A Framework to Deal with Privacy in Systems

Abstract

Privacy is a crucial issue to be discussed, defined, and specified in any system. There is a lack of resources offering a decision-making context that enables identification of the perceived situation according to users' data contained by the systems. All the available data should be understandable for all stakeholders; many of them have no technical background. This paper proposes a framework based on a traditional psychological tool and discusses its application to a real case to evaluate its practical application. It recognizes that there are four privacy domains to improve how systems stakeholders explore, perceive, and understand privacy situations, supporting decisions about access to personal data. The perceived situation has multiple views, according to who accesses and uses other people's personal data, and according to the person who provides the data, even if this person has explicitly granted access to them. There are different purposes and values involved, which demands a clear and deliberate approach.