On Wednesday, August 26, we held our final seminar, “Beyond BUGGED” for the Emotion Experience of Privacy and Ethics in Everyday Pervasive Systems project. It was a moment of both sweet memories, interesting (and often unsettling) insight, maybe a space for contemplation – the would haves, could haves, should haves (well, actually, not really – we’ve done more than we thought we could) – and perhaps more than anything, it was a time for thinking about the future.

As with any seminar, this was an ideal networking event. While the faces in the room and via Teams were familiar, we had the privilege of being able to dive deeper into the research of our esteemed colleagues, and advisory board members, Susanna Paasonen and Irina Shklovski. We also were truly grateful to have hosted fellow (for me, Rebekah) South Australian, Emma Pretty, live, in the flesh in Vaasa. I have to say that each of these presentations challenged us to think about, then re-think, then unfold, dissect and re-interpret issues of privacy, and perhaps even more, what data means in our contemporary society, and what it means for us.

Irina challenged us to think about privacy from the opposite perspective. Rather than trying to omit or hide information from others, Irina highlighted the fact that data quality – that is, the inclusion of data, more of it, and more of the type of data that creates a better representation of more of the population – is one of the main factors behind establishing a fairer data ecosystem. In essence, we need to examine what is enough data to be able to make assumptions about people and phenomena.

Susanna took us to the world of Alastonsuomi.com, a sexual social media platform that provides a place and space in which people can express themselves, view others’ profiles, connect with others, explore ideas of sexuality and Finnishness as well as disrupt norms. Susanna walked us through the experiences and opinions of people who had participated in an interview study related to the “Intimacy in Data Driven Culture (IDA)” project, funded by the Research Council of Finland. While interestingly, the undercurrent of both the research and the platform is for the social function of such spaces, some of the examples given, showed that the ‘social’ does not necessarily imply pro-social. Or, in a sense, the results showed that there are tensions between wanting to connect with others in the platform spaces, fulfilling intra and -interpersonal needs, while at the same time feeling contention towards others. Enjoying the freedom of being able to remove oneself from the space when needed.   There were implied layers of connection and disconnection between genuine friendships and relationships, and exhibitionism or borderline harassment.

Emma’s talk pulled on some critical points related to both earlier presentations, bringing the discussion towards a ‘different kind of personal’. Here, Emma talked about the all-encompassing data collection that we may or may not be aware of, and how our various conditions – biological (biometric data), social and psychological (e.g., textual data, photos, audio etc.) – can be used as leverage for marketing. Emma talked of the devices connected and talking to each other about our data, and perhaps in juxtaposition to Irina’s presentation, highlighting the fact that data inaccuracy may not be so bad after all. Perhaps one layer of privacy protection comes from the shear deficiencies of data collection techniques in wearables for instance. Yet, as with the previous presentations, there are many perspectives towards this topic, especially when considering gamification for instance, or personalised gaming. The interaction between data collectors and ‘data donors’ may be a gamified relationship in the end.

So, the transition away from the BUGGED project is bittersweet. We have published extensively. We have networked and collaborated extensively. The data collected during the project through our interviews and studies are still an ongoing analysis and publication writing process. This project has certainly been the gift that keeps on giving. From interactive art and performance exhibitions such as Butterfly: glo-cal effects of data, energy and industry to establishing new routines and traditions with our ‘BUGGED Family’ that is interconnected with our ‘VME Interaction Design Environment (and VME4CHI) Family’, to our new colleagues focused on human dimensions and issues related to technology and society, the work keeps going on.

We look forward to seeing you all in the next project, and at the very least, through and in the work of our amazing HUMAIN (Human-AI Interaction and Innovation Nexus consortium Thematic Infrastructure) project. And, perhaps we may even see you at NordiCHI. Take care and shake those buggies!