Is Privacy Dead? Do we Care?

Anne H AndersonUniversity of Dundee

DirectorESRC/EPSRC/DTI People @ the Centre of Communication and

Information Technologies (PACCIT) Research Programme

Security & Privacy:Balancing threats & civil liberties

‘Sleep walking into a surveillance society?’

What about our individual responsibilities?

We all have access to more surveillance technology than George Orwell’s Big Brother ever dreamed of

Are we all paparazzi now? Or Citizen reporters?

Or spies ? Or peeping toms?

Professional Responsibilities

• Design for privacy• Design against crime• Mobile phones in Korea• Legal changes in US and elsewhere• Technology awareness & informed use• Many social, ethical and engineering

challenges to design for informed use

Most surveyed societyAfter CCTV comes?

• You’ve been nicked – by a lamppost

(Guardian, March 30th, 2005)• Flashcam trials in UK – cameras high on

lampposts in high crime areas• Sense human movement and shout• ‘ Stop if you are engaging in illegal activity!

Your photograph will be taken and used to prosecute you. Please leave the area.’

• Claim is wrongdoers flee the scene• Do we accept the privacy/civil liberties issues?

Principle of Reciprocity?

• Nannycam

• Social Networking – privacy policies

• Privacy safegaurds – social etiquette

• Accessing Facebook to screen employees

Privacy in Social Networking

• MySpace 150 million users • FaceBook 34 million active members• Privacy policies changed & criticised• Hinduja & Patchin (in press) 40% teenagers on

MySpace restrict access• Only 9% gave full names 8% of sample were

cleraly lying about their age <16• Sophos report on geography networks and

Freddi Staur – 41% ‘friends’ divulged personal data

Technology DevelopmentPrivacy and Social Implications

Web2.0 Flikr TiVo Social Networking

Are these changing our notion of privacy?

Are they leading to a social revolution or …?

How far are we responsible for protecting our own privacy?

Can or should we design features to protect ourselves?

                                                                                                 

                                     

                                    

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                                     New forms of Interaction: BrainballSmart Things Studio, Stockholm

“ Brainball is a game where you compete in relaxation. The players' brainwaves control a ball on a table, and the more relaxed scores a goal over the opponent.

“ The players brain activity is graphed in a diagram on a computer screen so that the public can easily follow the players mental processes during the match.“

Interaction by brain waves

The internal made external – what is private or personal?

Are all technologies acceptable?

• RFID tags have raised concerns in UK and US

• ‘RFID Tracking Pilot Programme ended in Sutter School’ – US School ID tags with RFID rejected

• ‘Our children should never have been tagged like pieces of inventory or cattle. The RFID tags violated the students’ privacy and were demeaning’

• ‘Big Brother at the supermarket till’ BBC news

• Some consumer groups fear being spied on

• TESCO & MS deny the intention or capability

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Instant News vs Happy Slapping

Mobile phones provided some of the more immediate and vivid images of the bomb attacks in London. BBC News ‘Floods of photos: before TV ‘Happy Slappers attack women with

baseball bats’

‘Happy slapping youths convicted of manslaugther’

‘Happy slappers attack star’

‘Does happy slapping exist?’

Is Privacy Dead??

• Well it is looking a bit peaky• The boundaries between /virtual/private/public/ are

blurring• We have a role in stimulating debate on the

implications, costs/benefits• What should the penalties be for privacy breaches?• We are social beings with ethical concerns• We also have individual responsibilities• We can develop privacy conventions• We can also design & implement technologies with

privacy in mind

For Further Discussions of these Issues:

Royal Academy of Engineering Report

Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance: Challenges of Technological Change

www.raeng.org.uk