Colourful Privacy: Designing Visible Privacy Settings with Teenage Hospital Patients

Abstract

The paper reports from a qualitative study based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews and Participatory Design activities with hospitalised teenagers with chronic health challenges. We studied how teenage patients manage their online privacy, with a focus on the design and use of privacy settings. We found that the majority of participants preferred to visualise privacy settings through the use colours and to personalise access control. They also considered these necessary on more secure patient-centred social media. As proof of concept, we implemented some of the findings in a patient social network setting. We conclude that visualising and personalising privacy settings enable young patients to have more control over the sharing of personal information and may result in a more effective use of privacy settings. In addition, privacy-aware default settings may prevent teens from unintended sharing of personal information.