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Iqbal, Faqia

University of British Columbia

Many of us have experienced the need to filter the information we share with the world. There is a dearth of research in the field of privacy in the context of non-WEIRD populations and immigrants living in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies. In this thesis, I explore how Punjabi Canadian adults navigate the potential conflicts between their two cultural identities and how this affects their digital privacy decisions. I identify the social and cultural factors that influence the privacy choices of Punjabi Canadians, and how these individuals react to the resulting social sanctions. These sanctions may limit their freedom and their right to privacy both in physical and virtual settings. I conducted 12 interviews with Punjabi Canadians and used constructivist grounded theory to elicit themes related to the “What,” “Why,” and “How” of their privacy choices and behaviours. I found that the collectivist nature of the Punjabi culture is reflected in their privacy regulation practices, which involve the family as well as the individual. There was an asymmetry of information flow between the Punjabi and Canadian sides of an individual’s social circle. This was highlighted by the norm of physical and social gender segregation among Punjabi Canadians, where the Punjabi side was more often kept in the dark about activities that involved gender mixing. I also found that women participants were especially fluent in privacy-preserving practices, which may be due to their being held to a higher standard than men, facing greater surveillance, and having more familial responsibilities and restrictions on their clothing and mobility. The Punjabi culture represents a significant portion of South Asian culture while the Canadian culture represents North American culture. Hence, the findings of this study are relevant to immigrants in North America, especially from South Asia. Apart from immigrants, they are also transferable to other populations experiencing conflicting identities.

Text

2023-01-06

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83600

Computer Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/