Privacy in Instant Messaging

Poster

Abstract: The great promise of collaborative technologies that increase group awareness and communication is often overshadowed by accompanying privacy concerns. In systems devised for communication and collaboration, the privacy concerns in question are primarily with respect to other individuals one interacts with - such as colleagues, superiors, subordinates, friends and family - as opposed to big, nameless entities such as corporations and governments.

We use Instant Messaging (IM) as a starting point to explore privacy issues in collaborative systems. We conducted in-depth interviews with seven experienced users of Instant Messaging (IM) systems, focusing on issues relating to privacy. To achieve breadth, the users were chosen to have backgrounds and work characteristics quite different from each other. Based on the findings from the interviews, we designed and administered an online survey to a larger population of IM users. In this talk, I will discuss findings from the interviews and the survey, and suggest some design solutions to address some of these issues.

Bio: Sameer Patil is a Ph.D. student in the Interactive and Collaborative Technologies (ICT) group in the School of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. Sameer holds Master's degrees in Computer Science & Engineering and in Information from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Bombay, India.