (RHS), is lightweight and compact, and it can precisely steer many beams at once. Because of its reflecting characteristic, it differs from the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), which is frequently employed as a passive relay. To leverage the holographic technology and generate the necessary beam, RHS is most likely to be integrated with the transceiver as an ultra-thin and lightweight planer antenna. This has enormous potential to satisfy the growing demands of the future generation network. This paper is the first to study a wireless secrecy communication system with a base station that has and is helped by an RHS. We suggest a strategy for simultaneously optimizing the holographic beamforming at the RHS and the digital beamforming at the base station with the introduction of artificial noise (AN) to attain the highest secrecy rate. However, because of its non-convexity and changeable coupling, this problem is challenging to solve. A proficient algorithm that utilizes alternating optimization and is capable of solving the problem below the ideal level is suggested. According to simulation studies, RHS outperforms RIS in terms of enhancing the performance of wireless secrecy communication systems, indicating that RHS has a wide range of potential applications in the realm of physical layer security.