برخورداری از حریم خصوصی در گفت و گوی تلفنی Privacy encounters in Teledialogue

Introduction Privacy is a major concern in contemporary society and especially so when information technologies are used to mediate, monitor and analyse the interaction between private citizens and public authorities (e.g., Peckover, White, & Hall, 2008; Sorell & Draper, 2012). This is true when intelligence agencies harvest vast amounts of information from internet traffic but also when the local healthcare practitioner files test results to an electronic patient record or, as is the case in this article, when case managers in the Danish social system make video calls to children placed in foster families or at youth institutions in the Teledialogue project. However, despite the centrality of privacy, it is often unclear what privacy is. The meaning of privacy has changed historically; it differs from culture to culture and is often approached in ways that are remote from the practices of everyday life. Accordingly, some scholars have raised serious concerns about the usefulness of privacy as a concept (Gilliom, 2001; Lyon, 2001, 2002) while others have defended the notion and sought to further develop its analytical relevance (Rössler, 2005; Solove, 2002; Viseu, Clement, & Aspinall, 2004). This article aligns with the latter. It develops a notion of privacy as an encounter from the specific empirical circumstances of the Teledialogue project which are subsequently framed in relation to Gilles Deleuze. Teledialogue is a combined research and design project initiated by the authors aimed at strengthening the relationship between placed children and their public case managers through various forms of IT such as videoconferencing, chat and texting. As such, Teledialogue implicates that children and case managers talk more often, that they learn more about each other and, not the least, that case managers come to play a more active role in the everyday lives of placed children. However, Teledialogue also entails numerous privacy concerns. During the project, technical and legal concerns arose over the safe storage and processing of personal information in accordance with the Danish Act on Processing of Personal Data and The Consolidation Act on Social Services. Furthermore, practical questions for the case managers and placed children arose concerning where and when Teledialogue was appropriate, and how to control the sharing of information between friends, family and case managers. It thus became apparent that privacy cut across technical, legal, social and practical matters.