“We Are the Product”: Public Reactions to Online Data Sharing and Privacy Controversies in the Media

As online platforms increasingly collect large amounts of data about their users, there has been growing public concern about privacy around issues such as data sharing. Controversies around practices perceived as surprising or even unethical often highlight patterns of privacy attitudes when they spark conversation in the media. This paper examines public reaction “in the wild” to two data sharing controversies that were the focus of media attention—regarding the social media and communication services Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as the email service unroll.me. These controversies instigated discussion of data privacy and ethics, accessibility of website policies, notions of responsibility for privacy, cost-benefit analyses, and strategies for privacy management such as non-use. An analysis of reactions and interactions captured by comments on news articles not only reveals information about pervasive privacy attitudes, but also suggests communication and design strategies that could benefit both platforms and users.