arXiv subjects

Sarah E. Carter

Publications and source records attributed to Sarah E. Carter.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Autonomy by Design: Preserving Human Autonomy in AI Decision-Support

AI systems increasingly support human decision-making across domains of professional, skill-based, and personal activity. While previous work has examined how AI might affect human autonomy globally, the effects of AI on domain-specific autonomy -- the capacity for self-governed action within defined realms of skill or expertise -- remain understudied. We analyze how AI decision-support systems affect two key components of domain-specific autonomy: skilled competence (the ability to make informed judgments within one's domain) and authentic value-formation (the capacity to form genuine domain-relevant values and preferences). By engaging with prior investigations and analyzing empirical cases across medical, financial, and educational domains, we demonstrate how the absence of reliable failure indicators and the potential for unconscious value shifts can erode domain-specific autonomy both immediately and over time. We then develop a constructive framework for autonomy-preserving AI support systems. We propose specific socio-technical design patterns -- including careful role specification, implementation of defeater mechanisms, and support for reflective practice -- that can help maintain domain-specific autonomy while leveraging AI capabilities. This framework provides concrete guidance for developing AI systems that enhance rather than diminish human agency within specialized domains of action.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

In Pursuit of Privacy: The Value-Centered Privacy Assistant

Many users make quick decisions that affect their data privacy without due consideration of their values. One such decision is whether to download a smartphone app to their device. Previous work has suggested a relationship between values, privacy preferences, and app choices, and proposed a value-centered approach to privacy that conceptually unites these relationships. In this work, we translate this theory into practice by constructing a prototype smartphone value-centered privacy assistant (VcPA) - a privacy assistant system that promotes user privacy decisions based on personal values. To do this, we designed and conducted an online survey that captured values and privacy preferences when considering whether to download an app from 273 smartphone users. Using this data, we constructed VcPA user profiles by clustering survey data based on the value rankings and stated privacy preferences. We then tested the VcPA, using selective notices, a "suggest alternatives" feature, and exploratory notices, with 77 users in a synthetic Mock App Store (MAS) setting and conducted follow-up semi-structured interviews. We establish proof-of-concept that a VcPA helps users make more value-centered app choices and identified improvements so that an assistant can be deployed on smartphone app stores.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2022

A Value-Centered Exploration of Data Privacy and Personalized Privacy Assistants

In the the current post-GDPR landscape, privacy notices have become ever more prevalent on our phones and online. However, these notices are not well suited to their purpose of helping users make informed decisions. I suggest that instead of utilizing notice to eliciting informed consent, we could repurpose privacy notices to create the space for more meaningful, value-centered user decisions. Value-centered privacy decisions, or those that accurately reflect who we are and what we value, encapsulate the intuitive role of personal values in data privacy decisions. To explore how notices could be repurposed to support such decisions, I utilize Suzy Killmister's four-dimensional theory of autonomy (4DT) to operationalize value-centered privacy decisions. I then assess the degree that an existing technology, Personalized Privacy Assistants (PPAs), uses notices in a manner that allows for value-centered decision-making. Lastly, I explore the implications of the PPA assessment for designing a new assistant, called a value-centered privacy assistant (VcPA). A VcPA could ideally utilized notice to assists users in value-centered app selection and in other data privacy decisions.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2021

Is Downloading this App Consistent with my Values? Conceptualizing a Value-Centered Privacy Assistant

Digital privacy notices aim to provide users with information to make informed decisions. They are, however, fraught with difficulties. Instead, I propose that data privacy decisions can be understood as an expression of user values. To optimize this value expression, I further propose the creation of a value-centered privacy assistant (VcPA). Here, I preliminary explore how a VcPA could enhance user value expression by utilizing three user scenarios in the context of considering whether or not to download an environmental application, the OpenLitterMap app. These scenarios are conceptually constructed from established privacy user groups - the privacy fundamentalists; the privacy pragmatists; and the privacy unconcerned. I conclude that the VcPA best facilitates user value expression of the privacy fundamentalists. In contrast, the value expression of the privacy pragmatists and the privacy unconcerned could be enhanced or hindered depending on the context and their internal states. Possible implications for optimal VcPA design are also discussed. Following this initial conceptual exploration of VcPAs, further empirical research will be required to demonstrate the effectiveness of the VcPA system in real-world settings.

cs.CR↗