Privacy at the Margins| Being at Home with Privacy: Privacy and Mundane Intimacy Through Same-Sex Locative Media Practices

Abstract

Smartphones have ushered in new forms of locative media through the overlay of global positioning system digital media onto physical places. Whereas mobile communication research has focused on corporate, hierarchical, or government surveillance, emerging studies examine the ways locative media practices relate to privacy and surveillance in everyday, intimate contexts. Studies of same-sex forms of intimacy in and through locative media practices have largely attended to the growth and use of male hook-up apps, but have overlooked same-sex female relationships. Beyond hook-up apps, mundane forms of intimacy in same-sex relationships have also received scant attention. This article draws from a broader ethnographic study in Australia over three years exploring the use (and nonuse) of locative media in households as part of their management of privacy, connection, and intimacy with family and friends. By moving the discussion about intimacy beyond hook-up apps, this article focuses on locative media practices of use and nonuse by female same-sex couples.