Following You Everyware

In 1991 Mark Weiser introduced the term ‘ubiquitous computing’ to explain what he described as “machines that fit the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter theirs”. This, in simple terms, means that a computer can blend into the background of our everyday life, moving us into a time where we are using computers almost unconsciously.

But it isn’t just the computers that we are using, it is also the computers we may not even be aware of that are tracking every move we make, every pound we spend and every song we listen to. Our travels are not only monitored by public CCTV, they can also be monitored by Sat Nav signals or computerised travel cards e.g. Oyster cards. Our spending is monitored by our bank cards but also what we buy and where is monitored by our reward cards e.g. Nectar cards. The websites we visit are tracked by ‘cookies’, the songs we download are tracked by our music accounts, the games we play are tracked via online gaming accounts e.g. Xbox Live. So is everything we do watched? And if so, how much say do we have on our own privacy?

When looking to answer this question I looked in ‘The Spy in the Coffee Machine’ by Kieron O’Hara and Nigel Shadbolt. This book talks about the new surveillance society we have become and if everything is witnessed by machines they ask “how much of an infringement on privacy are they?”

This book looks into the changes from physical meetings to virtual meetings, where handshakes are replaced with e-mails and the impact that then has on our lives. At the beginning of the book O’Hara and Shadbolt refer to a poem and explain that a handshake between two people in a room would leave no traceable evidence yet a phone call or e-mail would leave digital evidence and could be tracked. But in doing so, they ask, is this infringing our privacy?

It moves on to discuss when people create blogs and upload information onto the web are they disabling any privacy they may have had and saying it is okay for people to track and follow them? After all, we are all in charge of what we share online. I would never post personal information on this blog but simply by having it someone could track me down if they had the know-how and the desire. But by starting this blog and uploading information online have I agreed to that?

As computers become smaller and much more user friendly I think people do use them within their everyday life and not even realise they are doing so.

When looking specifically into this topic one of the things that shocked me was the amount of monitoring that does exist that we all unknowingly agree to. We are all guilty at some point in our lives, of signing to agree to terms and conditions but how often do we read those terms and conditions to know what we are really saying we agree to?

CCTV cameras in the street, in shops, in car parks and in schools are the type of surveillance that we are consciously aware of. However, I can answer honestly that I have never swiped my Oyster card and took a second thought as to where that information was going. But I did some research and by looking online at the terms and conditions set by TFL I found out that just by owning and registering my oyster I have agreed that my travel habits, most popular destinations, times of travel etc. can be used for TFL statistics. Some more interesting things I found though were involving payments and the loss of my oyster card, pre-paying for my travel etc.

I do think too little time is spent reading terms and conditions but I understand they are always so long and hard to read, they normally contain lots of jargon that isn’t very simple to wade through and actually understand and we are also living in an age where very few people have the time to sit and read 56 pages of terms and conditions before purchasing a travel card, reward card or even setting up and online account.

But, if you learn only one thing from reading this it is just to try and be more aware not only of your surroundings but also what you are doing and what you are doing it with.

All the link I used when researching this post are listed below:

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_computing

·         ttp://wwwist.massey.ac.nz/plyons/Papers%20(by%20others)/HCI/Issues/York%20Pendharkar%202004%20Human%20Computer%20Interaction%20Issues%20for%20Mobile%20Computing%20in%20a%20Variable%20Work%20Context%20.pdf

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weiser

·         http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Spy-Coffee-Machine-Privacy/dp/1851685545

·         http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/default.aspx

·         http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/901.aspx