A survey on email visualisation research to address the conflict between privacy and access

Bartliff, Z. , Kim, Y. and Hopfgartner, F. (2022) A survey on email visualisation research to address the conflict between privacy and access. Archival Science, (doi: 10.1007/s10502-022-09387-2) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Emails, much like communicative genres such as letters that predate them, are a rich source of data for researchers, but they are replete with privacy considerations. This paper explores the resulting friction between privacy concerns and email data access. Studies of email can often be centred on understanding patterns of behaviour and/or relationships between people or groups, and, as such, embody risks of disclosing private information. This is further amplified in humanities research which is concerned with the individual, their work and the circumstances that influence them. Furthermore, previous studies have expounded upon the benefits of visualisations for researching email data, a method which has been reported both as a path to addressing known concerns, as well as, introducing new concerns in privacy. The spectrum of methodologies leave archivists and curators of email data in a quandary, unable to balance accessibility with privacy. The research presented in this paper contributes a systematic approach to examining the relationship between email visualisation research and privacy. It presents a categorisation of email visualisation attributes, and a graded scale of privacy, to be used in conjunction as a framework for interrogating existing research and their associated email collections. The paper aims to instigate the first steps in concretely situating the extent to which research can take advantage of or is challenged by privacy conscious data management.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/R007012/1].
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bartliff, Miss Zoe and Hopfgartner, Dr Frank and Kim, Dr Yunhyong
• Authors: Bartliff, Z., Kim, Y., and Hopfgartner, F.
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Humanities > Information Studies
• Journal Name: Archival Science
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1389-0166
• ISSN (Online): 1573-7519
• Published Online: 22 February 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Archival Science 2022
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License