‘HOME LIFE DATA’ AND CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Report submitted together with a response to ICO Call for Evidence for Age Appropriate Design Code, 18th September
A report by Dr Veronica Barassi, Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths University of London/ Principal Investigator on Child | Data | Citizen Project, Funded by the British Academy http://childdatacitizen.com)
Co-signed by Gus Hosein, Executive Director, Privacy International Supported by Jeff Chester, Executive Director, Center for Digital Democracy
INTRODUCTION
The development and domestication of AI – together with the extension of smart technologies – is rapidly transforming our homes. Powerful new applications and business models are emerging that pose a threat to the privacy of children and their families. Home automation is becoming a rapidly expanding market. A report published in January 2017 by Juniper Research – that specializes in identifying and appraising new high growth market sectors within the digital economy – estimated that smart home hardware and service, which include entertainment, automation, healthcare and connected devices is set to drive revenues from $83 billion in 2017 to $195 billion by 2021. They also estimated that the ‘big four’ (Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung) companies – which at present dominate the smart home market – will further solidify their position, with Amazon securing a leading role (Juniper, 2017). Home Hubs threaten to further socialise kids to divulge their data, which is one reason design code in the home must create safeguards across all ages. By introducing the concept of home life data (Barassi, 2018), in this report we wish to draw attention to the fact that the data that is being collected by home hub technologies is not only personal (individual) data but it is household, family and highly-contextual data. Understanding the complexity of home life data makes us appreciate the fact that children’s data is too often intertwined with adult profiles. We believe that the ICO should include home automation and home life data in the list of areas to take into consideration when developing age appropriate code.
Access the full report at ChildDataCitizen.com
h/t, Joe Cadillic