Digital Privacy and Consent: Exploring User Awareness of Legal Protections
Keywords:
Digital privacy, Informed consent, Legal awareness, User perception, Iran, Qualitative study, Privacy literacy, Data protection lawAbstract
This study aimed to explore how users in Tehran perceive digital privacy, interact with online consent mechanisms, and understand the legal protections governing their personal data. A qualitative research design was employed, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from 22 adult participants residing in Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling to capture diverse digital experiences. Interviews were conducted until theoretical saturation was reached. Data were transcribed and analyzed thematically using NVivo software, following a coding process involving open, axial, and selective coding. Ethical guidelines were strictly observed, with informed consent obtained from all participants. Three major themes emerged from the analysis: perceived understanding of digital privacy, experiences with consent mechanisms, and attitudes toward legal protections. Participants demonstrated limited awareness of how their data is used or what legal rights they possess. Most reported bypassing privacy policies due to their length and complexity and described consent as a habitual, often meaningless act. Trust was higher in international platforms than in local ones, but legal literacy across the board was low. Emotional reactions such as confusion, fatigue, and helplessness were common when navigating privacy interfaces. Participants expressed skepticism about the existence or enforcement of relevant laws and indicated a lack of knowledge regarding complaint mechanisms or recourse for data misuse. The findings reveal a significant gap between digital behavior and legal awareness among users in Tehran. Inadequate digital literacy, complex consent interfaces, and distrust in legal institutions hinder meaningful user agency. Interventions should include simplified legal communication, user-centered interface design, and privacy education initiatives tailored to local contexts.
Downloads
References
Al Gharbi, M. (2020). The cultural logic of privacy in the Arab world. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 13(2), 175–195. https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-01302003
Dehghan, H., & Hosseininasab, D. (2020). Review of data protection and privacy laws in Iran: Challenges and future directions. Iranian Journal of Legal Studies, 7(3), 31–52.
Earp, J. B., Anton, A. I., Aiman-Smith, L., & Young, J. D. (2019). Exploring dimensions of information privacy concern: A comparative study of the United States and Iran. Information Systems Journal, 29(1), 5–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12176
Greenleaf, G. (2021). Global data privacy laws 2021: Despite COVID delays, 145 laws show GDPR dominance. Privacy Laws & Business International Report, 170, 10–13.
Hintz, A., Dencik, L., & Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2019). Digital citizenship in a datafied society. Polity Press.
Hummel, P., Braun, M., & Dabrock, P. (2021). Own data? Ethical reflections on data ownership. Philosophy & Technology, 34(1), 93–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-019-00391-2
Kargar, S., & Milan, S. (2021). The Internet in Iran: A field of contention. International Journal of Communication, 15, 1832–1851.
Kelleher, C., Kocsis, D., & Reijers, W. (2021). Making consent meaningful: Towards a practice-based approach. Ethics and Information Technology, 23(1), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09553-2
Khiabany, G. (2016). Iranian media and the struggle for democracy: A critical analysis. International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(1), 52–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161215616629
Livingstone, S., Stoilova, M., & Nandagiri, R. (2018). Children’s data and privacy online: Growing up in a digital age. London School of Economics and Political Science.
Lutz, C., & Tamò-Larrieux, A. (2021). The role of privacy concerns and privacy literacy in online behavior. New Media & Society, 23(4), 1020–1038. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820919380
Mathur, A., Acar, G., Friedman, M. G., Lucherini, E., Mayer, J., Chetty, M., & Narayanan, A. (2019). Dark patterns at scale: Findings from a crawl of 11K shopping websites. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3(CSCW), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359183
McDonald, A. M., & Cranor, L. F. (2008). The cost of reading privacy policies. I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 4(3), 543–568.
Nissenbaum, H. (2019). Privacy in context: Technology, policy, and the integrity of social life. Stanford University Press.
O’Neill, O., Veale, M., Binns, R., & Edwards, L. (2017). Dark patterns and the ethics of data protection by design. Communications of the ACM, 61(3), 56–62. https://doi.org/10.1145/3188765
Regan, P. M. (2015). Privacy, surveillance, and public trust. Palgrave Macmillan.
Solon, O., & Wiederhold, M. (2022). Consent without comprehension: How platforms design away user agency. New Media & Society, 24(1), 128–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820976635
Solove, D. J. (2021). Understanding privacy. Harvard University Press.
Statista. (2022). Number of internet users in Iran from 2010 to 2021. https://www.statista.com
van der Sloot, B. (2014). Do data subjects have a right to be forgotten? Amsterdam Law Review, 6(3), 123–137.
Voigt, P., & Von dem Bussche, A. (2017). The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A practical guide. Springer.
Downloads
Published
Submitted
Revised
Accepted
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
