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Privacy and Weight Loss Apps: A First Look at How Women with Eating Disorders Use Social Features

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Elizabeth V. EikeyAuthors Info & Claims

GROUP '16: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work

Pages 413 - 415

https://doi.org/10.1145/2957276.2996282

Published: 13 November 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Women with eating disorders benefit from using social and community features of apps because they can get social support and information about their disorder. Although seeking help online may be easier than getting face-to-face treatment, there still may be a number of privacy concerns to sharing information, especially on apps not specifically intended for those with eating disorders, such as weight loss apps. Women with eating disorders are using weight loss apps, but are they using features that could help them get support for their disorder? This research begins to answer this question by presenting preliminary results from a qualitative study on how women with eating disorders use community and social features of weight loss apps. Early findings suggest women with eating disorders rarely use the community and social features of weight loss apps. This work highlights the tradeoffs between sharing information and privacy and has implications for app design.

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Cited By

Guluzade LSas C(2024)Functionality and User Review Analysis of Mobile Apps for Mindfulness Eating and Eating DisordersProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661521(1350-1371)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661521
Yoo DBhatnagar AErnala SAli ABirnbaum MAbowd GDe Choudhury M(2023)Discussing Social Media During Psychotherapy Consultations: Patient Narratives and Privacy ImplicationsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35794797:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579479
Feuston JDeVito MScheuerman MWeathington KBenitez MPerez BSondheim LBrubaker J(2022)"Do You Ladies Relate?": Experiences of Gender Diverse People in Online Eating Disorder CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551456:CSCW2(1-32)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555145
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Privacy and Weight Loss Apps: A First Look at How Women with Eating Disorders Use Social Features
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Ubiquitous and mobile computing
    1. Ubiquitous and mobile computing systems and tools

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cover image ACM Conferences

GROUP '16: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work

November 2016

534 pages

ISBN:9781450342766

DOI:10.1145/2957276

General Chairs:
Stephan Lukosch
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
,
Aleksandra Sarcevic
Drexel University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Myriam Lewkowicz
Troyes University of Technology, France
,
Michael Muller
IBM Research, USA

Copyright © 2016 Owner/Author.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Published: 13 November 2016

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GROUP '16: 2016 ACM Conference on Supporting Groupwork

November 13 - 16, 2016

Florida, Sanibel Island, USA

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GROUP '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 36 of 111 submissions, 32%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 125 of 405 submissions, 31%

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Cited By

Guluzade LSas C(2024)Functionality and User Review Analysis of Mobile Apps for Mindfulness Eating and Eating DisordersProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661521(1350-1371)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661521
Yoo DBhatnagar AErnala SAli ABirnbaum MAbowd GDe Choudhury M(2023)Discussing Social Media During Psychotherapy Consultations: Patient Narratives and Privacy ImplicationsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35794797:CSCW1(1-24)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3579479
Feuston JDeVito MScheuerman MWeathington KBenitez MPerez BSondheim LBrubaker J(2022)"Do You Ladies Relate?": Experiences of Gender Diverse People in Online Eating Disorder CommunitiesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35551456:CSCW2(1-32)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555145
Devakumar AModh JSaket BBaumer EDe Choudhury MKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)A Review on Strategies for Data Collection, Reflection, and Communication in Eating Disorder AppsProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445670(1-19)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445670
Peng ZMa XYang DTsang KGuo QKitamura YQuigley AIsbister KIgarashi TBjørn PDrucker S(2021)Effects of Support-Seekers’ Community Knowledge on Their Expressed Satisfaction with the Received Comments in Mental Health CommunitiesProceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3411764.3445446(1-12)Online publication date: 6-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445446
Feuston JTaylor APiper A(2020)Conformity of Eating Disorders through Content ModerationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33928454:CSCW1(1-28)Online publication date: 29-May-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3392845
Pater JFarrington BBrown AReining LToscos TMynatt E(2019)Exploring Indicators of Digital Self-Harm with Eating Disorder PatientsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/33591863:CSCW(1-26)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3359186
Eikey EChen YZheng K(2019)Do Recovery Apps Even Exist?: Why College Women with Eating Disorders Use (But Not Recommend) Diet and Fitness Apps Over Recovery AppsInformation in Contemporary Society10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_69(727-740)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_69
Eikey EReddy MBooth KKvasny LBlair JLi VPoole E(2017)Desire to Be Underweight: Exploratory Study on a Weight Loss App Community and User Perceptions of the Impact on Disordered Eating BehaviorsJMIR mHealth and uHealth10.2196/mhealth.66835:10(e150)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2017
https://doi.org/10.2196/mhealth.6683

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