The Ethics of Telepresence: Human Factors Considerations in Preserving Privacy

The design of telepresence systems is a problem in both ethics and in human factors. Designers have an obligation to provide systems that meet society's needs and wants for surveillance, while preserving as much of its citizens' privacy as possible. The results of two surveys reported in this paper indicate that people have fewer concerns about systems with low-resolution audio and visual capabilities that preserve some level of privacy than they do about high-resolution systems that enable full visual and auditory identification. They also differentiate between uses of surveillance that have more potential impact on their lives (supervisors watching or listening to them at work) than for uses that simply catch them within a space (being watched or listened to in a restaurant). Examining the problems inherent in preserving privacy actually provide the design criteria for ethical telepresence systems.