Section 19.4. Conclusion

19.4. Conclusion

In this chapter, we presented a range of HCI research that we believe can be of help to those designing privacy mechanisms. These included usability evaluations and requirement gathering, including the large range of HCI methods for incorporating users and users' viewpoints in the process; collaborative views of information and activity, including many systems and applications as well as a range of social analyses that promote a detailed, situated view of privacy; handling diversity and difference among users, including the HCI approaches to this problem; and new approaches to new computational environments, including studies and systems for pervasive environments.

We note in passing that HCI could profit by considering privacy more fully. The direction of research should not be one-way. Cross-cultural studies of privacy could inform the nascent interest in HCI in cross-cultural interfaces and coordination. Increased understanding of the diversity and complexity of user preferences, and potential clusterings, is providing new impetus for HCI research on individual differences. As well, considering visualizations and intelligent tutoring systems for privacy, in a range of applications and tasks, could germinate new emphases in HCI. We hope that HCI work grows to consider these and other aspects of privacy needs.

Privacy in digital environments is likely to remain a critical issue for the foreseeable future. As it directly engages aspects of user control and power, it is central to the concerns of HCI. We fully expect the two areas of interestHCI and privacyto remain closely interlocked in interest and need.