Telephone Privacy: Residential User Perspectives and Strategies

Abstract

As policy-makers in various countries have turned to devising policy in the relatively unfamiliar terrain of telephone privacy, it is evident that they have done so with little empirical evidence concerning the relevant perceptions and behaviours of residential telephone users. We have two objectives. First, focusing on the US context, we seek to build on the little empirical work that has been done on these users' perceptions and behaviours regarding telephone privacy. Second, we discuss the implications of our analysis for policy deliberations. Emphasis is placed on the need to construct appropriate public education campaigns that can aid in reducing the gulf between privacy concerns expressed by telecommunication privacy experts and those expressed by residential users.