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Laurent Beslay and Yves Punie, IPTS
Issue: In the physical world, domicile and residence are carefully developed and recognized concepts. A comparable level of sophistication is needed for people to feel acceptance and trust towards their online activities. The concept of "Virtual Residence" could help to tackle concerns of identity, privacy and security for peoples’ online activities. It could contribute to a better perception and consideration of ones’ personal digital territory and could help to tackle the blurring boundaries of what is public and private in the online world.
Relevance: People, families and homes are increasingly being connected to the Internet. Living online will be an important constituent of our everyday lives in the future e-Society. This raises key policy concerns in relation to identity, privacy and security.
Life online as a new private space
According to MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, the Information Society is deepening and widening as each new generation becomes more digitized than the preceding one. More and more personal information will, as a result, be disclosed in the virtual world. This concerns not only basic personal identification data such as age, sex and location
1 but also personal calendar information, working documents, family albums (pictures, video, chat) and medical and financial records. This information can be stored in personal databases, personal and/or family websites or even in community websites hosted by private companies or other institutions. As such, people are creating a new kind of online private space.As the Information Society develops and each successive generation becomes more digitized, ever more data will be disclosed in the virtual world
Box 1. Two examples illustrate the growing importance of online activities in everyday life
"My Yahoo!" and its services "Geocities" offer to the user the opportunity to create a personal webspace where personalized content is received and stored (e.g. weather info, stock exchange info, etc.). According to the advertisement, "Creating your personalized My Yahoo! Page is like building your dream home." Active Worlds Universe is a community of hundreds of thousands of users that chat and build 3D virtual reality worlds in millions of square kilometres of virtual territory. |
For people to feel at home in their online private space (at least) three major challenges have to be faced. The space should represent people’s multiple identities (legally and socially), respect their privacy and establish an acceptable level of security. These challenges are related to the fundamental but complex interrelationship between what constitutes the private and the public.
For people to feel at home in an online private space it needs to be able to represent their multiple identities, respect their privacy and establish an acceptable level of security
In the physical world, legal rules and socio-cultural norms and habits constitute the guidelines for people’s assessment of what is a private or a public space. Although the distinction is not always clear-cut, people are aware of the boundaries between them and may act accordingly.
These boundaries are, for example, culture specific. In some parts of the United States, it is common to see gardens around homes without physical borders (e.g. fence, wall, plants, etc.) which people would not trespass on. Local residents know quite clearly that the lawn represents the beginning of private territory. This is socially accepted and backed by laws. The private territory is a legal sanctuary. In many countries, private spaces such as the home or domicile cannot be entered by law enforcement agents without a warrant, delivered by a judge who demarcates clearly the boundaries of the investigated domicile. Moreover, in some countries, this cannot be done before a certain time of day.
It is clear that laws and social norms protect the home or domicile as a private space. But this is not restricted to the physical territory of the home only. In some countries the interior of a car benefits from the same protection as the private domicile
2.In the virtual world, similar and new private spaces are being/will be constructed. The problem is that today, online private spaces do not have the same legal and social protection as their equivalents in the physical world. As a worldwide borderless space, the Internet raises difficulties in applying nation-state-based laws. International law does not (yet) protect life online fully.
In the physical world, legal rules and socio-cultural norms and habits constitute the guidelines for people’s assessment of what is a private or a public space; analogous rules are needed online and in some cases they are already developing
Another problem is that, compared to the physical world, the distinction between what constitutes the private and the public is less clear-cut in the online world. A family or personal website can be ‘visited’ freely by everyone, while the intention of its producers may only be to make it easily accessible for their social network. Are Internet users sneaking into digital picture album websites violating the privacy of the originators? Is it socially acceptable to do that?
In the real world, passers-by are not expected to look into your house. A glimpse is inevitable in some cities for instance, but you are not expected to stand and stare through the window of a living room for minutes at a time. If you do, other people might indicate, verbally or non-verbally, that your behaviour is inappropriate. The problem is that in the virtual world, these kinds of social indicators of what constitutes a private space are not present. There are no labels to help Internet users judge where private digital territories start or end, nor are there social norms to discourage people from entering private online spaces.
Within public online spaces (e.g. chat rooms), social norms and rules for peoples’ behaviour are in the meantime being developed by the Internet users themselves. By logging on to a chatroom, you are expected to follow its tacit codes of behaviour, the so-called ‘netiquette’. Users not following the rules will be reproached and eventually, expelled. The netiquette, is clearly based on respect for other peoples’ rights.
3Similar to the legal and social extension of the domicile to a car that moves through physical space, it is possible to envisage online extensions of the virtual private space that encompass intelligent agents
Similar to the legal and social extension of the domicile to a car that moves through physical space, it is possible to envisage online extensions of the virtual private space that encompass intelligent agents. The latter also move through time and space -albeit in the form of cyberspace- ‘encapsulating’ personal data in order to carry out requests for their real life counterparts. Some intelligent agents, for example in the area of online travel shopping, allow the user to compare the discounted airfares offered by major airlines and book them online
4. In order to find the best flight ticket corresponding to the user specific criteria and to book it or even to buy it, this intelligent agent will have to "go" through numerous web sites with the user’s personal data.Another dimension of the public - private issue, with implications for identity, privacy and security, needs to be situated at the network level as is discussed in the next section.
Critical domestic networks and Ambient Intelligence
The home of the future will become increasingly connected and will come to be seen as one of the ‘nodes’ in the network society.
5 The core infrastructure for the connected home will consist of so-called domestic networks. This may range from a narrow-band network for home automation purposes, through medium band networks for sharing computer data, to broadband networks for the distribution of audio-visual content. These networks may be both wired and wireless. Apart from the need for interoperability of these local networks, they will also be connected to external networks (Internet, fixed and mobile telecommunications, terrestrial, cable and satellite TV). The link between them is often referred to as a ‘residential gateway’6The home of the future is likely to be increasingly connected: both internally through domestic networks and externally through broadband networks transmitting audio-visual content
The future home is thus both internally and externally connected. A more all-encompassing vision of the communication structures within the connected home is increasingly being referred to as Ambient Intelligence (AmI). The ISTAG/IPTS report depicts a vision of the Information Society where the emphasis is on user-friendliness, efficient and distributed service support, user-empowerment, and support for human interactions. People are surrounded by intelligent intuitive interfaces that are embedded in all kinds of objects and are living in an environment that is capable of recognizing and responding to the presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible way.
7 Humans, computers, intelligent agents and smart devices communicate with each other inside and outside the domestic network.As systems become increasingly aware of the identity and location of users and able to communicate this information to other persons, virtual agents, services, devices and objects, privacy concerns inevitably arise
This raises a number of social and legal issues in relation to identity, privacy and security. The AmI system needs to know a lot of personal information in order to act in a personalized, intuitive and desirable way. It is aware of the identity and location of users and communicates this information to other persons, virtual agents, services, devices and objects. People need to be able to control, in one way or another, the nature and amount of personal information that is disclosed about them and need to be able to differentiate this according to the situation and the actors/systems they communicate with.
8 It is clear that peoples’ privacy is at stake here and that these information exchanges need to be secured and managed.When the web-connected oven downloads the latest recipe it will also reveal the eating habits of the inhabitants of the smart home. Even if this information could be seen as relatively innocent, its systematic collection may form part of the process of building an exhaustive and highly detailed profile of the user, without his or her knowing about it. One of the characteristics of ambient intelligence is exactly its seamless, invisible communication. The maintenance process of ambient intelligence systems will be driven by micro-payments and the user will not be systematically aware of these payments. This challenges the protection of privacy because of domestic networks being interconnected with outside public networks. People and families will have to manage numerous gateways between them.
From a legal point of view, it might be argued that as part of the home domestic networks are already treated as a private space, but with a trend towards distributed computing this concept may need to be extended
Domestic networks are thus critical or vulnerable in many different ways. From a legal point of view, it might be argued that domestic network problems fall under the umbrella of the legal definition of the home or domicile as a private space. This is facilitated by its clear geographical location in the home, but in parallel with the car, as mentioned above, there may be a need to extend this in a more dynamic way. Moreover, recent technology trends indicate that web applications, web services and computing resources tend to be shared and distributed, meaning that most probably, the server(s) of the domestic network will use outside computing resources to provide new home services. It therefore becomes increas-ingly difficult to make a clear distinction between domestic networks and outside, public networks.
Dependability and security of domestic networks also become key issues because of their integration in the management of more and more sensitive facilities. The concept of healthcare at home illustrates quite well this critical situation. In this scenario the health status of the user could be scanned by the ambient intelligent systems of the smart home. The medical records collected would be then uploaded to the doctor who might provide, digitally, recommendations and drug prescriptions to the patient. But what happens if the prescription does not arrive (on time) as a result of network interruptions? Or what happens if other parties intercept a secret medical communication? Moreover, the doctor might be able to intervene directly in peoples’ lives, by influencing the patients’ diet (control of the contents of the fridge) or their environment (modifying the temperature and humidity of the house). If people become more and more dependent on the permanent availability of these systems, acceptable privacy and security levels should be guaranteed both legally and socially.
From the physical residence to the virtual residence
There is a case to be made for developing and establishing the notion of virtual residence as an extension of the physical residence. More global security and privacy solutions could be envisaged through it. It can also be seen as a complementary Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET). The concept of virtual residence might consist of the following elements:
Laws: In the real world, the residence (or domicile
9) is considered as a sanctuary for certain individual fundamental rights.10 This means that it is legally inviolable. By extending the physical residence to the virtual residence, it is then placed under the heading of fundamental rights and becomes legally inviolable. The notion of violation of virtual residence was underlined in German case law. In an open, public chatroom, a user adopted an aggressive behaviour against some other participants. The provider excluded him from the web forum with technical solutions, but he bypassed these technical barriers. Finally, the court of appeal recognized the right of the provider to exclude the troublemaker from this private sphere.Case law in some countries is extending the concept of physical residence to include the virtual residence, thereby under some circumstances giving its inviolability the status of a fundamental right
Economy:
Another purpose of the legal definition of residence is its administrative function. It is the base from which taxes are collected for financing infrastructures and public facilities (transport, electricity and water networks, etc.). The borderless scope of the Internet makes it difficult to apply geographically determined taxes. By recognizing the concept of virtual residence, this could be facilitated, for instance in relation to e-commerce.Architecture: Experts11 argue that the most feasible solution for the management of digital identity will be a decentralized system whereby people keep their personal data with them. The virtual residence could be a good place to store and manage personal information and multiple identities.
Social norms: The physical residence is protected by social norms and rules indicating, amongst other things, respect for other peoples’ private affairs. These sophisticated social norms and rules are learned through institutions of socialization such as the family, school, work, etc. The virtual residence could acquire a comparable social status of one’s ‘online’ private space.
If the virtual residence is able to reflect multiple identities, to protect the privacy of these identities and to offer acceptable levels of security, it might facilitate the acceptance of new technologies at home
Provided that the virtual residence is able to reflect multiple identities, to protect the privacy of these identities and to offer acceptable levels of security, it might facilitate the acceptance of new technologies at home, as briefly discussed in the final section of this article.
The acceptance of the virtual residence
Research on use and acceptance of Information Society Technologies (ISTs) in the home highlights that people do not accept everything that is technologically available. People need resources (time and money) to buy and use ISTs and these resources are not evenly distributed in society. Moreover, they need to have the capabilities (education, skills, attitudes, language, etc.) to make use of ISTs. The latter should of course also be user-friendly, affordable and should provide users with functional and/or symbolic added value.
12It also has to be taken into account that use and acceptance of ISTs are negotiated within the existing social structures of the household. To understand this, Silverstone and others have developed the sociological concept of ‘domestication’. This refers to a process of double change. First, an innovation has to be integrated into the structures, routines, rituals and dominant values of the members of the household. It has to be housetrained or ‘domesticated’. Second, users and their everyday lives undergo changes when innovations are put to use.
13 In particular, when ISTs become taken for granted, in the sense that they are perceived as a natural and unobtrusive part of our everyday lives (e.g. TV, radio, phone), rather than enigmatic technical objects (e.g. video recorder, PC), they have the potential to change features of ordinary life.Many innovations have difficulties in reaching the stage where they are accepted to the point of becoming a natural and unobtrusive part of people’s lives
In order for the virtual residence to be accepted by people, socially and culturally determined patterns and structures of everyday life have to be recognized.
14 The smart home should be able to reflect the identities of its inhabitants in many different ways. For example, the preliminary results of a project called "Ambient Intelligence Homelab" recently launched by the electronics manufacturer Philips, comprising a fully equipped home in order to test prototype Ami Technologies and peoples’ behaviour and reactions in a semi-real life environment, raised the issue of power relations in social interactions amongst family members.15 Can intelligent agents take a position within these relations and who is to blame for unequal access within the family?If people are to accept the virtual residence it has to embrace socially and culturally determined patterns and structures of everyday life
Trust, confidence and reliability are, among other factors, powerful enablers of domestication. If technologies do not deliver what they promise; if they do not react in ways they are supposed to react; and do not function when they are needed, then, it will be very difficult for them to become domesticated. This is also the case for the virtual residence. People need to feel at home in their virtual residence and technology design should take this into account.
The virtual residence will be involved in the continuous work of what sociologists refer to as "ontological security"
16. Without some sort of basis of trust, people would feel lost and unsafe in a world that is increasingly mediated by technologies. The virtual residence might contribute to building trust, provided it becomes socially meaningful for peoples’ identities, guided by a legal framework that respects their privacy and establishes an acceptable level of security.The issue of building a legal framework which raises awareness of the virtual residence needs to be addressed as well. The concept of the virtual residence would represent for the user a passive protection against potentially intrusive measures by the authorities (investigations in the virtual residence as in the real one would then only be authorized under specific conditions described by the law). It would also constitute an active protection against potential cybercrimes. Indeed, by establishing a clearly demarcated private digital territory, the user would be given the opportunity to prosecute any violation of this private sphere on the basis of digital evidence (intrusion software detection, etc.) and even use active preventive measures to protect it (passwords, firewalls, etc.)
Trust, confidence and reliability are, amongst others, powerful enablers of "domestication" or the process whereby technologies become accepted into people’s everyday lives
The virtual residence may today be seen as closely related but very distinct from the physical residence. It can be expected that in the future, as online life becomes "domesticated" and thus an integrated part of real life, clear boundaries between each will disappear. It will not be separate but embedded in the routines of everyday life.
Keywords
virtual residence, identity, privacy and security
1. In virtual chat rooms, people use the ASL acronym for identifying other chatters: "ASL?" means "What is your Age, Sex and Location?".
2. Conseil Constitutionnel 12 janvier 1977, decision 76-75 DC, "fouille des véhicules" et protection de la liberté individuelle.
3. See for instance: Tapscott, D. (1998), Growing up digital. The rise of the Net Generation, New York: McGraw-Hill, 66-67.
4. Ebookers.com, whenu.com, Copernic shopper plus.
5. Castells, M. (1996), The Information Age, vol.1. The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 470.
6. Future Bottlenecks in the Information Society, IPTS/ESTO Report to the ITRE Committee of the European Parliament, June 2001 (EUR 19917), Annex 1: The evolving user environment, 127. http://www.jrc.es/FutureBottlenecksStudy.pdf
7. Ducatel, K., Bogdanowicz, M., Scapolo, F. Leijten, J. & Burgelman, J-C. (2001) Scenarios for Ambient Intelligence in 2010, IPTS/ISTAG, European Communities. (www.cordis.lu/ist/istag.htm)
8. See article on privacy-enhancing identity management in this special issue of the IPTS Report.
9. Residence and domicile: because of the increasing mobility of citizens, the term residence becomes progressively preferred to the more traditional idea of domicile. Indeed the US census bureau defined in 2000 the "usual residence" as the place where the person lives most of the time" which softens the notion of permanent residency defined as domicile in the Black’s Law Dictionary.
10. Art. 12 Universal Declaration of Human rights, and Art 8 European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
11. The future of identity in an e-Society. IPTS Workshop 10-11 December 2001 Seville, http://cybersecurity.jrc.es
12. See for an overview of ICT user research: Frissen, V. & Punie, Y. (2001), Present users, future homes. A theoretical perspective on acceptance and use of ICT in the home environment, Position Paper STB-01-30a for the Media@Home project, TNO, Delft, May 2001.
13. Silverstone, R. & Haddon, L. (1996). Design and the domestication of ICTs: technical change and everyday life. In: Mansell , R. & Silverstone, R., (eds.), Communication by Design. The politics of Information and Communication Technologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.60.
14. Frissen, V. & Punie, Y. (2001), Ibid.
15. Aerts, E. (Ed.) (2002) Ambient Intelligence in HomeLab, Published by Philips Research for the occasion of the opening of the HomeLab on April 24, 2002, Philips Research, Eindhoven. http://www.newscenter.philips.com
16. Ontological security is a sociological term defined as a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity and order in events.
Laurent Beslay, IPTS
Tel.: +34 95 448 82 06, fax: +34 95 448 82 08, e-mail: laurent.beslay@jrc.es
Yves Punie, IPTS
Tel.: +34 95 448 82 29, fax: +34 95 448 82 08, e-mail: yves.punie@jrc.es
About the authors
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