Public Photos, Private Concerns: Uncovering Privacy Concerns of User Generated Content Created Through Networked Public Displays

Abstract

Networked public displays offer new ways of connecting communities through user-generated content. For example, they allow taking situated snapshots, i.e., photos taken through a display-attached camera, and viewing them on displays in the network or potentially somewhere on the web. Little research has looked into users’ privacy concerns for this novel type of content. This paper reflects on two longitudinal studies of the Moment Machine application that was running in the UK and Switzerland for 12+ weeks, and summarizes some of the privacy concerns this type of user-generated content can raise, namely: communicating where the publicly taken situated snapshots are stored, where they appear, that no surveillance is taking place, content control for situated snapshots, where (in what place) and how interactions happening on the web will appear on a display network. Based on the two studies I make recommendations and inform the design of similar future networked public display systems.