Dear AoIR Subscribers, We would like to bring your attention to a new special issue in Social Media + Society that was recently completed. The special issue "Comparative Approaches to Studying Privacy" includes ten methodologically and contextually diverse articles, plus an editorial. Together, these contributions showcase the value of comparative privacy research. We believe that the special issue is relevant for many Internet researchers and hope that it proves useful for the community. Here is the link to the full special issue: [1]https://journals.sagepub.com/topic/collections-sms/sms-1-comparative _approaches_to_studying_privacy?publicationCode=sms Below is a list of all 11 contributions, with links to the papers. 1) "Comparative Approaches to Studying Privacy: Introduction to the Special Issue" by Christoph Lutz, Lemi Baruh, Kelly Quinn, Dmitry Epstein, Philipp K. Masur and Carsten Wilhelm introduces the special issue and the Comparative Privacy Research Framework (CPRF) as a conceptual foundation for context-sensitive privacy research. [2]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251344460 2) "Attitudes on Data Use for Public Benefit: Investigating Context-Specific Differences Across Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom with a Longitudinal Survey Experiment" by Frederic Gerdon compares attitudes on the use of data for public benefit across Germany, Spain, and the UK. [3]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301202 3) "It's Fine If Others Do It Too: Privacy Concerns, Social Influence, and Political Expression on Facebook in Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States" by Christian Pieter Hoffmann and Shelley Boulianne investigates the relationship between privacy concerns, social influence, and online political expression on Facebook across five Western democracies. [4]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241290334 4) "Online Privacy, Young People, and Datafication: Different Perceptions About Online Privacy Across Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Ghana, and Slovenia" by Rys Farthing, Katja Koren Ošljak, Teki Akuetteh, Kadian Camacho, Genevieve Smith-Nunes and Jun Zhao explores how young people’s awareness of datafication shape their understandings of online privacy in countries in the global south and north. [5]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298042 5) "Understanding the Motivations of Young Adults to Engage in Privacy Protection Behavior While Setting Up Smartphone Apps: A Cross-Country Comparison Between Romania and Germany" Delia Cristina Balaban, Maria Mustățea and Valeriu Frunzaru explores motivations behind young adults' privacy protection behaviors when configuring smartphone apps in Germany and Romania. [6]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298042 6) "Conversation-Related Advertising and Electronic Eavesdropping: Mapping Perceptions of Phones Listening for Advertising in the United States, the Netherlands, and Poland" by Claire M. Segijn, Joanna Strycharz, Anna Turner and Suzanna J. Opree examines the belief that mobile devices eavesdrop on offline conversations for advertising purposes across three countries with different regulatory contexts and surveillance histories. [7]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241288448 7) "Turn It on! Turn It on? Privacy Management of Pupils and Teachers in Online Learning During COVID-19 Lockdowns in Germany and Israel" by Leyla Dogruel, Dmitri Epstein, Sven Joeckel and Nicholas John studies how students and teachers in Germany and Israel negotiated privacy and visibility during the shift to emergency remote teaching in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, finding striking similarities despite different cultural and legal contexts. [8]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301841 8) "AI Privacy in Context: A Comparative Study of Public and Institutional Discourse on Conversational AI Privacy in the US and Chinese Social Media" by Renwen Zhang, Han Li, Anfan Chen, Zihan Liu and Yi-Chieh Lee compares public and institutional discourses on AI privacy on Twitter (US) and Weibo (China), revealing divergent patterns shaped by cultural, political, and economic factors. [9]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241290845 9) "'(Virtuous) Wives Don't Have Anything to Hide': Understanding Digital Privacy Perceptions and Behavior of Married Women in Rural India" by Debjani Chakraborty and Chhavi Garg examines how married women in rural India navigate digital privacy, balancing cultural norms of being "hidden" online while having "nothing to hide" from family. [10]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313665 10) "(Lack of) Patterns in Commitment: Data Protection in the Latin America and Caribbean Personal Data Protection Laws" by Elías Chavarría-Mora analyzes and maps the data protection laws across 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, discovering large variability that does not follow clear geographic patterns while also identifying key areas of convergence attributed to a Brussels effect. [11]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251337206 11) "A Triple-Layered Comparative Approach to Understanding New Privacy Policy Practices of Digital Platforms and Users in China After Implementation of the PIPL" by Liming Liu and Yiming Chen analyzes how three platforms - WeChat, Taobao, and Douyin - implement privacy policies after China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), revealing how state-dominant discourses legitimize authority over user data. [12]https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301265 References 1. https://journals.sagepub.com/topic/collections-sms/sms-1-comparative_approac... 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251344460 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301202 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241290334 5. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298042 6. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298042 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241288448 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301841 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241290845 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251313665 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251337206 12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301265