Mobile Devices, Virtual Presence, and Surveillance: Questions Concerning Epistemology and Some New Challenges for Privacy and Data Protection

Abstract

Mobile devices help people to stay connected across huge distances and to socially interact while in spatially separated environments. However, compared to face-to-face-interaction, communication and interaction via mobile phones currently are still restricted. Therefore, an idea of Mann, Fung, and Lo concerning cyborglogging with camera phones shall be taken a step further. A scenario is described in which a modified version of their design is used to support social interaction across the borders of spatially separated environments in a new manner. It shall be argued that this might create a new understanding of being present at a certain place while at the same time it raises questions concerning privacy, surveillance and authenticity of experience.

Keywords: Virtual presence, cyborglogging, privacy, data protection, epistemology, ethics