Gamification, the use of game design elements in applications that are not games, has been developed to provide attractive environments and maintain user interest in several domains. In domains such as education, marketing and health, where gamification techniques are applied, user engagement in applications has increased. In these applications the protection of users’ privacy is an important aspect to consider, due to the applications obtaining a record of the personal information of their users. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify if applications where gamification is applied do respect users’ privacy. For the accomplishment of this aim, two main steps have been implemented. Since the main principle of gamification is the existence of game elements, the first step was to identify the set of game elements recorded in the literature that are commonly applied in various applications. Afterwards, an examination of the relationship between these elements and privacy requirements was implemented in order to identify which elements conflict with the privacy requirements leading to potential privacy violations and which elements do not. Α conceptual model according to the results of this examination was designed, which presents how elements conflict with requirements. Based on the results, there are indeed game elements which can lead to privacy violations. The results of this work provide valuable guidance to software developers, especially during the design stages of gamified applications since it helps them to consider the protection of users’ privacy in parallel from the early stages of the application development onwards.
The interaction between users and several technologies has rapidly increased. In people's daily habits, the use of several applications for different reasons has been introduced. The provision of attractive services is an important aspect that it should be considered during their design. The implementation of gamification supports this, while game elements create a more entertaining and appealing environment. At the same time, due to the collection and record of users' information within them, security and privacy are needed to be considered as well, in order for these technologies to ensure a minimum level of security and protection of users' information. Users, on the other hand, should be aware of their security and privacy, so as to recognize how they can be protected, while using gamified services. In this work, the relation between privacy and gamified applications, regarding both the software developers and the users, is discussed, leading to the necessity not only of designing privacy-friendly systems but also of educating users through gamification on privacy issues.
The benefits, deriving from utilizing new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as Internet of Things or cloud computing, raise at the same time several privacy risks and concerns for users. Despite the fact that users’ inability to protect their privacy has been recognized, hence users do not get involved in processes for enhancing their awareness on such issues. However, in order to protect their fundamental right of privacy and to manage it in a practical way when using ICT, privacy literacy is crucial. Users should be trained on privacy issues through appropriate educational programs. Specifically, the development of instructional simulation programs could be of great importance. Relevant methodologies for the development of such services have been recorded in previous literature. Since the concept of training is advanced by creating attractive interaction environments, the educational privacy process could be also more efficient. Towards this, the implementation of game elements serves that purpose, contributing to the design of gameful educational programs. However, despite its benefits, gamification has been noticed to be used more as a tool rather than a concept which could be included in instructional methods. Thus, in this work, gamification features are explained to highlight their importance along with the recorded in the literature educational methods and privacy awareness issues.
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