In today’s society, smartphones have become an indispensable tool for entertainment, communication, organisation and accessing data via applications and websites. However, the widespread use of these technologies raises important ethical questions, especially regarding the misuse of personal data. This study hypothesises that interactive applications pose ethical challenges and seeks to identify factors that contribute to the misuse of personal data while exploring users’ experiences of privacy, security and data control.
The theoretical part of the thesis includes chapters addressing ethical challenges and examine specific cases of misuse of personal data. The experimental part consists of three main components: an analysis of Facebook’s privacy policy regarding data and its disclosure to third parties, a survey on users’ attitudes towards the security of personal data online and a partial review of the study “Empowering users to understand their online privacy rights and choices through an interactive social media sign-up process” by Kiley Schmidt.
The results show that there are ethical challenges in interactive applications that highlight the potential risks associated with the misuse of personal data. The study explores users’ concerns and patterns of application usage behaviour, trust in data protection, awareness of privacy policies and trust and control over personal data.
This study contributes to the understanding of the misuse of personal data and emphasises the need for clearer privacy policies and improved user protection in interactive applications and websites. The study is based on the key concepts discussed in the theoretical part of the study.
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