Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world

In this paper we examine the notion of privacy as promoted in the digital economy and how it has been taken up as a design challenge in the fields of CSCW, HCI and Ubiquitous Computing. Against these prevalent views we present an ethnomethodological study of digital privacy practices in 20 homes in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Crabtree, Andy, Tolmie, Peter, Knight, Will
Format: Article
Published: Springer 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42839/
_version_ 1848796581439995904
author Crabtree, Andy
Tolmie, Peter
Knight, Will
author_facet Crabtree, Andy
Tolmie, Peter
Knight, Will
author_sort Crabtree, Andy
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description In this paper we examine the notion of privacy as promoted in the digital economy and how it has been taken up as a design challenge in the fields of CSCW, HCI and Ubiquitous Computing. Against these prevalent views we present an ethnomethodological study of digital privacy practices in 20 homes in the UK and France, concentrating in particular upon people’s use of passwords, their management of digital content, and the controls they exercise over the extent to which the online world at large can penetrate their everyday lives. In explicating digital privacy practices in the home we find an abiding methodological concern amongst members to manage the potential ‘attack surface’ of the digital on everyday life occasioned by interaction in and with the networked world. We also find, as a feature of this methodological preoccupation, that privacy dissolves into a heterogeneous array of relationship management practices. Accordingly we propose that ‘privacy’ has little utility as a focus for design, and suggest instead that a more productive way forward would be to concentrate on supporting people’s evident interest in managing their relationships in and with the networked world.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:50:15Z
format Article
id nottingham-42839
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:50:15Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Springer
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-428392020-05-04T19:24:53Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42839/ Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world Crabtree, Andy Tolmie, Peter Knight, Will In this paper we examine the notion of privacy as promoted in the digital economy and how it has been taken up as a design challenge in the fields of CSCW, HCI and Ubiquitous Computing. Against these prevalent views we present an ethnomethodological study of digital privacy practices in 20 homes in the UK and France, concentrating in particular upon people’s use of passwords, their management of digital content, and the controls they exercise over the extent to which the online world at large can penetrate their everyday lives. In explicating digital privacy practices in the home we find an abiding methodological concern amongst members to manage the potential ‘attack surface’ of the digital on everyday life occasioned by interaction in and with the networked world. We also find, as a feature of this methodological preoccupation, that privacy dissolves into a heterogeneous array of relationship management practices. Accordingly we propose that ‘privacy’ has little utility as a focus for design, and suggest instead that a more productive way forward would be to concentrate on supporting people’s evident interest in managing their relationships in and with the networked world. Springer 2017-12-31 Article PeerReviewed Crabtree, Andy, Tolmie, Peter and Knight, Will (2017) Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 26 (4-6). pp. 453-488. ISSN 1573-7551 Privacy digital economy crisis in trust domestic digital privacy practices ethnomethodology https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10606-017-9276-y doi:10.1007/s10606-017-9276-y doi:10.1007/s10606-017-9276-y
spellingShingle Privacy
digital economy
crisis in trust
domestic digital privacy practices
ethnomethodology
Crabtree, Andy
Tolmie, Peter
Knight, Will
Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title_full Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title_fullStr Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title_full_unstemmed Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title_short Repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
title_sort repacking ‘privacy’ for a networked world
topic Privacy
digital economy
crisis in trust
domestic digital privacy practices
ethnomethodology
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42839/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42839/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42839/