Dear Can,
Privacy is a recent freedom mostly associated with urban living. I donšt
care what my neighbour does, in his back yard, as long as my neighbour
doesnšt care what I do in mine. Previously, Kings might have had extended
privacy but this was usually accommodated by their servants. That is,
while the general population didnšt know what happened when the King sat
on his other throne, his man servant did. Romans, after all, had public
toilets. You could have a a good old chat with your friends while doing
your other business.
Are marriages public events? Are funerals public events? The super rich
want islands and estates to keep these events to themselves.
We have long demanded to register births, deaths and marriages.
So, living in a big city, I might like the freedom to walk all day and
meet no-one that I know. I can burp and fart and mumble profanities all
day long.
Now there are CCTV cameras everywhere, I am able to be seen, even if
anonymously. Is this a loss of freedom? Is this a violation of my privacy?
We know vast amounts about each other that we do not bother to announce or
act on directly. I am reminded of William Blakešs lines in his poem,
London:
London
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
Could we not design Londonšs streets in ways that acknowledge the weakness
and woe of its citizens? Where is the poetry? Where is the humanity?
I would rather this kind of designerly acknowledgement of what it means to
be human than in coming up with ways to hide peoplešs lives in pursuit of
privavcy.
Google my know that my wife is pregnant before I do, and even before she
does, because of its ability to analyses what she is buying at the
supermarket. Should Google let her know? Should I tell a student they look
ill because I see signs of illness? Is this a violation of privacy?
Lotšs for me to puzzle over.
Cheers
keith
On 21/2/17, 9:11 pm, "PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD
studies and related research in Design on behalf of Can Uckan"
<[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>"what the future holds about personal data privacy" is a challenging
>question because we give most of our personal data everday for our daily
>routines like health, transportation, enrollments, accomodation and
>shopping with "good faith", but most of it can be and in deed literally
>used with "bad faith".
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