Creepy Technologies and the Privacy Issues of Invasive Technologies

Abstract

Technology has become increasingly invasive and corporate networks are expanding into public and private spaces to collect unprecedented data and provide new services such as artificial intelligence and through unsettling human-like personas. The term “creepy technology” is appearing in the literature along with concerns for privacy, ethical boundaries, cybersecurity, and mistaken identity but is also in news articles to inform the public about technology advances that affect consumer privacy. Invasive technology provides the impetus for external adaptation for many organizations and current trends require rapid adaption to potential threats to security. Also, usability addresses how users respond and adapt to new technology. This chapter includes the presentation of an exploratory study of how the public responded to various technology announcements (N=689 responses) and results indicated a significant response to invasive technologies and some sense of freedom to opine. This chapter also provides discussion of interventions that are critical to both public and private sectors.