Privacy, trust and identity permissions for ambient intelligence

Ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to the convergence of communication technologies, computing devices and interfaces that adapt to the user’s needs and preferences. The AmI vision is to fully computerise society involving multiple stakeholders, delivering services and exchanging information in a timely, convenient and appropriate fashion. One challenge that marks AmI out from other E-Society developments, is that the user will be involved in numerous moment-to-moment exchanges of personal data without explicitly sanctioning each transaction. We already carry around devices (mobile phones, personal digital assistants) that exchange personal information with other devices, but we initiate most exchanges ourselves. In the future, devices embedded in the environment and potentially in the body will use software agents to communicate seamlessly about our state of health, our preferences for what to eat, etc.

The project aimed to develop a better understanding of how people will seek to control their personal information. Key AmI stakeholders provided specific scenarios illustrating how privacy, trust and identity information might be exchanged in the future. These scenarios were professionally scripted and filmed and presented to 38 focus groups drawn from representative sectors of society. A survey based upon qualitative findings of the focus groups assessed disclosure preferences and behaviours.