Beyond individual-centric privacy: Information technology in social systems

Abstract

In the public debate, social implications of information technology are mainly seen through the privacy lens. Impact assessments of information technology are also often limited to privacy impact assessments, which are focused on individual rights and well-being, as opposed to the social environment. In this paper, I argue that this perspective is too narrow, in terms of understanding the complexity of the relation between information technology and society, as well as in terms of directions for managing this relation. I use systems theory to show that current approaches focus mostly on individual impact of information technology developments rather than their mediating role in society itself. I argue that this should be complemented by an analysis of impact on individuals (psychic systems) via co-construction of the environment (social system). I then take up the question what the role of information technology in social systems would look like in terms of the social relations of trust and power, and how this can complement privacy in discussions on impacts of information technology.

The Dark Side of Using Online Social Networks

“…Perceived risk theory believes that as long as the outcome of any action or behavior is uncertain, there is risk of lack of privacy or privacy violation (Fraedrich & Ferrell, 1992). Users' privacy violations come from the context of personalization of web services that causes privacy concerns (Gal-Or et al, 2018;Pieters, 2017). Thus, this theme describes anything that threatens personal privacy related to storing, re-purposing, providing to third parties, and displaying information via OSNs (Gal-Or et al, 2018;Pieters, 2017;Rawassizadeh, 2012).…”

“…Users' privacy violations come from the context of personalization of web services that causes privacy concerns (Gal-Or et al, 2018;Pieters, 2017). Thus, this theme describes anything that threatens personal privacy related to storing, re-purposing, providing to third parties, and displaying information via OSNs (Gal-Or et al, 2018;Pieters, 2017;Rawassizadeh, 2012). • Security Threats: Grounded in the reviewed literature (Chaudhary et al, 2016;Gupta et al, 2019;Zhang & Gupta, 2018), any harm situation suffered from interception, information fraud, privacy spying and copyright infringement is labeled a security threat.…”

Modeling social sustainability: analysis of hospitality e-distributors

“…Although it is mostly viewed as an opportunity area for increasing the empowerment or participation of disadvantaged groups, the digital world might further the structural inequalities of our societies (Martinez Dy et al, 2018). Following the systems theory, Pieters (2017) suggests that the social implications of IT-related developments are not limited by the impacts on individual privacy rights and must be conceived in terms of the social relations of trust and power. For instance, in tourism sector, the sustainability of evaluation, opinion, and advice platforms (e.g.…”

An Agent-Based Social Simulation for Citizenship Competences and Conflict Resolution Styles

“…A social system has communication and social structures and represents the environment of individuals to interact (Pieters, 2017). Such individuals are denominated citizens.…”