IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013 - 59

pervasive than in other countries
such as the U.K. [15] (likely due
to low crime rates in Japan [16]),
Japanese experience of large scale
monitoring systems is likely to be
limited. further to this, it is interesting to note that some studies
have suggested there is no direct
translation for the word "privacy"
in Japanese [17]. This might partly
reflect the state of Japanese attitudes and perceptions towards
data collection and use. However,
it does not necessarily mean the
concept of privacy does not exist
in modern Japan. for example,
Japanese workplaces and monitoring are commonly large open plan
offices (e.g., [18]) and as such there
exists a "direct" form of observation, though it may not necessarily
be perceived this way.
When studying user responses
and behaviors involving a technology, their perceptions of the
technology are of particular
importance to understanding
their actions. This is because
these user's actions are grounded
in their perceptions of reality,
and not the reality itself. Hence
perceptions of a system's characteristics are arguably more
important than the characteristics themselves, particularly
salient perceptions. These are
the immediate perceptions (or
attitudes) that a user has about a
technology based purely on their
previous experiences, with no
other information available. for
example, when you hear a song

Fig. 2. Wearable ubiquitous
monitoring device [28].

for the first time, your strongest initial responses to it can be
described as salient. In terms of
technology acceptance, perceptions such as ease of use and usefulness are frequently described
as salient [19], [20]. Salient perceptions are of critical importance because they will likely
influence the users' subsequent

[1], it is difficult to explore them all
in a single study. As such, a series
of six prominent perceptions and
attitudes were selected for testing
(see Table I):

Object Based Beliefs
■

Perceived Natural Border
Crossings (PNC): defined as
the degree to which a person

If a system used to collect naturalistic
data about users is influencing their
behaviors, then the data collected is
unlikely to be accurate.
experiences with the technology,
and thus play a significant part in
determining system acceptance
and use [21].
A questionnaire has been
designed to measure user salient
perceptions of a specific UM
device (see fig. 2). The image was
used to invoke participant's salient
perceptions based purely on what
the device affords. Beyond a short
text description of the device as
"wearable" and "deployable in
their work environment," no other
information was given to participants. This was intended to retain
the salience of the participant's
perceptions and reactions to the
idea of the devices introduction.
The more information shared
about the device with users, the
weaker the salience of their reactions becomes.
The device shares a number of
affordances with a name badge
type object, including wearability
and mobility, which we anticipate
participants will focus on. One of
the benefits of using this image is
that participants can cognitively
place the device in their own
work environments. The device is
also presented and introduced as
a workplace monitoring system in
the same way for all participants.
While there are a number of
perceptions in the PSA-BI model

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2013

■

feels that any natural borders
have been crossed [1], based
on Marx [22]. In the context
of a monitoring system, PNC
is related to its physical placement in relation to a person.
Perceived Privacy Invasion
(PPI): defined as the degree to
which a person feels that the
monitoring is invasive of their
privacy [1].

Object Based Attitudes
■

■
■

■

Attitude Toward Technology
(ATT): defined as a person's
positive or negative view of a
technology based on what it
affords [1].
Behavior Based Attitudes
Attitude Toward Behavior
(ATB): defined as a person's
positive or negative view
toward performing a specific
behavior related to the technology, e.g., use [1] .
Facilitating Conditions (fC):
defined as the degree to which
an individual believes that
the conditions exist which
gives them control (or choice)
over whether they perform
a behavior [9]. for example,
if the behavior were use of
a wearable device, then the
facilitating conditions would
be related to whether or not a
person is able to remove it.
|

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2013