VPNs as boundary objects of the internet: (mis)trust in the translation(s)

Abstract

How do we come to trust, use and govern virtual private networks (VPNs)? How do these objects of the internet tack back and forth between metaphor and technical processes as they garner usership and critique? This paper aims to answer these questions by considering VPNs as boundary objects. We follow Susan Leigh Star's (2010) call to further explore the 'tacking' back and forth of boundary objects as both symbolic and technical objects. This is applied within internetspace and governance-space through empirical methods that walkthrough a typical user experience for acquiring VPN services, while also offering a systemic account of the discourse that such a user would experience in coming to understand VPNs and their function. Issue 4This paper is part of Trust in the system, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guestedited by Péter Mezei and Andreea Verteş-Olteanu.

From trust in the system to trust in the content

“…Notable metaphors -including "skeumorphs", that is the reused versions of old concepts (Larsson, 2011) -in the digital domain of law are for instance cyberspace, information superhighway, singularity, the cloud, transparency, net neutrality, piracy, big data, raw data, data mining, harvesting, artificial intelligence, domain (name), platform, (safe) harbour, bulletin board, torrent, search engine, magnet link, swarm, virus, Trojan horse, leak, or -as discussed in this special issue -' going dark' to describe the risks of end to end encryption (Heemsbergen and Molnar, 2020).…”

“…Heemsbergen and Molnar's paper combines existing literature on boundary objects and internet studies in an empirical way and addresses the political and legal implications of freedoms and controls over how users encounter and acquire VPN services, how VPN service providers represent and develop their services, and how ultimately regulators reflect these social realities. On of the most telling findings of the paper regarding trust in the system is a quote from a site that reviewed VPN services: "[i]t is important to keep in mind that when you are using a VPN, you are effectively transferring trust from your ISP to the VPN provider" (Heemsbergen and Molnar, 2020). Platforms and platformisation, especially in the videogame industry, have always been in the frontline of technological progress.…”

The Walkthrough Method

“…Over the years, thanks to further developments, the Walkthrough method has been integrated to analyze the users' point of view and to evaluate the usability of software applications; therefore, it is configured as an analytical analysis tool that can combine analyses carried out across digital platforms (Katz, 2020) with classic qualitative techniques such as: interviews, for example to analyze how, in the context of global migration, the use of digital media can maintain transnational connections or to analyze the governance of different Apps and compare them (Li, 2020); focus groups, to evaluate the implementation of new Apps through the users' experiential system (Wardhani et al,2019); content analysis, to analyze the terms of service and privacy policies and establish measures for the collection, storage, transfer, use and disclosure of App data (Heemsbergen & Molnar, 2020); critical analysis of the discourse, to analyze the digital intermediation of connectivity services (Cabalquinto & Wood-Bradley, 2020); participant observation, to carry out comparative analyses on the phenomenon of platformization (Nieborg, Duffy & Poell, 2020). Anyway, the approach that developed the most is the one of usability evaluation: the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) implies an iterative process in which evaluation is fundamental to inspect the usability of the user interface.…”