Communications of the ACM
Smart Phones Are Changing Real World Privacy Settings
Credit: Ralph Langner
Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have found that smartphones are challenging traditional concepts of privacy, especially in the public arena.
TAU researchers Tali Hatuka and Eran Toch measured the impact of the smartphone phenomenon on privacy, behavioral codes, and the use of public space. Their research found that although spaces such as city squares, parks, or transportation hubs were once seen as public meeting points, smartphone users are now more devoted to their technology-based communications than to their immediate surroundings.
The researchers also found that smartphone users are 70 percent more likely than regular mobile phone users to believe that their phones give them increased privacy, and are more willing to reveal private issues in public spaces, Toch says.
Smartphones create the illusion of "private bubbles" around their users in public spaces, Hatuka notes. The researchers polled about 150 participants, divided equally between smartphone users and regular phone users, asking them how phone use applied to their homes and public, learning, and transportation spaces. Smartphone users were 50 percent less likely to be bothered by others using their phones in public spaces, and 20 percent less likely than regular phone users to believe that their private phone conversations were irritating to those around them.
From American Friends of Tel Aviv University
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