The Illusion of Control
Modern surveillance does have some clear benefits. Cameras in public spaces help the authorities detect crime and catch perpetrators, ___ 31 ___ they catch us in the dragnet as well. Cell phone tracking and networked cars allow us to be found if we become lost or injured, and mapping apps are incredibly useful for directing us where we want to go. These features save lives – but all of them constantly transmit our location and generate a detailed record of our movements. Our social media history helps providers put the people and content we prefer front and center when we log on, and our online searches allow marketers to offer us discounts at the places we shop most, all the while collecting data on our personal preferences and quirks. Given the difficulty of completely avoiding the ___ 32 ___ , it may be somewhat reassuring to acknowledge this tradeoff.
Laura Brandimarte of Carnegie Mellon University has studied people’s willingness to disclose personal information. She found that when entities give people more control over the publication of their information, people disclose more about themselves – even if it is also clear that the information will be ___ 33 ___ and seen by others more often than it currently is.
Brandimarte’s work demonstrates the concept of illusion of control. In many situations, we tend to ___ 34 ___ the control we have over events, especially when we get cues that our actions matter. The risk to our private information comes not just from what we’ve shared but from how much of it is sold or made available to others. And yet, when we feel that we have been given more control over our information’s dissemination, our privacy concerns decrease and our disclosure increases, even though that ___ 35 ___ control does not actually diminish the possibility that our data will be shared. “The control people perceive over the publication of personal information makes them pay less attention to the lack of control they have over access by others,” Brandimarte says.
In other words, we are simply not very sophisticated when it comes to making choices about what to share.
JENNIFER GOLBECK, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY