Digital sovereignty and smart wearables: Three moral calculi for the distribution of legitimate control over the digital

Abstract

The growing pervasiveness of smart technologies in our lives has the undeniable potential to both increase welfare as well as promote our autonomy. However, as with any new kind of technology, the use of smart devices and systems give rise to urgent moral challenges. One variety of such technology that appears to be on the cusp of a far greater impact on society is that of smart wearables. An important facet of balancing these consequences - both preserving the benefits while recognising and compensating for the challenges - is determining the conditions for the distribution of digital sovereignty that best achieves this balance. This piece offers only a steppingstone toward this wider project by examining the most important moral issues raised by the introduction and use of wearables for individual users, with the aim of arriving at a set of crucial moral considerations that the current designers and purveyors of these technologies have a moral duty to reflect and act upon to ensure the distribution of individual digital sovereignty best able to balance the benefits and challenges. The result of this will be a set of moral calculi that any attempt to distribute digital sovereignty smart wearables will have to consider and address if it is to provide a morally satisfactory distribution.