One of the more exciting ways we’re continuously improving and focusing our approach to privacy is through working with researchers and academia. In August, Meta launched the 2022 People’s Expectations and Experiences with Digital Privacy request for proposals (RFP). Today, it is my sincere honor to announce the winners and finalists of our third annual People’s Expectations and Experiences with Digital Privacy RFP.

People expect us to manage their data responsibly, so helping them control their privacy is essential to our products, policies, and services. We’ve overhauled our privacy practices over the past few years, and this RFP will help us better understand people’s expectations and further embed privacy throughout Meta.

Through this RFP, we hope to support academics in the social sciences and technical disciplines whose work will help us understand how to build privacy-centric products, inform robust data policies, and advance internal privacy programs and practices. We’re also excited to explore how these submissions can inform our work around privacy-enhancing technologies, which can minimize the amount of data processed to help protect personal information and can be used in many different contexts.

The RFP attracted 136 proposals from 112 universities and institutions around the world. I want to give a big thank-you to everyone who took the time to submit a proposal, and I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the team who manages this important work. Congratulations to the winners and the finalists.

Research award recipients

Principal investigators are listed first unless otherwise noted.

A cross-cultural examination of social media privacy concerns
Cristian Buzeta (Universidad de los Andes), Freya De Keyzer (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

How culture affects privacy in VR/AR: Roles of community, agent, and trust
Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, Kun Xu (University of Florida)

Misinformed messaging app choices based on privacy misconceptions
Aslan Askarov, Carla Griggio, Susanne Bødker (Aarhus University), Boel Nelson (University of Copenhagen)

Predictors of privacy preferences in social virtual reality
Anupam Das (North Carolina State University), Yaxing Yao (University of Maryland, Baltimore), Yixin Zou (Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy)

Privacy and trust equilibrium of personalized social media ad acceptance
Wonsun Shin (University of Melbourne), Jisu Huh (University of Minnesota Twin Cities)

Finalists

Consumer reactions to potential privacy violations in mobile health
Lynn Wu, Atiye Cansu Erol (University of Pennsylvania)

Designing embodied privacy-preserving behaviours in virtual reality
Mayra Barrera Machuca, Carla Heggie, Derek Reilly (Dalhousie University)

Grounding a right to erasure in law and policy
Aloni Cohen (University of Chicago)

Intergenerational online privacy management in multigenerational households
Didem Ozkul, Aysenur Dal, Lemi Baruh (Ihsan Dogramaci Bilkent University)

Measuring, modeling, and helping people account for privacy risks
Wei Xu, Alan Ritter, Sauvik Das (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Measuring privacy attitudes across cultures
Bart Piet Knijnenburg (Clemson University)

Modeling privacy preferences through economic games
Eytan Adar, Yan Chen (University of Michigan)

Personal and sociocultural dimensions of digital privacy
Melvin Jabar, Dr. Antonius Rahmat Pujo Purnomo, Dr. Mashitah Binti Hamidi (De La Salle University)

Women’s privacy risks in Facebook safe spaces in the global south
Susan Fussell, Sharifa Sultana (Cornell University)

Would my public behavioral data reveal who influences my decisions?
Yan Leng, Siyuan Liu, Xiaowen Dong (University of Texas at Austin)