Privacy out into the world

Usually insightful Techdirt seems to have been caught off guard with this. The mobile phone, unlike any other thing we have known, seems to be the ultimate private information and communications device: What goes on on my mobile interface is known only to me (possibly also to my operator). Socially, it is also considered bad taste to pick someone else's mobile and start scouring it. By virtue of its privacy, the mobile is also the ultimate transformer of public space into temorary private worlds. Whether it's a voice call, a text exchange or a mobile info service, I get immersed in the timespace of that interaction, nomatter whether I'm on the road or in a meeting. See: non-places restored, internet public and mobile privacy, homogenized living, and hypertext living.