Paper short abstract:

This talk examines the implications of a technology of accounting within the home - a tool which logs and visualises Internet use. Ostensibly a means of empowering individuals with knowledge and control of their data, such tools potentially establish a new set of conditions for accounting work.

Paper long abstract:

Systems of data logging and retrieval have always been central components of accountability within the professional sphere. This talk will explore the implications of such a technology within the domestic sphere, in the form of an Internet logging and visualisation tool. This technology was created under the noble aspiration of giving individuals knowledge and control of their own data, data that is currently harvested by digital service providers for profit, and elements of the state for monitoring. The project this study is a part of is one of many similar programmes seeking to nurture a digital citizenry, whose empowerment stems from the conviction that 'data is power'. Internet use in the home has traditionally been subject to 'natural accountability' (Garfinkel 1967) just as any other practice is, but contemporary technologies - particularly mobile devices - render many digital activities unobservable to others (consider, for example, the difficulty parents face in surveilling the activities of their children online). Furthermore, the mundane and deeply embedded nature of Internet use in daily activities even limits observability of one's own activities. The talk will consider existing accounting practices around Internet use within domestic contexts, before analysing the accounting work conducted by family members when their activities are surfaced by network logs. The talk will conclude with a discussion of what the consequences of such technologies of accountability in the home might be, where hierarchies of power are multifaceted and dynamic.