"Privacy is not a concept, but a way of dealing with life:" Localization of Transnational Technology Platforms and Liminal Privacy Practices in Cambodia

Privacy scholarship has shown how norms of appropriate information flow and information regulatoryprocesses vary according to environment [7,42], which change as the environment changes, includingthrough the introduction of new technologies [44]. This paper describes findings from a qualitative researchstudy that examines practices and perceptions of privacy in Cambodia as the population rapidly moves into anonline environment (specifically Facebook, the most popular Internet tool in Cambodia today). We empiricallydemonstrate how the concept of privacy differs across cultures and show how the Facebook platform, asit becomes popular worldwide, catalyzes change in norms of information regulation. We discuss how thelocalization of transnational technology platforms provides a key site in which to investigate changing culturalideas about privacy, and to discover misalignments between different expectations for information flow. Finally,we explore ways that insufficient localization effort by transnational technology companies puts some of themost marginalized users at disproportionate information disclosure risk when using new Internet tools, andoffer some pragmatic suggestions for how such companies could improve privacy tools for users who are far -geographically or culturally - from where the tools are designed.