University of Maryland

Publications

Below we provide links to research from the lab and its researchers on networked privacy, ethics, and surveillance topics. If you are unable to access a paper, contact the authors and they will send you a PDF.

  • Wagman, K.B., Blinder, E.B., Song, K., Vignon, A., Dworkin, S., Clegg, T., Vitak, J., & Chetty, M. (2023). “We picked community over privacy”: Privacy and security concerns emerging from remote learning sociotechnical infrastructure during COVID-19. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7, CSCW2, Article 245. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610036 [pdf] | Medium Post
  • Lenhart, A., Park, S., Zimmer, M., & Vitak, J. (2023). “You shouldn’t need to share your data”: Perceived privacy risks and mitigation strategies among smart home power users. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7, CSCW2, Article 247. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610038 [pdf] [supplemental materials] | Medium Post
  • Vitak, J., Kumar, P.C., Liao, Y., & Zimmer, M. (2023). Boundary regulation processes and privacy concerns with (non-)use of voice-based assistants. Human-Machine Communication, 6, 185-204. https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.6.10 [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2023). Surveillance and the future of work: Exploring employees’ attitudes toward monitoring in a Post-COVID workplace. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 28(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmad007 [pdf]
  • Park, S., Lenhart, A., Zimmer, M., & Vitak, J. (2023). “Nobody’s happy”: Design insights from privacy-conscious smart home power users. Proceedings of the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). USENIX Association. [pdf]
  • Kumar, P. C., O’Connell, F., Li, L., Byrne, V., Chetty, M., Clegg, T., & Vitak, J. (2023). Understanding research on designing for children’s privacy and security: A document analysis. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference. New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3589375 [pdf]
  • Gilbert, S., Shilton, K., & Vitak, J. (2023). When research is the context: Cross-platform user expectations for social media data reuse. Big Data & Society, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231164108 [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2023). Power, stress, and uncertainty: Experiences with and attitudes toward workplace surveillance during a pandemic. Surveillance & Society, 21(1), 29-44. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v21i1.15571 [pdf]
  • Tahae et al. [includes Vitak] (2023). Human-centered responsible artificial intelligence: Current & future trends. Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23), 4 pages. New York: ACM.https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3583178
  • Vitak, J., Liao, Y., Mols, A., Trottier, D., Kumar, P.C., Zimmer, M., & Pridmore, J. (2023). When do data collection and use become a matter of concern? A cross-cultural comparison of American and Dutch privacy attitudes. International Journal of Communication, 17, 471-498. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19391
  • Shilton, K., Gilbert, S., Moss, E., Bietz, M., Fiesler, C., Metcalf, J., Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2021). Excavating awareness and power in data science: A manifesto for trustworthy pervasive data research. Big Data & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211040759
  • Gilbert, S., Vitak, J., & Shilton, K. (2021). Measuring Americans’ comfort with research uses of their social media data. Social Media + Society, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211033824
  • Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2021, October). From watched at work to watched at home: Workplace surveillance during a pandemic. Paper presented at AoIR 2021: The 22nd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. [pdf]
  • Hargittai, E., Redmiles, E., Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2020). Americans’ willingness to adopt a COVID-19 tracking app: The role of app distributor. First Monday, 25(11). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i11.11095 [open access]
  • Kumar, P.C., Subramaniam, M., Vitak, J., Clegg, T.L., & Chetty, M. (2020). Strengthening children’s privacy literacy through contextual integrity. Media and Communication, 8(4), 175-184. doi: 10.17645/mac.v8i4.3236
  • Vitak, J. & Zimmer, M. (2020). More than just privacy: Using contextual integrity to evaluate the long-term risks from covid-19 surveillance technologies. Social Media and Society.­  https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948250 [open access]
  • Wu, P., Vitak, J., & Zimmer, M. (2020). A contextual approach to information privacy research. JASIST, 71, 485-490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.24232 [pdf]
  • Kumar, P., Vitak, J., Clegg, T., & Chetty, M. (2019). The platformization of the classroom: Teachers as surveillant consumers. Surveillance & Society, 17(1/2), 145-152. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.12926
  • Pridmore, J., Zimmer, M., Vitak, J., Mols, A., Trottier, D., Kumar, P., & Liao, Y. (2019). Intelligent personal assistants and the article intercultural negotiations of dataveillance in platformed households. Surveillance & Society, 17(1/2), 125-131. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.12936
  • Zimmer, M., Kumar, P., Vitak, J., Liao, Y., & Kritikos, K. (2020). “There’s nothing really they can do with this information”: Unpacking how users manage privacy boundaries for personal fitness information. Information, Communication, and Society, 23(7), 1020-1037. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1543442 [pdf]
  • Kumar, P., Chetty, M., Clegg, T., & Vitak, J. (2019). Privacy and security considerations for digital technology use in elementary schools. Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) (pp. forthcoming). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300537  [pdf]
  • Liao, Y., Vitak, J., Kumar, P., Zimmer, M., & Kritikos, K. (2019). Understanding the role of privacy and trust in intelligent personal assistant adoption. Proceedings of the 13th Annual iConference, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (iConference), volume 11420, 102-113. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_9 [pdf] [this paper won the Lee Dirks Best Paper Award]
  • Vitak, J., Liao, Y., Subramaniam, M., & Kumar, P. (2018). “I knew it was too good to be true”: The challenges economically disadvantaged internet users face in assessing trustworthiness, avoiding scams, and developing self-efficacy online. Proceedings of the ACM: HCI: CSCW, Article No. 176. New York: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3274445 [pdf]
  • Mathur, A., Vitak, J., Narayanan, A., & Chetty, M. (2018). Characterizing the use of browser-based blocking extensions to prevent online tracking. Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS) (pp. 103-116). Usenix Association. [pdf]
  • McNally, B., Kumar, P., Hordatt, C., Mauriello, M.L., Naik, S., Norooz, L., Shorter, A., Golub, E., & Druin, A. (2018). Co-designing Mobile Online Safety Applications with Children. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’18). Montréal, Canada. April 21-26, 2018. [pdf]
  • Kumar, P., Vitak, J., Chetty, M., Clegg, T.L., Yang, J., McNally, B., & Bonsignore (2018). Co-designing online privacy-related games and stories with children. Proceedings of 2018 ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference (pp. 67-79). New York: ACM. doi:10.1145/3202185.3202735 [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., Kumar, P., & Liao, Y. (2018, May). How communication technologies introduce privacy turbulence in families during late adolescence. Paper presented at the 68th International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic. [presentation slides]
  • Liao, Y., & Vitak, J. (2018, May). Benefits and risks of personal health information sharing online: PatientsLikeMe users’ privacy concerns and self-protection strategies. Paper presented at the 68th International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Kumar, P. (2018, May). Emerging norms and privacy implications of parental online sharing: The perspective of the STFU, Parents blog. Paper presented at the 68th International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Vitak, J., Liao, Y., Kumar, P., Zimmer, M., & Kritikos, K. (2018). Privacy attitudes and data valuation among fitness tracker users. Proceedings of the 13th Annual iConference. [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., Liao, Y., Kumar, P., & Subramaniam, M. (2018). Librarians as information intermediaries: Navigating tensions between being helpful and being liable. Proceedings of the 13th Annual iConference. [pdf]
  • Kumar, P., Naik, S.M., Devkar, U.R., Chetty, M., Clegg, T.L., & Vitak, J. (2017), ‘No telling passcodes out because they’re private’: Understanding children’s mental models of online privacy and security. Proceedings of the ACM: HCI: CSCW, 1(1), Article 64. doi: 10.1145/3134699 [link] [pdf]
  • Dogruel, L., Joeckel, S., & Vitak, J. (2017). The valuation of privacy premium features for smartphone apps: The influence of defaults and experts. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 230-239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.035 [link]
  • Vitak, J., Proferes, N., Shilton, K., & Ashktorab, Z. (2017). Ethics regulation in social computing research: Examining the role of Institutional Review Boards. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 12, 372-382. doi:10.1177/1556264617725200  [link]
  • Sebescen, N., & Vitak, J. (2017). Securing the Human: Employee security vulnerability risks in organizational settings. JASIST, 68, 2237–2247. doi:10.1002/asi.23851  [link]
  • Kumar, P. (2017). Corporate Privacy Policy Changes during PRISM and the Rise of Surveillance Capitalism. Media and Communication, 5(1), 63-75. doi: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.813 [pdf]
  • Kumar, P., Prasad, R, & Maréchal, N. (2017). Progress & Peril: The Role of ICT Companies in Promoting and Curtailing Human Rights. In M.G. Villareal (Ed.), Human Rights and Technology: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (pp. 189-214). San Jose, Costa Rica: United Nations University for Peace. [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., Shilton, K., & Ashktorab, Z. (2016). Beyond the Belmont Principles: Ethical Challenges, Practices, and Beliefs in the Online Data Research Community. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. New York: ACM. [pdf]
  • Kumar, P. (2016). “Privacy Policies and Their Lack of Clear Disclosure Regarding the Life Cycle of User Information.” In Technical Report FS-16: AAAI Fall Symposium Series on Privacy and Language Technologies. Arlington, Virginia. November 17-19, 2016. [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., Blasiola, S., Patil, S., & Litt, E. (2015). Balancing audience and privacy tensions on social network sites. International Journal of Communication, 9, 1485-1504. doi: 1932–8036/20150005 [link]
  • Vitak, J., & Kim, J. (2014). “You can’t block people offline”: Examining how Facebook’s affordances shape users’ disclosure process. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. New York: ACM. [pdf]
  • Subramaniam, M., Valdivia, C., Pellicone, A. & Neigh, Z. (2014). Teach me and trust me: Creating an empowered online community of tweens and parents. Proceedings of the 2014 iConference, 244-258. [Full paper]
  • Vitak, J., & Ellison, N. (2013). “There’s a network out there you might as well tap”: Exploring the benefits of and barriers to exchanging informational and support-based resources on Facebook. New Media & Society, 15, 243-259. [link][pdf]
  • Vitak, J. (2012). The impact of context collapse and privacy on social network site disclosures. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 56(4), 451-470. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2012.732140 [link] [pdf]
  • Stutzman, F., Vitak, J., Ellison, N., Gray, R., & Lampe, C. (2012). Privacy in interaction: Exploring disclosure and social capital in Facebook. In Proceedings of the 6th annual International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM). Washington, DC: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.[20% acceptance rate] [Top Paper Candidate] [pdf]
  • Vitak, J., Lampe, C., Ellison, N., & Gray, R. (2012). “Why won’t you be my Facebook Friend?”: Strategies for dealing with context collapse in the workplace. In Proceedings of the 7th Annual iConference (pp. 555-557)New York: ACM. doi: 10.1145/2132176.2132286 [pdf]
  • Ellison, N., Vitak, J., Steinfield, C., Gray, R., & Lampe, C. (2011). Negotiating privacy concerns and social capital needs in a social media environment. In S. Trepte & L. Reinecke (Eds.), Privacy online: Perspectives on privacy and self-disclosure in the social web (pp. 19-32). New York: Springer. [link] [pdf]

Recent News

June 2023: Vitak & Zimmer have a paper out in JCMC exploring attitudes toward workplace surveillance.

April  2023: Our qualitative study of power users’ approach to managing their smart home ecosystems was accepted to CSCW 2023 [pdf].

April 2023: Vitak and Zimmer (along with Yaxing Yao & Danny Huang) were awarded a $600k grant from NSF to study privacy mitigations in smart environments.

March 2023: “When research is the context: Cross-platform user expectations for social media data reuse” was published in Big Data & Society.

March 2023: “Power, stress, and uncertainty: Experiences with and attitudes toward workplace surveillance during a pandemic” was published in Surveillance & Society.

March 2023: Vitak & Shilton shared recent PERVADE work on “The Discussion Section” podcast.

Jan 2023: Vitak gave the keynote at a Privacy Day event at Maquette University (“Reimagining Data Collection and Use in the Age of Smart Devices”).

Jan 2023: “When Do Data Collection and Use Become a Matter of Concern? A Cross-Cultural Comparison of U.S. and Dutch Privacy Attitudes” was published in IJoC.

Dec 2022: Vitak gave the closing keynote at the MD Tech Connect conference (“School and Library Programming to Teach Children Basic Privacy and Security Concepts”).