Regional Differences in Information Privacy Concerns After the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal
This work addresses the need for more diverse data sources in understanding global privacy concerns, though it is incremental as it builds on existing frameworks with new regional insights.
The study analyzed tweets in Spanish and English about the Cambridge Analytica scandal to explore regional differences in information privacy concerns, finding that English tweets emphasized data collection more than Spanish tweets and North American data showed a narrower focus on awareness compared to other regions.
While there is increasing global attention to data privacy, most of their current theoretical understanding is based on research conducted in a few countries. Prior work argues that people's cultural backgrounds might shape their privacy concerns; thus, we could expect people from different world regions to conceptualize them in diverse ways. We collected and analyzed a large-scale dataset of tweets about the #CambridgeAnalytica scandal in Spanish and English to start exploring this hypothesis. We employed word embeddings and qualitative analysis to identify which information privacy concerns are present and characterize language and regional differences in emphasis on these concerns. Our results suggest that related concepts, such as regulations, can be added to current information privacy frameworks. We also observe a greater emphasis on data collection in English than in Spanish. Additionally, data from North America exhibits a narrower focus on awareness compared to other regions under study. Our results call for more diverse sources of data and nuanced analysis of data privacy concerns around the globe.