Special theme in Big Data & Society on Digital Resignation and Privacy Cynicism

Nordic Center for Internet and Society co-director Christoph Lutz, together with Prof. Dr. Nora A. Draper (University of New Hampshire), Prof. Dr. Christian Pieter Hoffmann (University of Leipzig), Dr. Giulia Ranzini (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Prof. Dr. Joseph Turow (University of Pennsylvania) recently completed their special theme in Big Data & Society on Digital Resignation and Privacy Cynicism.

The special theme features ten novel and exciting contributions that explore how individuals and organizations navigate digital privacy, frequently experiencing feelings of powerlessness and resignation when confronted with powerful data-driven infrastructures:

1. Privacy resignation, apathy, and cynicism: Introduction to a special theme by Nora Draper, Christian Pieter Hoffmann, Christoph Lutz, Giulia Ranzini and Joseph Turow map concepts such as digital resignation, privacy cynicism, and privacy apathy, introducing key themes.
2. Inequalities in privacy cynicism: An intersectional analysis of agency constraints by Christian Pieter Hoffmann, Christoph Lutz and Giulia Ranzini show how structural constraints fuel privacy cynicism and disempower marginalized groups.
3. How pro- and anti-abortion activists use encrypted messaging apps in post-Roe America by Zelly Martin, Martin Johannes Riedl and Samuel Woolley examine activists' adoption of encryption and how it can be used to counter or reinforce digital surveillance.
4. Dimensionalizing privacy to advance the study of digital disempowerment by Kelly Quinn and Dmitry Epstein argue for more nuanced measures of privacy to understand disempowering digital contexts.
5. The After Party: Cynical Resignation in Adtech’s Pivot to Privacy by Lee McGuigan, Sarah Myers West, Ido Sivan-Sevilla and Patrick Parham reveal how adtech's 'privacy-preserving' design is often a form of cynical resignation to keep data-driven models thriving.
6. Digital Resignation and the Datafied Welfare State by Christoffer Bagger, Árni Már Einarsson, Victoria Andelsman Álvarez, Maja Klausen and Stine Lomborg call for expanding digital resignation research to the context of public welfare, beyond commercial platforms.
7. The interplay of rational evaluation and motivated reasoning in privacy helplessness: An integrative approach by Cho Hichang explores how different mental processes shape feelings of privacy helplessness across Facebook and mobile app use.
8. Role-based privacy cynicism and local privacy activism: How data stewards navigate privacy in higher education by Mihaela Popescu, Lemi Baruh and Samuel Sudhakar show how university data stewards manage tensions around privacy obligations and institutional constraints.
9. Privacy cynicism and diminishing utility of state surveillance: A natural experiment of mandatory location disclosure on China's Weibo by Yuner  Zhu examines how prolonged and selective surveillance shapes user behavior and fosters privacy cynicism in China.
10. The corporate cultivation of digital resignation in policymaking: How weak US regulations enable data trafficking to China by Aynne Kokas discusses how gaps in US digital policy perpetuate digital resignation, enabling transnational data flows.

“We hope these contributions spark further research and dialogue on the interplay of data, power, and user agency,” says Nordic Center for Internet and Society co-director Christoph Lutz.