Converse Approach

One way to ask about harms is to ask about events that caused harm or loss (e.g., a compromise or lockout) with follow-ups about the harm that was the consequence of those events (e.g., lost data).

We might get different results were we to do the converse, asking about the harms people have experienced with follow-ups about the events that caused those harms.

Now, instead of asking you how you might have suffered loss, we're going to ask two final questions about what you may have lost.

Loss of digital photos or videos

The following two questions ask you about digital photos or videos you may have lost. We will ask you how many videos you have lost over your lifetime and the events that led to their loss.

How many photos or videos have you lost over your lifetime?

🔘 I have never lost any photos or videos
🔘 More than five years of photos and/or videos
🔘 More than one year of photos and/or videos, but less than five years
🔘 More than one month of photos and/or videos, but less than one year
🔘 More than one week of photos and/or videos, but less than one month
🔘 More than one day of photos and/or videos, but less than one week
🔘 Less than one day of photos and/or videos \

Please rate how valuable these lost photos or videos were to you on a scale of 1 (none will be missed) to 7 (some were priceless).

How valuable were these photos to you?* 🔘 They included irreplaceable memories of events or people \

What events contributed to your loss of photos and videos? (check all that apply)

☐ A phone storing the photos/videos was stolen
☐ A phone storing the photos/videos broke or failed
☐ A phone storing the photos/videos was lost
☐ A phone storing the photos/videos was upgraded to a new phone and the photos/videos were not copied over
☐ A (non-phone) camera storing the photos/videos was stolen, broke, or was lost
☐ A memory card storing the photos/videos was stolen, broken, or lost after being removed from the phone or camera that took the photos/videos
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the photos/videos broke or failed
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the photos/videos was lost
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the photos/videos was stolen
☐ An online account that stored the photos/videos was compromised (hacked) and the photos/videos were deleted
☐ An online account that stored the photos/videos permanently locked me (or us) out
☐ An online account that stored the photos/videos was deleted because of disuse
☐ An online account that stored the photos/videos was deleted because of lack of payment
☐ Other (please describe)

Loss of chat messages

The following two questions ask you about chat messages you may have lost, including text, images, and videos sent via text message or via phone and computer messaging apps such as (but not exclusively) iChat, WhatsApp, WeChat, SnapChat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter/X, Telegram, Signal, and AIM.

We will ask you about email messages separately, so don't include those here.

How many chat messages, including text, images, and videos stored in your chats, have you lost over your lifetime?

🔘 I have never lost any chat messages
🔘 I have lost less than one day of chat messages
🔘 I have lost at least one day of chat messages, but less than one week of them
🔘 I have lost at least one week of chat messages, but less than one month of them
🔘 I have lost at least one month of chat messages, but less than one year of them
🔘 I have lost at least one year of chat messages, but less than five years of them
🔘 I have lost at least five years of chat messages

How have you lost these chat messages? (check all that apply)

☐ A phone storing the messages was stolen
☐ A phone storing the messages broke or failed
☐ A phone storing the messages was lost
☐ A phone storing the messages was upgraded to a new phone and the messages were not copied over
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the messages broke or failed
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the messages was lost
☐ A computer or hard drive storing the messages was stolen
☐ An online account that stored the messages was compromised (hacked) and the messages were deleted
☐ An online account that stored the messages permanently locked me (or us) out
☐ An online account that stored the messages locked was deleted because of disuse
☐ An online account that stored the messages locked was deleted because of lack of payment
☐ Other (please describe)

Other data categories

• Homework
• Work other than homework
• Tax or financial records
• Contracts or other legal financial/documents

Other loss types we might use this approach for

Has technology ever led to: - harassment - embarrassment - loss of work