NSF Grant on Empathy-Based Privacy Education and Design

Privacy often feels like an abstract concept, making it challenging for internet users and software developers to navigate its implications. Yaxing Yao's latest project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) addresses this issue by introducing an empathy-based framework to enhance privacy education and design, supported by the development of innovative tools and methods. In layman’s terms, Yaxing puts it as, “if you have ever wondered how your data is used and why you are seeing a particular, for example, advertisement, we are offering an innovative sandbox for you to explore those connections. Instead of using your own data for such exploration, we use attributes of realistic, synthetic personas generated by large language models to create a completely risk-free environment.”

The project leverages generative AI to create synthetic personas enriched with AI-generated personal data. These personas are central to interactive sandboxes and developer tools designed to foster empathy. By engaging with these tools, users can better understand the impact of their online behaviors on personal privacy, and developers can gain insights into implementing privacy-responsible practices aligned with user expectations.

To further this mission, the project systematically explores how invoking empathy can enhance privacy literacy and inform privacy-conscious behaviors. The outcomes include:

1. Systems that improve user privacy knowledge and decision-making through empathy invocation.

2. Tools that help developers proactively address diverse user privacy needs early in the development lifecycle.

About the broader impact on user privacy, Yaxing mentioned, “We believe that this project will have a significant impact on enhancing end-users’ privacy literacy and adoption of privacy-enhancing behaviors, and on supporting developers to build privacy-respectful apps. In the meantime, we have planned a field deployment to release our tools and resources to the public to support a broader audience and the developer communities, especially the under-resourced communities.”