D Epstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 25668 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D Epstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | D |
| FAMILY NAME | Epstein |
| SIGNATURE | EPSTEIN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4452-5971 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A dimensionalised privacy behaviour model
Privacy research struggles with modelling how individuals value and enact privacy, and faces challenges in explaining apparent contradictions such as the privacy paradox and manifestations of privacy-related disempowerment. Such uncertainties arise from the use of unidimensional privacy constructs or through assumptions that privacy-related decisions are rational or intentional. Addressing these lacunae, we present and empirically test the Dimens…
The high-tech elite? Assessing the values of tech-workers using the European Social Survey 2012–2020
Using data from the 2012–2020 European Social Survey and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this article maps the values of tech-workers, in order to assess and understand their uniqueness and homogeneity. Consistent with prior, mostly US-focused research, we find that European tech-workers hold a liberal worldview, which values openness to change, individualism, and universalism and devalues conservatism. However, our findings challenge the noti…
Comparative privacy research
The ways in which privacy is understood, defined, perceived, and enacted are contingent on cultural, social, political, economic, and technological settings. Yet, privacy research is often criticized for not adequately accounting for these. A comparative perspective requires the contextualization of privacy through investigating similarities and differences across contexts. This article outlines the Comparative Privacy Research Framework, which i…
Comparative Approaches to Studying Privacy
This editorial introduces the Social Media + Society special issue 'Comparative Approaches To Studying Privacy.' Recognizing the importance of privacy in today's digital societies and volatile political and regulatory environments, the editorial highlights the pressing need for comparative research on the topic and describes the articles in this special issue. The special issue addresses the theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges a…
A moment of turbulence
The rapid adoption of digital technologies during COVID-19 lockdowns offers a unique perspective on differences in privacy cultures. In this study, we compare how cultural predisposition and identities relate to privacy during the transition to remote learning in higher education in Estonia, France, and Israel. We conducted 83 in-depth interviews with academics, who talked about their adoption of communication technologies and strategies for mana…
Turn It on! Turn It on? Privacy Management of Pupils and Teachers in Online Learning During Covid-19 Lockdowns in Germany and Israel
The transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) through the use of video conferencing software during the COVID-19 lockdowns posed significant challenges to privacy management for both pupils and teachers across the world. One question became pivotal: Must I turn my camera on? While the question of turning on one's camera has pedagogical consequences, our study sets out to examine the implications for pupils' and teachers' privacy. Focusing on …
The High-Tech Elite? Assessing Value Priorities of Techies Using the European Social Survey 2012-2020
Using data from the European Value Survey 2012-2020 and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this paper aims to map the value priorities of people working in tech compared to the general population, understand to what extent those value priorities differ from value priorities of other occupational elites, and how they vary among techies, focusing particularly on developers as a sub-group. Our preliminary findings suggest that compared to the genera…
Privacy and distance learning in turbulent times
The social distancing and lockdown measures enacted to address the COVID-19 pandemic entailed an unprecedented shift to digitally-mediated communication. The move to remote learning at schools was one of such important changes. Drawing on privacy and STS literature, we investigate the role of different privacy cultures during the initial moment of turbulence, when schools had to quickly adapt to remote teaching. To this end, we conducted semi-str…
Dimensionalizing privacy to advance the study of digital disempowerment
In this essay, we call attention to privacy as the foundational construct that underpins digital disempowerment. We argue that to better understand the processes of disempowerment, scholars must critically engage with the dimensionality of privacy conceptualizations and privacy-dependent constructs such as privacy concerns and privacy-protecting behavior, and the way in which these are measured. We focus on privacy's horizontal and vertical dimen…
Conversations with fellow leaders
Privacy, Covid-19 and Online Teaching
The COVID-19 crisis is a potential watershed moment for privacy with profound long-term effects on the organization and practices of work, education, and civic engagement. In this study we focus on the profound re-negotiation of mediated personal boundaries in times of mass lockdowns and social distancing. To understand how these new social conditions might be playing out in the field of privacy, we interviewed 90 faculty in higher education in E…
Vertical or Horizontal? An Empirical Investigation of the Role of Privacy Literacy and Privacy Self-Efficacy on the Dimensionality of Privacy
The goals of this study are two-fold. We extend established models linking attitudes related to privacy concerns and privacy protecting behavior (PPB) by (a) differentiating between horizontal (social) and vertical (institutional) orientations of PPB as capturing an aspect of privacy multidimensionality, and (b) introducing additional explanatory factors such as privacy literacy and privacy self-efficacy into the modeling of PPB. We survey a repr…
Markers of Online Privacy Marginalization
This study explores how traditional socioeconomic markers of the digital divide interact with new markers of marginalization when it comes to online privacy protecting behaviors. To do this, we analyze data from a representative sample of social media users in the United States. Using hierarchical linear regression, we explore the relationships between established components of the digital divide, antecedents of privacy concerns, privacy-protecti…
We Care About Different Things
This study explores privacy from the perspective of the user. It leverages a 'framing in thought' approach to capture how users make sense of privacy in their social media use. It builds on a unique dataset of privacy definitions collected from a representative sample of 608 US social media users. The data are analyzed using topic modeling and semantic network analysis to unpack the multidimensionality of social media privacy. These dimensions ar…
The Magic Sauce
Online engagement in policy deliberation is one of the more complex aspects of open government. Previous research on human facilitation of policy deliberation has focused primarily on the citizens who need facilitation. In this paper we unpack the facilitation practices from the perspective of the moderator. We present an interview study of facilitators in RegulationRoom – an online policy deliberation platform. Our findings reveal that facilitat…
It's the Definition, Stupid! Framing of Online Privacy in the Internet Governance Forum Debates
How do different stakeholders in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) define and discuss privacy? Using sophisticated statistical and linguistic tools, the authors analyze the language used at the IGF from 2006 to 2011 to identify the frames used by different groups in privacy policy rhetoric. The article exemplifies a case of the use of these complex tools for research purposes; and also reveals that the focus of the privacy discourse at the IGF …
The value of words
Policy makers today rely primarily on technical data as their basis for decision making. Yet, there is a potentially underestimated value in substantive reflections of the members of the public who will be affected by a particular regulation. Viewing professional policy makers and professional commenters as a community of practice, we describe their limited shared repertoire with the lay members of the public as a significant barrier to participa…
Not by technology alone
Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications
Addressing the reasons for—and the solutions to—the “digital divide” has been on the public agenda since the emergence of the Internet. However, the term has meant quite different things, depending on the audience and the context, and these competing interpretations may in fact orient toward different policy outcomes. The goals of this article are twofold. First, the authors unpack the term “digital divide” and examine how it has been deployed an…
Not by technology alone
The value of words
Policy makers today rely primarily on technical data as their basis for decision making. Yet, there is a potentially underestimated value in substantive reflections of the members of the public who will be affected by a particular regulation. Viewing professional policy makers and professional commenters as a community of practice, we describe their limited shared repertoire with the lay members of the public as a significant barrier to participa…
Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications
Addressing the reasons for—and the solutions to—the “digital divide” has been on the public agenda since the emergence of the Internet. However, the term has meant quite different things, depending on the audience and the context, and these competing interpretations may in fact orient toward different policy outcomes. The goals of this article are twofold. First, the authors unpack the term “digital divide” and examine how it has been deployed an…
Markers of Online Privacy Marginalization
This study explores how traditional socioeconomic markers of the digital divide interact with new markers of marginalization when it comes to online privacy protecting behaviors. To do this, we analyze data from a representative sample of social media users in the United States. Using hierarchical linear regression, we explore the relationships between established components of the digital divide, antecedents of privacy concerns, privacy-protecti…
Comparative privacy research
The ways in which privacy is understood, defined, perceived, and enacted are contingent on cultural, social, political, economic, and technological settings. Yet, privacy research is often criticized for not adequately accounting for these. A comparative perspective requires the contextualization of privacy through investigating similarities and differences across contexts. This article outlines the Comparative Privacy Research Framework, which i…
We Care About Different Things
This study explores privacy from the perspective of the user. It leverages a 'framing in thought' approach to capture how users make sense of privacy in their social media use. It builds on a unique dataset of privacy definitions collected from a representative sample of 608 US social media users. The data are analyzed using topic modeling and semantic network analysis to unpack the multidimensionality of social media privacy. These dimensions ar…
Turn It on! Turn It on? Privacy Management of Pupils and Teachers in Online Learning During Covid-19 Lockdowns in Germany and Israel
The transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) through the use of video conferencing software during the COVID-19 lockdowns posed significant challenges to privacy management for both pupils and teachers across the world. One question became pivotal: Must I turn my camera on? While the question of turning on one's camera has pedagogical consequences, our study sets out to examine the implications for pupils' and teachers' privacy. Focusing on …
It's the Definition, Stupid! Framing of Online Privacy in the Internet Governance Forum Debates
How do different stakeholders in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) define and discuss privacy? Using sophisticated statistical and linguistic tools, the authors analyze the language used at the IGF from 2006 to 2011 to identify the frames used by different groups in privacy policy rhetoric. The article exemplifies a case of the use of these complex tools for research purposes; and also reveals that the focus of the privacy discourse at the IGF …
Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications
Addressing the reasons for—and the solutions to—the “digital divide” has been on the public agenda since the emergence of the Internet. However, the term has meant quite different things, depending on the audience and the context, and these competing interpretations may in fact orient toward different policy outcomes. The goals of this article are twofold. First, the authors unpack the term “digital divide” and examine how it has been deployed an…
It's the Definition, Stupid! Framing of Online Privacy in the Internet Governance Forum Debates
How do different stakeholders in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) define and discuss privacy? Using sophisticated statistical and linguistic tools, the authors analyze the language used at the IGF from 2006 to 2011 to identify the frames used by different groups in privacy policy rhetoric. The article exemplifies a case of the use of these complex tools for research purposes; and also reveals that the focus of the privacy discourse at the IGF …
The value of words
Policy makers today rely primarily on technical data as their basis for decision making. Yet, there is a potentially underestimated value in substantive reflections of the members of the public who will be affected by a particular regulation. Viewing professional policy makers and professional commenters as a community of practice, we describe their limited shared repertoire with the lay members of the public as a significant barrier to participa…
Not by technology alone
The Magic Sauce
Online engagement in policy deliberation is one of the more complex aspects of open government. Previous research on human facilitation of policy deliberation has focused primarily on the citizens who need facilitation. In this paper we unpack the facilitation practices from the perspective of the moderator. We present an interview study of facilitators in RegulationRoom – an online policy deliberation platform. Our findings reveal that facilitat…
We Care About Different Things
This study explores privacy from the perspective of the user. It leverages a 'framing in thought' approach to capture how users make sense of privacy in their social media use. It builds on a unique dataset of privacy definitions collected from a representative sample of 608 US social media users. The data are analyzed using topic modeling and semantic network analysis to unpack the multidimensionality of social media privacy. These dimensions ar…
Markers of Online Privacy Marginalization
This study explores how traditional socioeconomic markers of the digital divide interact with new markers of marginalization when it comes to online privacy protecting behaviors. To do this, we analyze data from a representative sample of social media users in the United States. Using hierarchical linear regression, we explore the relationships between established components of the digital divide, antecedents of privacy concerns, privacy-protecti…
Privacy, Covid-19 and Online Teaching
The COVID-19 crisis is a potential watershed moment for privacy with profound long-term effects on the organization and practices of work, education, and civic engagement. In this study we focus on the profound re-negotiation of mediated personal boundaries in times of mass lockdowns and social distancing. To understand how these new social conditions might be playing out in the field of privacy, we interviewed 90 faculty in higher education in E…
Vertical or Horizontal? An Empirical Investigation of the Role of Privacy Literacy and Privacy Self-Efficacy on the Dimensionality of Privacy
The goals of this study are two-fold. We extend established models linking attitudes related to privacy concerns and privacy protecting behavior (PPB) by (a) differentiating between horizontal (social) and vertical (institutional) orientations of PPB as capturing an aspect of privacy multidimensionality, and (b) introducing additional explanatory factors such as privacy literacy and privacy self-efficacy into the modeling of PPB. We survey a repr…
Conversations with fellow leaders
The High-Tech Elite? Assessing Value Priorities of Techies Using the European Social Survey 2012-2020
Using data from the European Value Survey 2012-2020 and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this paper aims to map the value priorities of people working in tech compared to the general population, understand to what extent those value priorities differ from value priorities of other occupational elites, and how they vary among techies, focusing particularly on developers as a sub-group. Our preliminary findings suggest that compared to the genera…
Privacy and distance learning in turbulent times
The social distancing and lockdown measures enacted to address the COVID-19 pandemic entailed an unprecedented shift to digitally-mediated communication. The move to remote learning at schools was one of such important changes. Drawing on privacy and STS literature, we investigate the role of different privacy cultures during the initial moment of turbulence, when schools had to quickly adapt to remote teaching. To this end, we conducted semi-str…
Dimensionalizing privacy to advance the study of digital disempowerment
In this essay, we call attention to privacy as the foundational construct that underpins digital disempowerment. We argue that to better understand the processes of disempowerment, scholars must critically engage with the dimensionality of privacy conceptualizations and privacy-dependent constructs such as privacy concerns and privacy-protecting behavior, and the way in which these are measured. We focus on privacy's horizontal and vertical dimen…
A moment of turbulence
The rapid adoption of digital technologies during COVID-19 lockdowns offers a unique perspective on differences in privacy cultures. In this study, we compare how cultural predisposition and identities relate to privacy during the transition to remote learning in higher education in Estonia, France, and Israel. We conducted 83 in-depth interviews with academics, who talked about their adoption of communication technologies and strategies for mana…
Turn It on! Turn It on? Privacy Management of Pupils and Teachers in Online Learning During Covid-19 Lockdowns in Germany and Israel
The transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) through the use of video conferencing software during the COVID-19 lockdowns posed significant challenges to privacy management for both pupils and teachers across the world. One question became pivotal: Must I turn my camera on? While the question of turning on one's camera has pedagogical consequences, our study sets out to examine the implications for pupils' and teachers' privacy. Focusing on …
A dimensionalised privacy behaviour model
Privacy research struggles with modelling how individuals value and enact privacy, and faces challenges in explaining apparent contradictions such as the privacy paradox and manifestations of privacy-related disempowerment. Such uncertainties arise from the use of unidimensional privacy constructs or through assumptions that privacy-related decisions are rational or intentional. Addressing these lacunae, we present and empirically test the Dimens…
The high-tech elite? Assessing the values of tech-workers using the European Social Survey 2012–2020
Using data from the 2012–2020 European Social Survey and Schwartz’s theory of basic values, this article maps the values of tech-workers, in order to assess and understand their uniqueness and homogeneity. Consistent with prior, mostly US-focused research, we find that European tech-workers hold a liberal worldview, which values openness to change, individualism, and universalism and devalues conservatism. However, our findings challenge the noti…
Comparative privacy research
The ways in which privacy is understood, defined, perceived, and enacted are contingent on cultural, social, political, economic, and technological settings. Yet, privacy research is often criticized for not adequately accounting for these. A comparative perspective requires the contextualization of privacy through investigating similarities and differences across contexts. This article outlines the Comparative Privacy Research Framework, which i…
Comparative Approaches to Studying Privacy
This editorial introduces the Social Media + Society special issue 'Comparative Approaches To Studying Privacy.' Recognizing the importance of privacy in today's digital societies and volatile political and regulatory environments, the editorial highlights the pressing need for comparative research on the topic and describes the articles in this special issue. The special issue addresses the theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges a…
Sociology (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Internet privacy (12 works) · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection (11 works) · Social Media and Politics (11 works) · Public relations (9 works) · Information privacy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Law (6 works)