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Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information

Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information
Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information
A new era of visible and sharable electricity information is emerging. Where eco-feedback is installed, households can now visualise many aspects of their energy consumption and share this information with others through Internet platforms such as social media. Despite providing users with many affordances, eco-feedback information can make public previously private actions from within the intimate setting of the family home. This paper represents a study focussing specifically on the privacy aspects of nascent ways for viewing and sharing this new stream of personal information. It explores the nuances of privacy related to eco-feedback both within and beyond the family home. While electricity consumption information may not be considered private itself, the household practices which eco-feedback systems makes visible may be private. We show that breaches of privacy can occur in unexpected ways and have the potential to cause distress. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how to realise the benefits of sharing energy consumption information whist effectively maintaining individuals{'} conceptions of adequate privacy.
eco-feedback, smart meters, privacy, social networking, collective information practices
342-351
Snow, Stephen
1ba928e0-a4d7-4392-ae59-31ac8467eb94
Radke, Kenneth
916255f9-66fc-4b1e-9d87-26d58a2e2a0f
Vyas, Dhaval
74485b22-71c5-4e29-976b-3816646150d5
Brereton, Margot
881134fd-1382-4982-9afd-02f96d239e48
Snow, Stephen
1ba928e0-a4d7-4392-ae59-31ac8467eb94
Radke, Kenneth
916255f9-66fc-4b1e-9d87-26d58a2e2a0f
Vyas, Dhaval
74485b22-71c5-4e29-976b-3816646150d5
Brereton, Margot
881134fd-1382-4982-9afd-02f96d239e48

Snow, Stephen, Radke, Kenneth, Vyas, Dhaval and Brereton, Margot (2014) Privacy in the new era of visible and sharable energy-use information. OzCHI '14 Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: The Future of Design, Sydney, Australia. 02 - 05 Dec 2014. pp. 342-351 . (doi:10.1145/2686612.2686664).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

A new era of visible and sharable electricity information is emerging. Where eco-feedback is installed, households can now visualise many aspects of their energy consumption and share this information with others through Internet platforms such as social media. Despite providing users with many affordances, eco-feedback information can make public previously private actions from within the intimate setting of the family home. This paper represents a study focussing specifically on the privacy aspects of nascent ways for viewing and sharing this new stream of personal information. It explores the nuances of privacy related to eco-feedback both within and beyond the family home. While electricity consumption information may not be considered private itself, the household practices which eco-feedback systems makes visible may be private. We show that breaches of privacy can occur in unexpected ways and have the potential to cause distress. The paper concludes with some suggestions for how to realise the benefits of sharing energy consumption information whist effectively maintaining individuals{'} conceptions of adequate privacy.

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More information

Published date: December 2014
Venue - Dates: OzCHI '14 Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: The Future of Design, Sydney, Australia, 2014-12-02 - 2014-12-05
Keywords: eco-feedback, smart meters, privacy, social networking, collective information practices
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 386439
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/386439
PURE UUID: 05b28eef-91aa-4f0b-aba7-6907916818b5

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Date deposited: 31 Mar 2016 16:55
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:31

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Contributors

Author: Stephen Snow
Author: Kenneth Radke
Author: Dhaval Vyas
Author: Margot Brereton

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