“I might be using his.. but it is also mine!”: Ownership & Control in Account Designed for Sharing

Title of the Paper

"I Might be Using His... But It is Also Mine!": Ownership and Control in Accounts Designed for Sharing

Paper Information

• Research Domain: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), perceptions of ownership in shared account usage
• Keywords: account sharing, DS accounts, shared ownership, multi-user profiles, control

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:

  • Streaming platforms are designed to allow users to share accounts, but this leads to ambiguous perceptions of ownership.
  • Account sharing may result in asymmetrical power distribution, unclear management responsibilities, and conflicts over control.

• Research Significance:

  • The surge in virtual connections during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in streaming platform users, making account sharing a common practice.
  • Exploring ownership and control issues in shared accounts can provide guidance for improving user experience on streaming platforms.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous studies indicate that users have weak psychological ownership perceptions of virtual objects, especially in cloud platforms and streaming content.
  • There is a lack of research on how users perceive ownership in shared account practices and how this impacts account management.

Proposed Solution

• Research Methods and Design:

  • A mixed-methods approach (quantitative online survey + semi-structured in-depth interviews) was used to study Korean users' account sharing practices and ownership-related control issues.
  • The survey collected background data on streaming account sharing from 160 participants. Interviews provided an in-depth analysis of how 31 users perceive ownership, management, and related issues in shared accounts.

• Innovations:

  • Identified and distinguished two main account-sharing practices: Casual Sharing and Cost-splitting Sharing.
  • Defined two forms of ownership: Primary Ownership and Dual Ownership, with the latter highlighting asymmetrical ownership perceptions among users.

• Key Implementation Points and Techniques:

  • Survey and interview methods were employed to capture behavioral patterns and psychological ownership perceptions in account sharing.
  • Iterative coding analysis of interview data was conducted to summarize themes ranging from sharing motivations to conflicts.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  1. Classification of Account Sharing Practices:

     • Casual Sharing: Driven by close relationships, where the account owner (AO) solely pays the fees. The AO holds primary ownership and manages shared users accordingly.
     • Cost-splitting Sharing: Driven by cost-saving motives, where fees are split among all users. This practice results in "Dual Ownership," where the AO remains dominant but each user has equal autonomy in usage.

  2. Issues in Shared Accounts:

     • Minor Issues: Small frictions such as uneven payment responsibility.
     • Major Issues: Serious problems like account takeover by unknown users, leading to permission chaos and even financial losses.

• Advantages and Contributions:

  • Provides an in-depth understanding of sharing practices on streaming platforms, revealing how ownership perceptions influence user interaction behaviors.
  • Offers design recommendations to reduce conflicts in shared accounts and enhance the sharing experience.

• Design Suggestions and Future Directions:

  • Enhancing Platform Mediation Functions: Develop user-matching services to simplify account collaboration and implement notification mechanisms to alleviate payment pressure.
  • Fostering Shared Responsibility: Design clearer responsibility allocation mechanisms, such as automated direct billing systems.
  • Improving Transparent Interaction Mechanisms: Display shared users' access activities on the account homepage to promote user awareness.

• Limitations:

  • The study focuses solely on video streaming platforms, excluding behaviors on gaming or music streaming platforms.
  • Snowball sampling did not fully cover all types of shared account users, such as secondary sharers (users who only borrow others' account profiles).

Conclusion

This paper analyzes ownership and control issues in shared accounts on streaming platforms, providing a formal classification of sharing practices and a model of ownership perception. It reveals how asymmetrical ownership perceptions lead to conflicts among users. Based on the findings, the paper proposes specific design recommendations to bridge ownership perception gaps among users, optimize sharing experiences, and reduce management burdens.