The Need for Respectful Technologies: Going Beyond Privacy

Abstract

Digital technologies, the data they collect, and the ways in which that data is used increasingly effect our psychological, social, economic, medical, and safety-related well-being. While technology can be used to improve our well-being on all of these axes, it can also perpetrate harm. Prior research has focused near exclusively on privacy as a primary harm. Yet, privacy is only one of the many considerations that users have when adopting a technology. In this chapter, I use the case study of COVID-19 apps to argue that this reductionist view on technology harm has prevented effective adoption of beneficial technology. Further, a privacy-only focus risks perpetuating and magnifying existing technology-related inequities. To realize the potential of well-being technology, we need to create technologies that are respectful not only of user privacy but of users’ expectations for their technology use and the context in which that use takes place.