Privacy Violations of Video Communications in a Ubiquitous Environment

Media Space is a network application in which video images are continuously sent, received, and shared by coworkers. Therefore, Media Space is considered to have a high risk of giving its users a sense of privacy violation. So far, maintaining reciprocity of the communication is considered to have the most significant effect for perceived risk of privacy violation. In this research, we implemented the cellular-phone-based connection to Media Space. However, because a cellular phone can only act as a viewer of images, the reciprocity cannot be achieved. Therefore, this implementation may increase the risk of computer users´ privacy violation by cellular phone users. Seventeen people used this application for nine months, and then a questionnaire survey was conducted. Through a questionnaire survey, we found it phenomenal that the users are less sensitive about their own privacy being violated by others, but are more sensitive about violating other people´s privacy.