Once off-limits, the boundaries of personal space and the body are being tested by emotional AI applications in worn, domestic and public capacities. As cities transform through novel sensing and emergent forms of surveillance, this raises questions about privacy, civic life, influence, regulation, moral limits and the desirability of profiling emotional life in an out-of-home context.

Introducing his most recent book, ‘Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media’, McStay will discuss the nature and scope of emotion-sensing technologies and their use in commercial surveillance. Focusing on out-of-home computer vision and facial coding analytics, McStay will assess the rise of emotional AI in retail and advertising. These will be explored in reference to: 1) interviews with stakeholders (industry, EU policy makers, data protection NGOs and the legal community); 2) UK-wide survey work on how citizens feel about these developments; 3) the question of whether classifications of personal and sensitive data are sufficient to regulate the use of these technologies, especially in out-of-home situations.

About Professor McStay
Professor Andrew McStay is Director of the Network for the Study of Media and Persuasive Communication at Bangor University where he lectures on media, privacy and digital culture. His most recent books are Emotional AI: The Rise of Empathic Media (Sage, 2018), Privacy and the Media (Sage, 2017) and Digital Advertising 2nd ed (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016). He is also author of Privacy and Philosophy (Peter Lang, 2014); Creativity and Advertising (Routledge, 2013) and The Mood of Information (Continuum, 2011).