From Utility to Capability: A New Paradigm to Conceptualize and Develop Inclusive PETs

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new paradigm for developing Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) based on Amartya Sen's capability approach, emphasizing individual opportunities and contextual factors over surface usability features.

Contribution

It introduces a capability-based framework for PETs development, shifting focus from usability to real opportunities for diverse and vulnerable users.

Findings

Capability approach provides a comprehensive evaluation of user opportunities.

Contextual factors significantly influence PETs usability and adoption.

Framework guides inclusive and context-aware PETs development.

Abstract

The wider adoption of PETs has relied on usability studies, which focus mainly on an assessment of how a specified group of users interface, in particular contexts, with the technical properties of a system. While human centred efforts in usability aim to achieve important technical improvements and drive technology adoption, a focus on the usability of PETs alone is not enough. PETs development and adoption requires a broadening of focus to adequately capture the specific needs of individuals, particularly of vulnerable individuals and or individuals in marginalized populations. We argue for a departure, from the utilitarian evaluation of surface features aimed at maximizing adoption, towards a bottom up evaluation of what real opportunities humans have to use a particular system. We delineate a new paradigm for the way PETs are conceived and developed. To that end, we propose that Amartya Sen s capability approach offers a foundation for the comprehensive evaluation of the opportunities individuals have based on their personal and environmental circumstances which can, in turn, inform the evolution of PETs. This includes considerations of vulnerability, age, education, physical and mental ability, language barriers, gender, access to technology, freedom from oppression among many important contextual factors.