Paper Info
Title
"So-called privacy breeds evil": Narrative Justifications for Intimate Partner Surveillance in Online Forums
Abstract
AbstractA growing body of research suggests that intimate partner abusers use digital technologies to surveil their partners, including by installing spyware apps, compromising devices and online accounts, and employing social engineering tactics. However, to date, this form of privacy violation, called intimate partner surveillance (IPS), has primarily been studied from the perspective of victim-survivors. We present a qualitative study of how potential perpetrators of IPS harness the emotive power of sharing personal narratives to validate and legitimise their abusive behaviours. We analysed 556 stories of IPS posted on publicly accessible online forums dedicated to the discussion of sexual infidelity. We found that many users share narrative posts describing IPS as they boast about their actions, advise others on how to perform IPS without detection, and seek suggestions for next steps to take. We identify a set of common thematic story structures, justifications for abuse, and outcomes within the stories that provide a window into how these individuals believe their behaviour to be justified. Using these stories, we develop a four-stage framework that captures the change in a potential perpetrator's approach to IPS. We use our findings and framework to guide a discussion of efforts to combat abuse, including how we can identify crucial moments where interventions might be safely applied to prevent or deescalate IPS.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1145/3432909
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
DocType
Volume
Issue
Conference
4
CSCW3
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Rosanna Bellini133.75
Emily Tseng201.69
Nora McDonald3437.57
Rachel Greenstadt412.04
damon mccoy5152.79
Thomas Ristenpart63390149.67
Nicola Lee Dell727030.15