On the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies

We propose a model, based on the work of Brock and Durlauf, which looks at how agents make choices between competing technologies, as a framework for exploring aspects of the economics of the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies. In order to formulate a model of decision-making among choices of technologies by these agents, we consider the following: context, the setting in which and the purpose for which a given technology is used; requirement, the level of privacy that the technology must provide for an agent to be willing to use the technology in a given context; belief, an agent’s perception of the level of privacy provided by a given technology in a given context; and the relative value of privacy, how much an agent cares about privacy in this context and how willing an agent is to trade off privacy for other attributes. We introduce these concepts into the model, admitting heterogeneity among agents in order to capture variations in requirement, belief, and relative value in the population. We illustrate the model with two examples: the possible effects on the adoption of iOS devices being caused by the recent Apple–FBI case; and the recent revelations about the non-deletion of images on the adoption of Snapchat.

New networked technologies and carers of people with dementia: an interview study

Dementia is one of the greatest contemporary health and social care challenges, and novel approaches to the care of its sufferers are needed. New information and communication technologies (ICT) have the potential to assist those caring for people with dementia, through access to networked information and support, tracking and surveillance. This article reports the views about such new technologies of 34 carers of people with dementia. We also held a group discussion with nine carers for respondent validation. The carers' actual use of new ICT was limited, although they thought a gradual increase in the use of networked technology in dementia care was inevitable but would bypass some carers who saw themselves as too old. Carers expressed a general enthusiasm for the benefits of ICT, but usually not for themselves, and they identified several key challenges including: establishing an appropriate balance between, on the one hand, privacy and autonomy and, on the other: maximising safety; establishing responsibility for and ownership of the equipment and who bears the costs; the possibility that technological help would mean a loss of valued personal contact; and the possibility that technology would substitute for existing services rather than be complementary. For carers and dementia sufferers to be supported, the expanding use of these technologies should be accompanied by intensive debate of the associated issues.

User Perceptions of Privacy and Security on the Web

This paper describes an online survey that was conducted to explore typical Internet users' awareness and knowledge of specific technologies that relate to their security and privacy when using a Web browser to access the Internet. The survey was conducted using an anonymous, online questionnaire. Over a four month period, 237 individuals completed the questionnaire. Respondents were predominately Canadian, with substantial numbers from the United Kingdom and the United States. Important findings include evidence that users have tried to educate themselves regarding their online security and privacy, but with limited success; different interpretations of the term "secure Web site" can lead to very different levels of trust in a site; respondents strongly expressed their skepticism about privacy policies, but nevertheless believe that sites can be trusted to respect their stated policies; and users may confuse browser cookies with other types of data stored locally by browsers, leading to inappropriate conclusions about the risks they present.

Legibility, privacy and creativity:linked data in a surveillance society

This paper looks at the issue of privacy and anonymity through the prism of Scott's concept of legibility i.e. the desire of the state to obtain an ever more accurate mapping of its domain and the actors in its domain. We argue that privacy was absent in village life in the past, and it has arisen as a temporary phenomenon arising from the lack of appropriate technology to make all life in the city legible. Cities have been the loci of creativity for the major part of human civilisation. There is something specific about the illegibility of cities which facilitates creativity and innovation. By providing the technology to catalogue and classify all objects and ideas around us, this leads to a consideration of semantic web technologies, Linked Data and the Internet of Things as unwittingly furthering this ever greater legibility. There is a danger that the over description of a domain will lead to a loss in creativity and innovation. We conclude by arguing that our prime concern must be to preserve illegibility because the survival of some form, any form, of civilisation depends upon it.