Florian Schaub, an assistant professor in the School of Information, is the co-author of the book Privacy in Mobile and Pervasive Computing, which has just been released by Morgan & Claypool Publishers. 

In this book Schaub and co-author Marc Langheinrich of the Università della Svizzera italiana dissect and discuss the privacy implications of mobile and pervasive computing technology. They not only look at how mobile and pervasive computing technology affects our expectations of (and ability to enjoy) privacy, but also look at what constitutes “privacy” in the first place, and why we should care about maintaining it. 

The vast majority of the data being collected about us by corporations and government is likely to benefit us greatly, say the authors. It can make our lives more convenient, efficient, and safer through custom-tailored and context-aware services that anticipate what we need, where we need it, and when we need it. But, they warn, beneath all this convenience, efficiency, and safety lurks the risk of losing control and awareness of what is known about us in the many different contexts of our lives. 

The book presents seven approaches that can help support end-user privacy in the design of mobile and pervasive computing technologies and set forward six challenges that will need to be addressed by future research. 

Florian Schaub’s research focuses on empowering users to effectively manage their privacy in complex socio-technological systems. His research interests span privacy, human-computer interaction, mobile and ubiquitous computing, and the Internet of Things. Before joining the University of Michigan in 2016, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his doctoral degree and Diplom in Computer Science from the University of Ulm, Germany, and a Bachelor in Information Technology from Deakin University, Australia.

Privacy in Mobile and Pervasive Computing is available as an e-book and in hard and soft cover from the publisher at http://store.morganclaypool.com.

- UMSI News Service