Understanding and Enhancing Consumer Privacy Perceptions in the Cloud

Abstract

The recent increase in highly publicised cloud breaches, coupled with issues surrounding transparency and control in the cloud, highlights the importance of understanding and addressing privacy in this context. The extant cloud privacy literature has a tendency to focus on technical solutions to address security and privacy together, but a small emerging body of literature acknowledges the importance of consumers’ privacy perceptions in the context of cloud computing. Given the breadth of cloud applications and the situational nature of privacy, it is imperative to unpack the role of privacy in this complex domain. This chapter leverages the broader privacy literature in the Information Systems field to identify potential measures to enhance consumer privacy in the cloud context and highlights a number of paths for research to further our knowledge of consumer privacy perceptions in the various cloud contexts.

Ethical Issues when Using Digital Platforms to Perform Interviews in Qualitative Health Research

“…Problems with security and data privacy on the digital age (i.e., safe browsing, picking passwords, cyberattacks, vulnerabilities in cloud technologies), have been previously identified and highlighted (Bernal, 2014(Bernal, , 2018(Bernal, , 2020De, 2021;Fox, 2021;Herschel & Miori, 2017;Liu & Li, 2021;Murphy & Rocchi, 2021;Pilton et al, 2021;Prasanthi et al, 2021). The discussion has focused on how the personal data provided by the internet user in different platforms and software may be protected or threatened by attackers (Cherry, 2014;De, 2021;Prasanthi et al, 2021).…”

“…For instance, how will the researcher ensure nobody can listen to the conversation? This question is not about the internet or the cyberattacks themselves (Prasanthi et al, 2021; Fox, 2021), but how the researcher will take all the possible precautions to impede that other people may listen to the conversation, which includes personal information (Lowrance, 2012), while the interview is occurring.…”

A conceptualization of the privacy concerns of cloud users

“…While the popular instruments for measuring privacy concerns (Malhotra et al , 2004; Smith et al , 2011), are commonly used in other contexts, the majority of cloud privacy studies do not use them (Fox, 2021). Privacy concerns in the cloud have mostly been conceptualized as a single first-order factor.…”

“…) Although all major cloud service providers have implemented certain privacy protection mechanisms, privacy remains one of the most prominent concerns. Moreover, privacy problems are frequently discussed as a major barrier to using cloud services (Fox, 2021). According to the Privacy Survey (CISCO, 2019), 84% of cloud users care about privacy and want more control over their data, and 48% already switched providers because of their data policies or data-sharing practices.…”

“…Transparency is much lower, and the data are open to more vulnerabilities. Data are often transferred beyond international borders, requiring consideration of legal requirements in different jurisdictions and complicating the user's ability to manage data flows and preserve privacy (Fox, 2021). Users' privacy concerns and related behaviors are expected to differ from other contexts because of complex data collection and storage methods, new ways of using data, and the possibility of interlinking data.…”