The Dark Side of the (Ubiquitous Computing) Force

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing has great potential. Its proponents argue that it could enable a whole new wave of "invisible" technology that fades into the background of our lives in the same way as the electricity and water grids. But as one of its inventors, Mark Weiser, noted, it requires "a very difficult integration of human factors, computer science, engineering, and social sciences."

In this talk I'll look at some of the things that could go wrong if computing environments are designed without an adequate consideration of human factors. In particular, what are the privacy implications of ubiquitous sensors and the storage and processing of several orders of magnitude greater quantities of personal data?

Bio

Dr Ian Brown is a research fellow at University College London and a senior research manager at the Cambridge-MIT Institute. His research is focused on public policy, information security and privacy, intellectual property rights and networking. At UCL he teaches undergraduate and masters courses on Communications and Networks, Information and Society and Information Systems. Brown takes an active part in network and security protocol development as a member of various Internet Engineering Task Force working groups. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce and a Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is on the advisory boards of Creative Commons UK and FIPR and the boards of Privacy International, European Digital Rights (EDRI) and the Open Rights Group. He also consults for organizations such as JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and the US Department of Homeland Security.