While privacy perceptions and behaviors have been investigated in Western societies, little is known about these issues in non-Western societies. To bridge this gap, we interviewed 30 Google personal account holders in Saudi Arabia about their privacy perceptions (awareness, attitudes, preferences, and concerns) regarding the activity data that Google saves about them, as well as any steps they take to control Google's collection or use of this data. Our study focuses on Google's Activity Controls, which enable users to control whether, and how, Google saves their Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. Our results show that although most participants have some level of awareness about Google's data practices and the Activity Controls, many have only vague awareness, and the majority have not used the available controls. When participants viewed their saved activity data, many were surprised by what had been saved. While many participants find Google's use of their data to improve the services provided to them acceptable, the majority find the use of their data for ad purposes unacceptable. We observe that our Saudi participants exhibit similar trends and patterns in privacy awareness, attitudes, preferences, concerns, and behaviors to what has been found in studies in the US. However, our study is not a replication of any of the US studies, and further research is needed to directly compare US and Saudi participants. Our results emphasize the need for: (1) improved techniques to inform users about privacy settings during account sign-up, to remind users about their settings, and to raise awareness about privacy settings; (2) improved privacy setting interfaces to reduce the costs that deter many users from changing the settings; and (3) further research to explore privacy concerns in non-Western cultures.

翻译：尽管西方社会已对隐私认知与行为开展了研究，但非西方社会在这方面的研究仍然不足。为填补这一空白，我们采访了30名沙特阿拉伯的谷歌个人账户持有者，重点探究他们对谷歌保存的自身活动数据的隐私认知（包括意识、态度、偏好和担忧），以及他们为控制谷歌收集或使用这些数据所采取的措施。本研究聚焦于谷歌的活动控件，这些控件允许用户控制谷歌是否以及如何保存其网络与应用活动、位置记录和YouTube历史记录。研究结果显示，尽管大多数参与者对谷歌的数据实践和活动控件具有一定程度的认知，但许多人仅有模糊的了解，且多数人未使用这些可用控件。当参与者查看自己被保存的活动数据时，许多人对其内容感到惊讶。虽然许多参与者认为谷歌利用其数据改进服务是可接受的，但多数人不接受将数据用于广告目的。我们发现，沙特受访者在隐私意识、态度、偏好、担忧和行为方面，与美国研究结果呈现相似趋势与模式。然而，本研究并非对美国任何研究的重复，未来需进一步开展直接比较美国与沙特参与者的研究。我们的结果强调以下需求：(1) 在账户注册过程中改进向用户告知隐私设置的技术，定期提醒用户检查设置，并提高对隐私设置的认知；(2) 优化隐私设置界面，降低阻止用户更改设置的成本；(3) 开展更多研究探索非西方文化中的隐私问题。