IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014 - 68

engagement, privacy enhancing
technologies, privacy standards,
and compliance mechanisms. These
intend to redress the perception of
excessive data collection and retention by organizations.
To address the specific privacy
challenges raised by Smartphone functionality, design guidelines for mobile
app developers [37], [38] involve the
entire service delivery chain of developers, manufacturers, OS platforms,
mobile operators, advertisers, and
analytics companies in order to engender trust and confidence, based on the
provision of transparency, choice, and
control [37]. In one respect, it attempts
to elevate the customer interests while
also effectively communicating necessary information to the user via the
phone interface.

Noise mapping-requires data
validation strategies.
In the context of noise mapping, while effective complaint
handling practices deliver satisfactory customer service, it is a constrained medium through which
to measure customer satisfaction,
as it is predominantly dissatisfied
customers who employ this communication channel.
■■

Fig. 1. Privacy level selection
interface: displays user selectable
privacy options and indicative
actions.

Noise Monitoring
Case Studies
Exposure to excessive noise levels
is known to negatively affect quality of life and have detrimental
health impacts [39]. A number of
Smartphone applications have been
developed utilizing the existing
microphone to measure noise levels,
demonstrating PS potential and limitations (in-built sensors; phone app;
data storage and processing; upload
and data display; user privacy and
data integrity) [4], [5]. Ear-phones
[4], for example, include context
detection capabilities that use inbuilt sensors to determine activation
and what data should be collected
or discarded. Yet by first collecting
raw data (e.g., audio recording) such
approaches assume or require the
phone to be operating securely, such
that data collected and stored on the
phone is adequately protected.
Some deployments already provide limited community services,
such as noise monitoring or infrastructure reporting [40], [41]. The
different schemes variously apply
some type of security and privacy
measures, based on assumptions
about user preferences.
In terms of specific requirements associated with PS as a noise
68

Fig. 2. Privacy selection information: displays more information
regarding the user's privacy level
selection, e.g., a user selecting
"Privacy Level 5" will not have
their data stored, but still utilizing
the PS platform.

management tool, certain technical challenges remain for it to be
broadly applied across different
levels of council operations. These
potentially include:
■■ Soundscape
mapping-requires
attracting sufficient participants.
■■ Noise complaints system-requires sufficient verifiable data
quality.

Pilot Study Platform
and Guidelines
Further exploring the many challenges and proposed solutions
described throughout this article,
a demonstration mobile application (app) for noise monitoring has
been developed (for the Android
platform), measuring the sound
pressure level, together with the
ability to annotate the measurements with contextual information.
Data may be uploaded to a central
server (Xively) for further analysis, consolidation, mapping, and
visualization for a given audience
[42]. The data in Table I is collected with granularity according
to privacy levels displayed in Table II.
Users can engage with the system
in varying degrees according to
their preferred level of engagement
and privacy concerns. For example,
where awareness exists of vulnerability of third-party privacy (as
described earlier), the user may
select level 4 in order to not detect
nearby Bluetooth devices and omit
event information.
In exploring privacy vulnerability in social media and data sharing apps, the privacy preference
capability (Fig. 1) serves to inform
users of privacy implications (Fig. 2)
while also specifying the mode of
operation. This represents a degree
of transparency for the user with
respect to system operation. The
important aspect of this functionality is to provide a tool that measures user preferences, responses
to information provision, level of
awareness, and associated usage
behavior. It seeks to evaluate PS

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

FALL 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014