Vision and voice in e consent: Future trends for health social networks

Online services have the power to persuade us. When we join Health Social Networks (HSNs) we share our personal health information (PHI) with people who we perceive to be like minded or experiencing things similar to us. However, this PHI can also be shared with third parties such as pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and advertising companies. With data protection regulations changing across Europe (i.e. General Data Protection Regulation 2018), the provision of electronic consent (eConsent) has a duty to present the complicated Privacy Policies (PP) and Terms & Conditions (T&Cs) in a simpler and more transparent manner. With this ambition in mind, this research explores users' perceptions of an alternative presentation of eConsent-an animation of PP and T&Cs-focusing on the vision and voice of eConsent. Using an online methodological design, and follow-up focus groups, the findings from this research reveal insights into end-user needs surrounding the design, content, and behavioural change elements of animated eConsent. This has implications for the future development of eConsent and the presentation of HSN service registration.