Techniques for addressing fundamental privacy and disruption tradeoffs in awareness support systems

Publication Type:

Conference Paper

Source:

ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, ACM Press, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, p.248 - 257 (0)

Keywords:

Distributed Work Groups; Awareness Support; Privacy; Audio; Video; Visualization; Media Spaces.; Privacy - ACM

Abstract:

This paper describes a fundamental dual tradeoff that occurs in systems supporting awareness for distributed work groups, and presents several specific new techniques which illustrate good compromise points within this tradeoff space. This dual tradeoff is between privacy and awareness, and between awareness and disturbance. Simply stated, the more information about oneself that leaves your work area, the more potential for awareness of you exists for your colleagues. Unfortunately, this also represents the greatest potential for intrusion on your privacy. Similarly, the more information that is received about the activities of colleagues, the more potential awareness we have of them. However, at the same time, the more information we receive, the greater the chance that the information will become a disturbance to our normal work. This dual tradeoff seems to be a fundamental one. However, by carefully examining awareness problems in the light of this tradeoff it is possible to devise techniques which expose new points in the design space. These new points provide different types and quantities of information so that awareness can be achieved without invading the privacy of the sender, or creating a disturbance for the receiver. This paper presents four such techniques, each based on a careful selection of the information transmitted.

Notes:

Privacy vs. Awareness vs. Disturbance (overload of information) Co-located interaction is: · Implicit · Informal · Serendipitous Needs: · Continuous fashion of sharing spaces · Immediate awareness as a catalyst of communication Techniques to meet awareness goals and preserve privacy and non-disruption properties: · Privacy: THE SHADOW-VIEW & SHARED AUDIO o What information is, can be, or should be transmitted in terms both of its awareness support content, and in terms of its effect on privacy. o Reciprocity · Disruption and high resource utilization: SHARED AUDIO (who's speaking but not what is saying & background noise) o Partial control over interruptions in the hands of the receiver o Do not consume too many resources (cognitive and machine) · THE SYNTHETIC GROUP-PHOTO · VISUALIZE A RECENT HISTORY OF ACTIVITIES (non-uniformly in time)