Christoph Lutz presented two papers at the 2019 Social Media & Society Conference in Toronto. Both papers deal with aspects of privacy and data protection. In "Explaining the Privacy Paradox with Privacy Cynicism: Scale Development and Structural Equation Model", Christoph and his co-authors Christian Hoffmann (University of Leipzig) and Giulia Ranzini (Free University of Amsterdam) develop the concept of privacy cynicism based on rich survey data in Germany. Privacy cynicism is understood an attitude of uncertainty, powerlessness and mistrust towards the handling of personal data by online services, rendering privacy protection behavior subjectively futile.
In "Chilling Effects of Profiling Activities: Exploring the Consequences of Big Data-Driven Surveillance", Christoph and his co-authors Shruthi Velidi (BI), Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux, Moritz Büchi (both University of Zurich), Eduard Fosch Villaronga (University of Leiden) and Salome Viljoen (Harvard University) provide an in-depth literature review on the connection between big data-based profiling and chilling effects, that is, behavioral deterrences and inhibitions due to surveillance. Both presentations were well received and sparked engaged discussions.
The Social Media & Society Conference, now in its 10th edition, has become fhe flagship conference for interdisciplinary research about social media. It is organized by the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University, Toronto. This year's Social Media & Conference conference took place in Toronto from July 22-24. It featured one day of workshops on social media analysis tools and two days of conference presentations, with the conference theme of "Rethinking Privacy and Trust in the Social Media Age". Around 300 scholars from various disciplines participated in the conference and enjoyed the program, including excellent keynotes by Valerie Steeves and Tarleton Gillespie.