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International audience ; Nowadays, digital communications are pervasive and as such, they carry a huge amount of both professional and private information all around the world. Given the knowledge that can be extracted from such information, its confidentiality is of utmost importance for both companies and individuals. Recent news related to massive breaches of privacy by both external actors such as government agencies, rogue teams, and internal actors such as communication services providers (i.e., Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon) have exacerbated the need for more secure communication technologies. Although message content can be encrypted end-to-end by so-called off-the-record techniques, message metadata such as sender, recipient, time sent and size can still leak a lot of information about communicating parties. Oblivious RAM (ORAM) systems form a promising new branch of research for hiding such metadata from the hosting servers, but they have not yet been deployed in production environments. Due to their complexity and performance penalty, they can currently be used only for very simple client-server applications such as instant messaging (IM). In this context, we show that accessing metadata on a messaging server can leak information that could be concealed by ORAM systems. More specifically, we show the differences observed in metadata collection between a classic XMPP server and two ORAM-based servers. In order to assess those systems , we have designed a new attack based on live forensic techniques in order to retrieve metadata from the RAM of a running IM server. We have used two datasets of instant messages for carrying out this assessment. Our experimental attack setup can highlight the leak of metadata from a standard messaging server and can also be used for testing the security of an ORAM-based messaging server.

International audience ; Nowadays, digital communications are pervasive and as such, they carry a huge amount of both professional and private information all around the world. Given the knowledge that can be extracted from such information, its confidentiality is of utmost importance for both companies and individuals. Recent news related to massive breaches of privacy by both external actors such as government agencies, rogue teams, and internal actors such as communication services providers (i.e., Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon) have exacerbated the need for more secure communication technologies. Although message content can be encrypted end-to-end by so-called off-the-record techniques, message metadata such as sender, recipient, time sent and size can still leak a lot of information about communicating parties. Oblivious RAM (ORAM) systems form a promising new branch of research for hiding such metadata from the hosting servers, but they have not yet been deployed in production environments. Due to their complexity and performance penalty, they can currently be used only for very simple client-server applications such as instant messaging (IM). In this context, we show that accessing metadata on a messaging server can leak information that could be concealed by ORAM systems. More specifically, we show the differences observed in metadata collection between a classic XMPP server and two ORAM-based servers. In order to assess those systems , we have designed a new attack based on live forensic techniques in order to retrieve metadata from the RAM of a running IM server. We have used two datasets of instant messages for carrying out this assessment. Our experimental attack setup can highlight the leak of metadata from a standard messaging server and can also be used for testing the security of an ORAM-based messaging server.

Despite its worldwide popularity, mobile instant messaging (MIM) as a new mode of interpersonal communication has received scant scholarly attention by far. Drawing upon the notion of "connected presence," this study extends related discussions by exploring the patterns of MIM interaction in the management of close relationships. Focusing on WeChat, the most popular MIM in China, this study presents findings based on interviews with young Chinese as WeChat users. This study finds that WeChat's wide functionality enabled multimodal communication in varying situations. Four modes of WeChat interaction were identified: General information exchange, experience articulation, technical support, and sympathetic companionship. The study also analyzes how user construction attaches social meaning to certain communicative practices on WeChat.

Modern communication technologies have vastly increased the reach and influence of political rumors, with negative consequences for democratic political systems globally. Rumor communication can be theorized as a form of political talk that helps citizens grapple with the uncertainty inherent in politics, form opinions, and build solidarity with others. The present study examines how one type of communication technology—instant messaging platforms—might facilitate forms of rumor communication that can influence participation in and knowledge about politics. Using original panel survey data from the 2017 South Korean election, we find that rumor communication on the popular instant messaging platform KakaoTalk predicts increased campaign participation, but not campaign knowledge. Further, political rumor communication on instant messaging platforms appears to exacerbate participatory inequality between those with weak and those with strong political interest and ideology.

In this article, we analyse WhatsApp interactions in a youth care setting. In family-style group care, young people temporarily live in the family of professional foster parents (PFP), while they regularly visit their birth parents (BPs). Our data consist of instant messaging of 11 pairs of PFPs and BPs during 2 months. Using Conversation Analysis (CA), we focused on the social interaction between BPs and PFPs, achieved in and through multi-modally constructed sequences of updates—responses. First, updates are used by BPs in the context of the transfer from the child from/to the PFP marking the transfer of responsibility for the child. Second, PFPs use images as updates to provide BPs quasi-primary access to the experiences of the child. Third, updates are given or elicited in the context of prior problems. Across these functions, we observe that while BPs work to display responsibility, PFPs subtly empower BPs as parents.

AbstractThe use of mobile instant messaging services (MIMS) for the dissemination of electoral information has been increasing in recent years. Drawing on a novel dataset from a 2015 post-electoral survey in Spain, we focus on individuals' digital political behavior, both public and private. Our results show that, in a context of high electoral volatility and polarization, right-wing supporters are willing to engage in political persuasion activities using tools such as MIMS in the private digital arena but not publicly (e.g., on social media). In contrast, left-wing milieus develop mobilization efforts in both public and private settings. We argue that distinct political styles are key in accounting for the difference in channels of partisan persuasion, in which preference falsification mechanisms are involved in the public sphere. These results bear important implications for the understanding of false information exchanges in the private sphere, social media activism, and political participation. Additionally, they help us shed light on the recurring failure of polls in capturing electoral behavior among right-wing voters in polarized elections and referenda.

Organizational decision making is dominated by teams. When an important decision is required, a team is often formed to make it or to advise the individual decision maker, because a team has more resources, knowledge, and political insight than any one individual working alone. As teams have become geographically distributed, collaboration technology has come to play an important role in such collective decision making efforts. Instant messaging (IM) is an increasingly prevalent workplace collaboration technology that enables near-synchronous text exchanges on a variety of devices. We examined the use of IMduring face-to-face, telephone, and computer-mediated team meetings, a practice we call "invisible whispering." We introduce Goffman's characterization of social interaction as dramatic performance, differentiable into "front stage" and "backstage" exchanges, to analyze how invisible whispering alters the socio-spatial and temporal boundaries of team decision making. Using IM, workers were able to influence front stage decision making through backstage conversations, often participating in multiple backstage conversations simultaneously. This type of interaction would be either physically impossible or socially constrained without the use of IM. We examine how invisible whispering changes the processes of collaborative decision making and how these new processes may affect the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative decision making, as well as participation, satisfaction, relationships among team members, and individual attention.

PurposeDuring the digital media era with an explosion of messages, the prevalence of what is known as "message fatigue" has grown. However, there is a lack of understanding toward message fatigue in using instant messengers. Based on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study provides a theoretical model to explore possible predictors and consequences of instant messaging fatigue.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesized model includes communication overload, social overload, instant messaging fatigue, technology and behavioral intention to use instant messaging. Three hundred and eleven responses are collected using an online survey. The authors conduct structural equation modeling to evaluate the hypothesized model and test the hypotheses.FindingsThis study reveals that (1) communication overload and social overload are positively associated with instant messaging fatigue and technostress; (2) higher levels of instant messaging fatigue and technostress are also related to a higher level of intention to discontinue usage; (3) technostress significantly mediates the relationship between instant messaging fatigue and intention to discontinue usage of instant messaging.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to collect data from one university in the United States with a cross-sectional design. Future research should include other countries, different age groups and longitudinal methods to examine instant messaging fatigue.Originality/valueThis study extends existing findings on fatigue in using mobile communication by applying the stressor-strain-outcome framework to IM fatigue and improves the understanding of the potential negative aspects of instant messaging.

Internetkommunikationsdienste sind Dienste, die zwischenmenschliche Kontakte über das Internet ermöglichen. Zu diesen zählen etwa die Internettelefonie (Voice over IP, z.B. Skype), Instant Messaging (z.B. WhatsApp) und die E-Mail. Viele dieser Dienste sind bereits seit den 1990er Jahren populär, doch ihre rechtliche Einordnung und die daran anknüpfenden Regulierungsfolgen sind nach wie vor umstritten. In dem Werk wird untersucht, ob sie de lege lata vom Telekommunikationsrecht erfasst sind. Sodann wird erforscht, welche Regelungen dieses Rechtsgebiets sinnvoll auf derartige Angebote anwendbar sind oder künftig sein sollten. Analysiert werden Normen des sektorspezifischen Kartellrechts, des Kundenschutzes, der öffentlichen Sicherheit sowie des Datenschutzrechts. Abschließend wird angesichts des schnellen technischen Wandels in der Telekommunikationsbranche die Reaktionsfähigkeit des hierzulande geltenden Telekommunikationsrechts im Vergleich zum US-amerikanischen Recht untersucht.