In an increasingly digitized society, apps and technological services are virtually everywhere. Whether finance or fitness, users accept privacy policies and terms of service – often, without reading or engaging with them beforehand. Paradoxically, despite this behavior, users voice privacy concerns about their data. In this work, we shed light on the occurrence of this Privacy Paradox, offering suggestions how technology may be designed to support informed privacy decision-making. We followed a three-step method, inspecting user journeys of twenty health and fitness apps, conducting twenty semi-structured interviews with users and analyzing seven state-of-the-art privacy assistant systems. Our work offers three contributions: First, we provide critical reflections on when, how and which privacy information is displayed. Second, we present insights on contrasting user interests regarding e.g. information density and time effort. Third, we derive design recommendations for future privacy communication systems, elaborating on use cases, displayed contents and presentation formats.

In a digitized world, matters of (online) privacy become increasingly immanent in people’s lives. Paradoxically, while consumers claim they care about what happens to their personal data, they undertake little to protect it. Awareness is a crucial step towards making informed privacy decisions. Therefore, we present the Art of Privacy, a Virtual Reality (VR) installation, generated in collaboration with theater artists. This Interactivity immerses viewers into the world of data and unfolds possible consequences of clicking ‘accept’, without reading the terms and conditions or privacy policies. With this work, we contribute an artistic VR installation, designed to shed new light on digital privacy, spark discussions and encourage self-reflection of personal privacy behaviors.