Locational Privacy in Public Spaces: Media Discourses on Location-Aware Mobile Technologies

Abstract

This article analyzes 4 months of popular press articles from major publications about location-aware mobile phones. Our results identify 2 main areas: the control these devices offer over public spaces and the lack of control users have over their location information. This lack of control is often framed as a lack of privacy. We argue that the ability to control and personalize public spaces is not new because previous types of portable media already allowed users to manage interactions with public spaces. However, issues of privacy and control over public spaces are more pronounced with location-aware technologies. Our conclusions suggest that popular press discourses often overlook more complex social issues related to privacy in public spaces.

Everyday life and locative play: an exploration of Foursquare and playful engagements with space and place

“…A body of research analysing how locative technologies mediate the relationship between technology use and physical spaces has emerged over the past decade (see Crawford and Goggin, 2009;de Souza e Silva and Frith, 2010;de Souza e Silva and Sutko, 2011;Wilken, 2008Wilken, , 2012Wilken and Goggin, 2012). Mobile media has been posited as altering the way users relate to physical space in a confluence of location and digital networks that mediates geographic places (Campbell and Ling, 2008;Gordon et al, 2013;Martin, 2014, p.180).…”

The playeur and Pokémon Go: Examining the effects of locative play on spatiality and sociability

“…A body of research has gradually coalesced around these applications (see de Souza e Silva and Frith, 2010;Evans and Saker, 2017;Wilken, 2012). Studies have examined the impact of locative media on how users move through their environment (de Souza e Silva and Sutko, 2008;Gordon et al, 2013), experience spatiality (Saker and Evans, 2016), and maintain social connections (Campbell and Kwak, 2011;Wilken, 2008).…”

Attachment to Mobile Phones across Social Contexts

“…Furthermore, the possibilities to enhance communication flows and coordination among different agents help to constitute a virtual community of unprivileged ones, such as disabled or diseased people in "developing countries" (see Chib, 2013 for an overview) On the other hand, the newly expanded social geography that makes every digital device and their users connectable and visible to each other also generates various social risks. Especially for those whose relations to power are characterized by negative asymmetries, the risks and challenges such as surveillance, loss and violation of privacy, being subject to bullying and stalking practices, withdrawal from social environments and a loss of spatio-temporal orientation (context collapse as named by Welsh, 2008) emerge (Marvin, 2013;Cincotta, Ashford, & Michael, 2011;Lee, 2011;de Souza e Silva & Frith, 2010;Welsh, 2008;Goggin & Crawford, 2011).…”