Privacy Mirrors: Understanding and Shaping Socio-technical Ubiquitous Computing Systems

Abstract

Privacy is a known issue in ubiquitous computing, exasperated by an oft-cited feature of ubiquitous computing - invisibility. Dangers of invisible computing are interfaces that do not give people the needed tools of awareness and control to understand and shape the behavior of the system. By definition, ubiquitous computing systems are socio-technical, encompassing three environments: social, technical, and physical. We argue that addressing or presenting solutions in any one environment alone cannot solve the privacy issue in ubiquitous computing. Privacy is addressed best by giving users methods, mechanisms, and interfaces to understand and then shape the system in all three environments. We introduce Privacy Mirrors, a framework for designing socio-technical ubiquitous computing systems that will integrate into people's on-going needs, practices, values, and aesthetic sensibilities.