Privacy in intelligent environments: Systematic literature review

Abstract

Intelligent environment means an environment where data is collected, e.g., by sensors, and collected data is processed and analysed to provide services. Data can be environmental or location data, or data produced by users. Characteristic to the environment is vast amount of collected data and analyzation capabilities. Sensitive user data is collected, disseminated, and analysed, often without user’s proper understanding of what happens to data, who is using it, and for what purposes. This is a problem for privacy and to solve it, it is important to understand concepts and factors that influence on privacy and how these are connected. Privacy has long been basis for democratic societies, and intelligent environments can threat this, if consequences of the usage of these technologies is not holistically considered and understood.

To aid understanding, this thesis forms a holistic view of privacy in intelligent environments. It studies concepts and factors affecting to privacy when environment is collecting data of its users. It identifies perspectives concerning privacy and forms an overview regarding how these perspectives are connected to each other. It also identifies privacy problems and threats and presents safeguards and solutions to privacy problems. The thesis is conducted as a systematic literature review, which defines a protocol regarding how literature for the thesis is searched, selected, and analysed. Thesis identifies 7 perspectives (functional, data, societal, social, service provider, user, technical) and their connections, through which privacy in intelligent environments can be examined.

Privacy is dynamic, it means different things, has different kind of value, and has different role among different groups of people in different times and contexts, thus privacy and its meaning at societal scale is always evolving. Functional and social perspectives present what privacy is. User applies or uses privacy through functional and social perspectives. User needs privacy as a boundary and as an enabler of appropriate information disclosure in current context. Technology has problems of implementing privacy as a context-dependent process and often fails to protect user’s privacy. Service provider is collecting user’s data and developing technology to produce intelligent environment services. User’s data is protected by laws and regulations prescribed by society. Society sets laws and regulations, which limit or empower technologies in intelligent environments. Technology can be privacy protector or privacy violator; it has the power to enable or threat all privacy’s functional and social properties. Technology is also a shaper; it changes how privacy is understood in society and what information is private. Application and new technology developers should carefully consider privacy as consequences for losing it can even shape entire societies towards unknown directions.