My dissertation, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (award #1921260), investigates identity theft resolution from the perspective of victims and the organizations they navigate. Through in-depth interviews with victims, it explores how individuals go about resolving identity theft and details the financial and emotional toll that experience takes on them and their families. It also examines the perceived issues and challenges facing organizations and government agencies involved in the remediation process by interviewing staff and observing work in key organizational contexts. Together, these methods will elucidate how managing personal data contributes to economic and other forms of insecurity in American households, as well as how actors negotiate risk and trust to repair breakdowns in expert systems for identification–sociotechnical systems central to the generally smooth operation of countless economic and political processes in everyday life.
For more information, please visit the study website.
REPORTS
“Who Should be Responsible for Personal Data?” August 17, 2021 in collaboration with Change Machine.
MEDIA COVERAGE
“His Identity Was Stolen Once. Then, It Happened Again. Why Didn’t His Bank Believe Him?” April 28,2021 in Refinery29