Digital trust, safety, and privacy in the age of emerging technologies: empirical and policy insights from global social media use

In today's global digital economy, social media platforms have become powerful tools for information dissemination and fostering global connections. However, driven by advertising-based business models, these platforms also expose users to significant digital risks, including privacy-invasive targeted advertising, fraudulent content and scams. These risks are amplified by integration of Generative AI, enabling hyper-personalized and scalable synthetic content generation. Importantly, these risks disproportionately affect the at-risk and understudied populations, such as young adults, and users from non-Western regions, whose needs are often overlooked in platform design and governance. Through my research, I aim to improve people's online safety, trust, and privacy. I investigate three major risks on social media platforms: a) privacy invasive targeted advertisements; b) fraudulent content and scams on short-form video platforms (SVPs) like TikTok; and c) use of Generative AI in amplifying fraudulent content. To address these challenges, I use a mixed-method approach that integrates interviews, surveys, and content analysis of user-generated videos, and policy reviews. My research makes four key contributions: Non-western users exhibit novel perceptions of targeted ads: Users from South Asia, specifically, India and Bangladesh, prefer emerging ad formats such as influencer-based ads, have heightened concerns regarding fraudulent ads. Privacy behaviors are shaped by social, cultural, and religious norms: Cross-country comparisons reveal that culture and religion significantly influence users' perceptions and privacy management behaviors of targeted ads on social media. These findings underscore the need to move beyond Western-centric privacy paradigms. Fraudulent content and scams on TikTok exploit platform specific features: Fraudulent content and scams are widespread and increasingly sophisticated. Analysis of user-reported cases shows that scammers leverage influencer culture and TikTok-specific mechanisms (e.g., direct messaging and the “For You Page”) to target users. Generative AI governance remains fragmented and insufficient: Existing governance for use of Generative AI to produce and scale synthetic fraudulent content lacks clear enforceable rules, specifically for youth (ages 13-25). Variability across platform policies also signals lack of consensus on ethical use of Generative AI in social media. Overall, my work highlights the inequitable impact of digital harms on vulnerable and understudied populations. It proposes actionable design and policy interventions to enhance digital safety and privacy, contributes to a more responsible and equitable vision for the development and governance of emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Information Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Kaushik, Smirity

Contributors dc:contributor

• Wang, Yang
• Sanfilippo, Madelyn
• Twidale, Micheal
• Cobb, Camille
• Zou, Yixin

• social media, trust and safety, privacy, generative AI, targeted ads, scams, at-risk population

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Smirity Kaushik

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132452

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132452