Digital Shred: Case Study of a Remote Privacy Literacy Collaboration

Abstract

This qualitative, evaluative case study details the conceptual framing, development, delivery, and assessment of a privacy literacy workshop called Digital Shred. The workshop is a multi-institutional effort offered initially in-person in fall 2019 and adapted to virtual delivery in fall 2020. The conceptual framework underlying the workshop includes reputation management, behavioral surplus, data doubles, data governance, and information security damage assessments. Learning outcomes and activities were inspired by inclusive, responsive, active learning pedagogy. Anonymous formative assessment feedback suggests that participants are motivated by the personalized learning activities and value this theory-informed approach to privacy literacy.

Orienting privacy literacy toward social change

“…Where research advancing the knowledge-based conceptualization focuses on measuring privacy literacy, research advancing the process-based conceptualization employs qualitative methods to understand people's perceptions and experiences surrounding privacy literacy (Bowler et al, 2017(Bowler et al, , 2019Chi et al, 2018;Chisholm and Hartman-Caverly, 2023;Hartman-Caverly and Chisholm, 2020;Jones et al, 2019;Jones and Hinchliffe, 2023;Kumar et al, 2020;Pangrazio and Cardozo-Gaibisso, 2020;Pangrazio and Selwyn, 2018;Pingo and Narayan, 2019;Stoilova et al, 2020;Vitak et al, 2018) and to develop interventions like educational programs, workshops and games to help people engage in critical reflection about privacy and data flows (Chisholm and Hartman-Caverly, 2022;Hartman-Caverly et al, 2023;Pangrazio and Cardozo-Gaibisso, 2021;Raynes-Goldie and Allen, 2014). Here, the goal of privacy literacy is to encourage people to consider the implications of their actions and make decisions that prioritize privacy.…”

“…For instance, Hartman-Caverly and Chisholm (2021) advocate that “[r]obust privacy literacy instruction should unveil the backend processes of personal data collection and manipulation, and subject them to critical examination—to the limited extent that this is possible” (p. 147). With this in mind, they designed a privacy literacy workshop that “seek[s] to empower students with actionable information in privacy literacy instruction while honestly acknowledging individual users’ limited ability to influence [data] collection” (Hartman-Caverly et al , 2023, p. 243). They presented participants with “decision-making frameworks and tools for determining their own online persona priorities, articulating areas of risk, identifying compromised and defunct digital accounts, and shredding some of their digital baggage” and facilitated a series of activities to help participants reflect on their privacy priorities and develop plans to align their digital presence with those priorities (Hartman-Caverly et al , 2023, p. 244).…”

“…With this in mind, they designed a privacy literacy workshop that “seek[s] to empower students with actionable information in privacy literacy instruction while honestly acknowledging individual users’ limited ability to influence [data] collection” (Hartman-Caverly et al , 2023, p. 243). They presented participants with “decision-making frameworks and tools for determining their own online persona priorities, articulating areas of risk, identifying compromised and defunct digital accounts, and shredding some of their digital baggage” and facilitated a series of activities to help participants reflect on their privacy priorities and develop plans to align their digital presence with those priorities (Hartman-Caverly et al , 2023, p. 244). Similarly, Kumar and Byrne (2022) offered a set of learning objectives called the 5Ds of privacy literacy to help children strengthen their privacy decision-making skills.…”