| This study explores the subject of privacy in the online world. It examines what has come to be known as the “Privacy Space,” which is a loosely defined collection of software systems and online services devoted to protecting people's privacy in cyberspace. This research approaches privacy from the end-user standpoint and that focus has guided the development of a framework for helping people better understand the privacy space and what it encompasses. In the first phase of the research, 134 privacy solutions were gathered and analyzed to discern their privacy features apart from their general features using a grounded approach. Once a suitable set of features was collected and categorized into the framework, the list was culled to remove duplicates. The second phase of the study sought to validate the investigator's categorizations using the Delphi method with a sample of the features in an online forum involving fifteen participants with knowledge of privacy solutions. The results of the Delphi provide strong evidence that the framework is valid and will be useful in the development of visualizations of the privacy space as well as systems for interacting with it. The framework is used as a basis for considering user interfaces that help people manage their privacy as a dynamic process. |
