Prifi beacons: piggybacking privacy implications on wifi beacons

Abstract

Making users aware of privacy implications in ubiquitous computing is a critical challenge to support user acceptance and trust. However, the invisible and embedded nature of UbiComp systems prevents users from naturally perceiving active sensors or even the presence of systems. Furthermore, autonomous interventions of systems in the user's environments or undesired interactions with the user may be disturbing and could violate a user's privacy expectations. We propose PriFi beacons to support users in perceiving ongoing observations and potential disturbances from systems in the user's current environment. Privacy awareness information is piggybacked on WiFi beacons by leveraging their information elements. The information is extracted by an Android-based privacy client and presented to the user in a privacy awareness interface.