A Design Theory for Transparency of Information Privacy Practices.

Public policy initiatives demand transparency of information privacy practices (TIPP) since the 1970s, at least, when a first version of the fair information practice principles (FIPP) was published. Decades later, information system (IS) providers are still struggling to meet this demand. Apparently, there is a tension between socially desirable guardrails for privacy practices (e.g., allowing for anonymity) and economic value creation (e.g., exploiting personalization surplus). To inform IS designs that can change such avaricious states to the benefit of consumers, we present a theoretical foundation (TIPP theory) explaining and prescribing what needs to be built to establish TIPP in the real world. On the one hand, TIPP theory explains why IS providers, who have privacy practices to hide, should not go beyond IS designs that meet legal demands. More importantly, TIPP theory explains and prescribes what IS providers need to build to actually establish TIPP and be able to differentiate from competitors by doing so. TIPP theory will be useful for all involved parties: IS providers are enabled to avoid privacy notice fallacies, public policy makers can give more details in their related guidance and laws published, and consumers can, ultimately, interact with IS that actually establish TIPP. The rising diffusion of information systems (IS) throughout society poses an increasingly serious threat to privacy as a social value. One approach to alleviating this threat is to establish transparency of information privacy practices (TIPP) so that consumers can better understand how their information is processed. However, the design of transparency artifacts (e.g., privacy notices) has clearly not followed this approach, given the ever-increasing volume of information processing. Hence, consumers face a situation where they cannot see the "forest for the trees" when aiming to ascertain whether information processing meets their privacy expectations. A key problem is that overly comprehensive information presentation results in information overload and is thus counterproductive for establishing TIPP. We depart from the extant design logic of transparency artifacts and develop a theoretical foundation (TIPP theory) for transparency artifact designs useful for establishing TIPP from the perspective of privacy as a social value. We present TIPP theory in two parts to capture the sociotechnical interplay. The first part translates abstract knowledge on the IS artifact and privacy into a description of social subsystems of transparency artifacts, and the second part conveys prescriptive design knowledge in form of a corresponding IS design theory. TIPP theory establishes a bridge from the complexity of the privacy concept to a metadesign for transparency artifacts that is useful to establish TIPP in any IS. In essence, transparency artifacts must accomplish more than offering comprehensive information; they must also be adaptive to the current information needs of consumers. History: Suprateek Sarker, Senior Editor; Joe Nandhakumar, Associate Editor. Funding: This work was supported by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers and KASTEL Security Research Labs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]