Masterarbeit Laura Buhleier: Privacy Visualizations: Aiding User Comprehension of Privacy Policies

Abstract: Privacy policies are widely regarded as being practically unreadable for laypersons and being seemingly written by lawyers for lawyers rather than with the end user in mind. Their length and complexity deter users contradicting their purpose of informing of the given privacy rights and restrictions. Therefore methods to enhance the usability of privacy policies are necessary. Visualizations represent such a method to facilitate quick apprehension of complex legal formulations.

Existing approaches include privacy icons as well as labels and indicators. However so far no definitive solution has been established in practice. Therefore this work sets out on discovering which forms of visualization can effectively support the usability of privacy policies. To directly involve users in the design process a participatory design approach is chosen.

The participatory study is carried out in workshops, which aim to construct first designs on usable privacy policies, and open interviews to receive further feedback on the developed designs. It is found that a combination of the different visualization approaches of icons and labels was preferred by users. These findings are then implemented into a finalized design and recommendations, intended as a guideline for designers as well as lawmakers.

Betreuer: Kilian Demuth

Prüfer: Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter