Understanding User Behavior, Information Exposure, And Privacy Risks In Managing Old Devices

The goal of this study is to understand the behavior of users from developing countries in managing an old device (e.g., computer, mobile phone), which has been replaced by a new device, or suffers from technical issues providing a notion that it may stop working soon. The prior work explored the ecology and challenges of repairing old devices in developing regions. However, it is still understudied how the strategies of people from developing countries in managing their personal information on old devices could impact their digital privacy. To address this gap in existing literature, we conducted semi-structured interview with 52 participants, including 37 participants living in two developing countries (e.g., Bangladesh, Turkey) and 15 first-generation immigrants from developing regions living in the USA. We found that users leave sensitive information, and online accounts logged in while they give away or sell their old devices. All of our immigrant participants in the USA keep backup of their personal data from an old device, however, some of them store that information in an unprotected medium. Instead of keeping backup, the participants living in Bangladesh and Turkey often keep the old device as a digital storage, or give away to someone where their right to access their information would be preserved. Based on our findings, we unpacked the relation between trust and privacy in managing old devices.