Keynote: The citizens’ perspective on inverse panopticon, devices that can protect privacy

The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Usually, we think of a panopticon as embodying an oppressive, top-down system of observation and control. It is not that well known that Bentham distinguished between four different types of panopticon. One of the types is the constitutional panopticon also referred to as the inverse panopticon, a bottom-up surveillance through which governing functionaries are monitored through panoptic methods. What is the citizens opinion about devices that can inform them about surveillance? A smart speaker is a device that is listening to you and others that are in the vicinity of the speaker. We recruited participants from a national panel in Norway and presented an ultrasonic jammer that prevents smart speakers from recording human speech. In this talk, key findings from studies on the ultrasonic as well as on a device that can detect cameras in the persons vicinity are presented. Furthermore, I will present data from national surveys on how the cognitive reflection test can be used to measure risk propensity concerning the sharing of nude pictures and sharing of personal data as examples of risk behaviour.