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.
To communicate the concept of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) to the ordinary citizen we engaged with a number of key stakeholders to generate detailed scenarios that communicated something about pervasive technologies and the privacy and identity issues they evoke. The stakeholders included relevant user groups, researchers, developers, businesses and government departments with an interest in ubicomp development. Working in conjunction with relevant stakeholders produced scenarios that were realistic and with high face validity. Four scenarios were developed, related to health, e-voting, shopping and finance that included facts about the device, context of use, type of service or information the system would be used for. The elicited scenarios were then professionally scripted and used to develop Videotaped Activity Scenarios (or VASc’s). The VASc method is a tool for generating richly detailed and tightly focused group discussion and has been shown to be very effective in the elicitation of social rules (Little, Briggs, & Coventry, 2004). The VASc method allows individuals to discuss their own experiences, express their beliefs and expectations. This generates descriptions that are rich in detail and focused on the topic of interest. The four VASc's were shown to thirty-eight focus groups, with the number of participants in each group ranging from four to twelve people. Participants were drawn from all sectors of society in the Newcastle upon Tyne area of the UK, including representative groups from the elderly, the disabled and from different ethnic sectors.
