Understanding User Privacy Perceptions in Video Conferencing: Insights from a Feature-Specific User Study

The widespread adoption of video conferencing platforms has raised privacy concerns. Recent studies have shown that users express various concerns, such as reluctance toward mandatory camera-on policies, but these findings remain coarse-grained, lacking details on specific features and social relationships. This paper investigates how users perceive privacy with respect to various features in video conferencing platforms. Using the framework of contextual integrity, we analyze information flows across diverse scenarios, such as business meetings and online classes. Our findings reveal nuanced privacy perceptions regarding features that have been discontinued (e.g., attention tracking) or adjusted (e.g., meeting recording), suggesting that the handling of these features could have aligned better with users’ privacy expectations. Additionally, we identify emerging privacy concerns about the pinning and spotlighting features, as users often feel great discomfort when their video is pinned or spotlighted by others in specific contexts. These insights provide a deeper understanding of privacy in video conferencing, highlighting the need for more refined privacy controls and a proactive approach to feature development.