“Privacy is not a concept, but a way of dealing with life” (Privacy Study)
Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 8:42 am
“Privacy is not a concept, but a way of dealing with life”Localization of Transnational Technology Platforms and Liminal Privacy Practices in Cambodia
MARGARET C. JACK,Department of Information Science, Cornell University
USAPANG SOVANNAROTH,Independent Researcher, Cambodia
NICOLA DELL,The Jacobs Institute, Cornell Tech, USA
2019
Through 43 interviews with a diverse range of Cambodian participants, we reveal that the Western concept of privacy is not translated easily into the Cambodian (Khmer) language
I grew up in a rural area where, seriously, what time you go to school, what time you come back, what you do throughout the day, when you go to sleep, is known by the whole community. We live outdoors. We don’t spend a lot of time inside. In a traditional Cambodian house, everything is visible to everybody.- urban Cambodia, 34 y/o, male
Privacy somehow is very Western developed ...Here, in rural Cambodia, lack of privacy isfor your protection. When things are very public you are much more protected in society.So very few things happen in private.-urban Cambodia, 42 y/o, male.
With Facebook, it’s actually quite dangerous from a reputation standpoint. [If there isa traffic incident,] you see people interact much nicer because they’re afraid that their license plate will be all over the news. You see that people don’t scream, or at least people run away when there’s a traffic accident and you see a recording.
Another participant told us that he has felt a major transition between the 2013 election period, a hotly contested election between the ruling Cambodia’s People Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, when he felt like he could call for change on Facebook. In the 2018 cycle, he felt much more constrained in his use of the tool. He says,
We interviewed three cell phone shop owners (and spoke informally to many others), who reported that many of their customers ask them to set up a Facebook profile for them because they don’t feel comfortable doing so themselves.
We emphasize that although information regulation norms are culturally specific, they have been dynamically and dialectically developed in Cambodia based on exposure to transnational ideas. These ideas come from migrant work in countries like Thailand and Malaysia, study abroadin England or France, exposure to international tourism, reading international news, or going to international schools.
Margaret C. Jack, Pang Sovannaroth, and Nicola Dell. 2019.“Privacy is not a concept, but a way of dealing with life”Localization of Transnational Technology Platforms and Liminal Privacy Practices in Cambodia.Proc.ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.3, CSCW, Article 128 (November 2019), 19 pages.https://doi.org/10.1145/3359230
MARGARET C. JACK,Department of Information Science, Cornell University
USAPANG SOVANNAROTH,Independent Researcher, Cambodia
NICOLA DELL,The Jacobs Institute, Cornell Tech, USA
2019
Through 43 interviews with a diverse range of Cambodian participants, we reveal that the Western concept of privacy is not translated easily into the Cambodian (Khmer) language
I grew up in a rural area where, seriously, what time you go to school, what time you come back, what you do throughout the day, when you go to sleep, is known by the whole community. We live outdoors. We don’t spend a lot of time inside. In a traditional Cambodian house, everything is visible to everybody.- urban Cambodia, 34 y/o, male
Privacy somehow is very Western developed ...Here, in rural Cambodia, lack of privacy isfor your protection. When things are very public you are much more protected in society.So very few things happen in private.-urban Cambodia, 42 y/o, male.
With Facebook, it’s actually quite dangerous from a reputation standpoint. [If there isa traffic incident,] you see people interact much nicer because they’re afraid that their license plate will be all over the news. You see that people don’t scream, or at least people run away when there’s a traffic accident and you see a recording.
Another participant told us that he has felt a major transition between the 2013 election period, a hotly contested election between the ruling Cambodia’s People Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, when he felt like he could call for change on Facebook. In the 2018 cycle, he felt much more constrained in his use of the tool. He says,
We interviewed three cell phone shop owners (and spoke informally to many others), who reported that many of their customers ask them to set up a Facebook profile for them because they don’t feel comfortable doing so themselves.
We emphasize that although information regulation norms are culturally specific, they have been dynamically and dialectically developed in Cambodia based on exposure to transnational ideas. These ideas come from migrant work in countries like Thailand and Malaysia, study abroadin England or France, exposure to international tourism, reading international news, or going to international schools.
Margaret C. Jack, Pang Sovannaroth, and Nicola Dell. 2019.“Privacy is not a concept, but a way of dealing with life”Localization of Transnational Technology Platforms and Liminal Privacy Practices in Cambodia.Proc.ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.3, CSCW, Article 128 (November 2019), 19 pages.https://doi.org/10.1145/3359230