Privacy in context

  • Authors:
  • Mark Ackerman;Trevor Darrell;Daniel Weitzner

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Michigan, Advanced Technology Laboratory, Ann Arbor, MI and Massachusetts Institute of Technology;MIT, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, MA;MIT, World Wide Web Consortium, Cambridge, MA

  • Venue:
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

Context-aware computing offers the promise of significant user gains--the ability for systems to adapt more readily to user needs, models, and goals. Dey, Abowd, and Salber (2001 [this special issue]) present a masterful step toward understanding context-aware applications. We examine Dey et al. in the light of privacy issues--that is, individuals' control over their personal data--to highlight some of the thorny issues in context-aware computing that will be upon us soon. We argue that privacy in context-aware computing, especially those with perceptually aware environments, will be quite complex. Indeed, privacy forms a co-design space between the social, the technical, and the regulatory. We recognize that Dey et al. is a necessary first step in examining important software engineering concerns, but future research will need to consider how regulatory and technical solutions might be co-designed to form a public good.