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Virginia Tech

Understanding Community Privacy through Focus Group Studies

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Just as an individual is rightly concerned about the privacy of their personally identifying information, so also is a group of people, a community, concerned about the privacy of sensitive information entrusted to their care. Our research seeks to develop a better understanding of the factors contributing to the sensitivity of community information, of the privacy threats that are recognized by the community, and of the means by which the community attempts to fulfill their privacy responsibilities. We are also interested in seeing how the elements of a community privacy model that we developed are related to the findings from the studies of communities. This thesis presents the results of a series of focus group sessions conducted in corporate settings. Three focus group interviews were conducted using participants from two information technology companies and one research group from the university. Three themes emerged from the analysis of these focus group interviews which are described as privacy awareness, situated disclosures, and confinement of sensitive information. These three themes capture the character and complexity of community oriented privacy and expose breakdowns in current approaches.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Computer Science
Department dc:contributor.department
Computer Science
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2012

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Codio, Sherley
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Kafura, Dennis G.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Kavanaugh, Andrea L.
  • Pérez-Quiñones, Manuel A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 2

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-05042012-161155
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32200

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Codio, Sherley. Understanding Community Privacy through Focus Group Studies. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32200