Is constant smartphone surveillance still terrifying if it’s for science?
Three Stanford University professors announced in Nature Wednesday that they had undertaken an intensive new study of the way humans interact with our devices. They call it the Human Screenome Project, a name that nods to the famous Human Genome Project, a 13-year-long international scientific undertaking that successfully mapped human DNA.
Their proposal for a Human Screenome Project endeavors to make a similarly granular measure of smartphone use (rather than human genetics). And like human DNA, researchers say the data they’ll collect — rapid, constant screenshots of real-time smartphone activity, called “screenomes” — would be primed for big data analysis and more in-depth research on the societal impact of smartphones. The idea is that, collectively, our screenomes could shed light on what our smartphone usage looks in a more meaningful way than current measures. Read more…
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