A Preliminary Study on Evaluating Cumulative Revelations in Online Personal Data: Introducing a persona-based cyber safety tool for awareness of online risks and harms

Small pieces of personal information shared online that, on their own, seem innocuous, can, when combined, pose significant and unanticipated risks to security and reputation. These are cumulative revelations. Our persona-based digital cyber safety tool explores how well people can make such connections between items and evaluates their awareness of online risks and harms. In a study conducted on Prolific (n=200) using two scenarios (Identify Theft, Online Reputation) participants’ ability to identify risky posts and piece together revelations varied considerably across the population. Using the tool, a majority reported increased awareness and understanding of risks posed by online behaviour. Using such scenarios, we are learning about how people understand cumulative risks online, while assisting them with learning how to better identify risks posed by digital traces and how to be safer online. Future work will explore the tool’s application in different employment domains