Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence

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This book is a warning. It aims to warn policy-makers, industry, academia, civil society organisations, the media and the public about the threats and vulnerabilities facing our privacy, identity, trust, security and inclusion in the rapidly approaching world of ambient intelligence (AmI).

In the near future, every manufactured product our clothes, money, appliances, the paint on our walls, the carpets on our floors, our cars, everything will be embedded with intelligence, networks of tiny sensors and actuators, which some have termed smart dust. The AmI world is not far off. We already have surveillance systems, biometrics, personal communicators, machine learning and more. AmI will provide personalised services and know more about us on a scale dwarfing anything hitherto available.

In the AmI vision, ubiquitous computing, communications and interfaces converge and adapt to the user. AmI promises greater user-friendliness in an environment capable of recognising and responding to the presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible way. While most stakeholders paint the promise of AmI in sunny colours, there is a dark side to AmI.

This book aims to illustrate the threats and vulnerabilities by means of four dark scenarios. The authors set out a structured methodology for analysing the four scenarios, and then identify safeguards to counter the foreseen threats and vulnerabilities. They make recommendations to policy-makers and other stakeholders about what they can do to maximise the benefits from ambient intelligence and minimise the negative consequences.

A comprehensive analysis of the threats and vulnerabilities of an Ambient Intelligence future Contains realistic scenarios that demonstrate pitfalls and threats of an Am. I-world Deals with the subject imaginatively through vigorous analysis and the sketching of different scenarios Important recommendations More lasting value because the social, economic, political and policy issues will be around for a long time to come Systematic in its presentation Presents clear and pertinent recommendations Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt

Foreword by Emile Aarts. Foreword by Gary Marx. Preface. An Executive Summary for Hasty Readers. 1. Introduction. 2. The Brave New World of Ambient Intelligence. 3. Dark Scenarios. 4. Threats and Vulnerabilities. 5. Safeguards. 6. Recommendations for Stakeholders. 7. Conclusions. 8. References. List of Contributors.