Title: RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES

As it was concluded in FIDIS deliverable 7.2, profiling raises questions of trust, usability, security and privacy. AmI is focused on providing an environment that infers preferences on the basis of past behaviour, and provides services that create comfortable homes, takes away routine choices, signals useful opportunities and thus creates both extra time and a better picture of the risks and options we face. 

All that was indicated in the “Purposes and effects of profiling practices” chapter of FIDIS deliverable 7.2 can be repeated here to describe the impact of AmI, in particular the risks and opportunities connected with customisation and de-identification. Will our lives become boring in the process of total customisation? Will our capacity to react adequately to new information diminish? Will our dependence on this ‘magic’ space prove fatal once this space ceases even momentarily to exist? Will Ambient Intelligence create serious risks for public health, by allowing people to get what they want without making a move (what is the benefit of a coffee machine that knows what coffee I want, other than the fact that I do not have to raise my arm, is that a benefit)? Will those that have the money to live in AmI environments be advantaged compared to those that do not? Will this increase existing inequalities or change existing hierarchies? We also refer to the evaluation of the “Implications of profiling for democracy and rule of law” in FIDIS deliverable 7.4.

In this report we will focus on some of the implications for privacy and security, leaving the discussion of other risks to subsequent deliverables.