Le sociologue Antonio Casilli, auteur de Les liaisons numériques. Vers une nouvelle sociabilité ? (Ed. du (Seuil), interviendra à l’occasion du Congrès Grenoble 2011 de l’AFS (Association Française de Sociologie) pour présenter son nouveau projet Testing the ’End-of-Privacy’ Hypothesis in Computer-mediated Communication. Le projet, porté par Paola Tubaro (University of Greenwich) est financé par la Fondation CIGREF/Fondation Sophia Antipolis. La présentation aura lieu à 17h dans le cadre des activités du RT26 “Réseaux sociaux” de l’AFS (Campus de St-Martin d’Hères).
Antonio A. Casilli à l’AFS (Grenoble, 5/7/11) (c) Pierre Mercklé
The so-called “End of Privacy” hypothesis has been widely echoed in the public discourse. Especially among younger users, a tendency to renounce the value of privacy in favour of transparent interactions has been ascribed – albeit controversially – to today’s pervasive computer-mediated communication and online networking services. Objectives and methods: The paper sets out to test the End of Privacy hypothesis by identifying the societal configurations coherent with this scenario. It builds on the existing social science literature on variables that affect individual privacy attitudes and behaviours, including age, socio-economic status, gender, and national legal frameworks. The methods adopted rely upon the design of an agent-based computational model of online networks. Starting from micro-level interactions, the model aims to describe the resulting macro-level social dynamics. Findings: Final simulated scenarios can be of several distinct types, thus suggesting that the End of Privacy is not an inevitable outcome of today’s spread of computer-mediated communication. On this basis, the paper assesses the possible combinations of social factors validating or falsifying this hypothesis. Shifting individual preferences towards more open tie formation, participatory sharing and changing expectations about privacy policies and data protection are evaluated as to their potential to trigger major social innovations.
