Nora McDonald, Assistant Professor, Information Sciences and Technology, is set to receive funding from the National Science Foundation for the project: "Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Beyond App-centric Privacy: Investigating Privacy Ecosystems among Vulnerable Populations."

Prior research shows that people who have privacy concerns may be reluctant to access medical services. This is especially true for vulnerable populations, such as those who because of their gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or other marginalizations are more susceptible to privacy risk. These risks go beyond individual apps to encompass an interlocking web of dataveillance—everything from credit card purchases to location history to communications metadata.

Using qualitative research that includes in-depth interviews and systematic analysis, McDonald will characterize the understanding of risk experienced by vulnerable individuals in the context of their health care, taking into account the broad privacy ecosystem.

She will interview vulnerable individuals about their privacy behaviors in the health care context as well as interview health care providers about their vulnerable patients' privacy concerns, how this impacts the medical guidance and care that providers provide, how the providers (attempt to) assuage these concerns, and other related questions. 

Using participatory design, she will develop and evaluate a toolkit that can help health care providers support their vulnerable clients' privacy. 

In addition to providing a freely available privacy toolkit designed for those who provide support and guidance to vulnerable individuals to help mitigate privacy harms, this research will contribute much needed understanding about the broader landscape of privacy risk and management for vulnerable individuals. Ultimately, it aims to provide a new frame for privacy and security researchers in the study of privacy protection for vulnerable communities.

McDonald will receive $393,256 from NSF for this project. Funding will begin in Oct. 2023 and will end in late Sept. 2026. 

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