Sunlight or Sunburn:Attitudes toward Online Availability of US Public Records

Sean A. Munson

Daniel Avrahami, Sunny Consolvo

James Fogarty, Batya Friedman

Ian Smith

University of Michigan

Intel Labs Seattle

University of Washington

Everbread, Ltd.

public records aren’t new

• In US, campaign contribution records date

from 1910, upheld in 1976 (Buckley v Valeo).

… but this level of accessibility is.

• Long history of real estate records being

public

The Good

“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for

social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to

be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most

efficient policeman” - Justice Brandeis, 1914

Cause for concern? (or at least questions)

Are these uses consistent with campaign donors’ and real estate purchasers’ expectations?

If not, people may feel that their privacy has been violated (Adams & Sasse).

Nissenbaum on public records’ increased accessibility:

“requires an examination of governing norms of appropriateness and flow to see whether and in what ways the proposed new practices measure up.”

Risks of violations

If there are violations:

• Risk of people suppressing activities in ways not

intended?

• Damage to relationships?

• Culture of mutual surveillance? (1984; Palen &

Dourish)

Aggregation of public data sets to

derive sensitive data. (Griffith & Jakobsson 2005)

Survey design

Four page survey, questions

about:

• demographics

• history and intentions for

campaign contributions and

real estate purchases

• whether they had displayed

political bumper stickers or

signs

• comfort about what of this

information was available online

• how its availability may affect

future plans

Screenshots of existing sites and

tools

Survey design

Four page survey, questions

about:

• demographics

• history and intentions for

campaign contributions and

real estate purchases

• whether they had displayed

political bumper stickers or

signs

• comfort about what of this

information was available online

• how its availability may affect

future plans

Screenshots of existing sites and

tools

Respondents

Survey sent to 1,000

households in PNW,

November 2008.

• 47 marked “return to

sender”

• 134 filled out and

returned (14% response

rate)

Somewhat older and more

liberal than general

population

Results

Beliefs, understanding, and awareness

Though most participants offered reasons for

records being public, some could not think of a

reason

– 19% for real estate records

– 11% for campaign contributions

Differing awareness of online availability

– 73% for real estate records

– 49% for campaign contributions

Beliefs, understanding, and awareness

Real estate records: emphasis on practical

concerns (e.g., information for potential buyers,

sellers, and tax records; 60%)

Campaign contributions: emphasis on

transparency (49%)

c

Comfort with

records being

searchable

Comfort with searching by

Real estate purchases

Campaign contributions

State

City

Zip code

Neighborhood

name

Home address

Last name only

First & last name

Employer

Occupation

Wilcoxon Signed-rank test, correction for multiple tests.

Very comfortable

Not at all comfortable

c

Comfort with

records being

searchable

Comfort with searching by

Real estate purchases

Campaign contributions

State

City

Zip code

Neighborhood

name

Home address

Last name only

First & last name

Employer

Occupation

Very comfortable

Not at all comfortable

c

Comfort with

records being

searchable

Comfort with searching by

Real estate purchases

Campaign contributions

State

City

Zip code

Neighborhood

name

Home address

Last name only

First & last name

Employer

Occupation

Wilcoxon Signed-rank test, correction for multiple tests.

Comfort with

searcher

Greater comfort with searcher from

their area and a citizen than with a

searcher from outside their area or

who was a non-citizen.

Comfort if the person accessing these

details online lives

Real estate

purchases

Campaign

contributions

in the same

neighborhood as you

in the same city as you, but not in the same

neighborhood

µ = 3.21, stdev = 1.66

in the same state as

you, but not the same city

in the US and is a US citizen

outside of the US but is a US citizen

in the US, and is a US Permanent Resident

outside of the US, but is a US Permanent

Resident

in the US legally, but is not Citizen or

Permanent Resident

in the US, but not

legally and is not a Citizen or Permanent

Resident

outside of the US and is not a Citizen or

Permanent Resident

Change access?

Change access?

Access restrictions?

Sense from some that searchers should have

to “justify” access or pay a nominal charge to

cut down on “frivolous” access and limit it to

those who “need” to know.

… or that it should just require more effort than

visiting a website.

“city/county Admin but not where it can be

readily accessed online.”

Change access?

Eliminate?

There should be right to privacy - like the secret

ballot - political affiliations & contributions

should remain private. I was major ticked off

to find my contributions, candidates' affiliations,

etc online - no one's business in the public

arena.

“there should be no access. One's political

affiliations should only be made public

voluntarily.”

Eliminate?

33% of those who wanted change said they would give less to political campaigns in the future, vs. only 3% for those who did not want access changed.

“This issue has already made us unlikely to ever donate to a presidential campaign again.”

Change access?

A Dilemma

“this is a dilemma: privacy vs. protection from

influence by individuals or groups”

“I prefer privacy & I'm not sure how to address

the issue.”

A Dilemma: What to do?

Do we

• change policies?

• better educate donors and buyers?

– Why records are available

– What will be accessible (better labels?)

• reconsider what tools we build?

Privacy violations are occurring, with unknown

effects.

Future work

Update data (quite a bit has changed since 2008)

Need to measure actual behavior and effects

rather than just attitudes.

Sunlight or Sunburn:Attitudes toward Online Availability of US Public Records

Sean A. Munson

Daniel Avrahami, Sunny Consolvo

James Fogarty, Batya Friedman

Ian Smith

University of Michigan

Intel Labs Seattle

University of Washington

Everbread, Ltd.

Funded by the National Science Foundation IIS-0325035 and

Intel.

Thanks to Amanda Fondville and Charity Leang.