DOI: 10.4018/IJPHIM.2016010102 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. International Journal of Privacy and Health Information Management Volume 4 • Issue 1 • January-June 2016 Social Care and Life Quality of Frail or Dependent Elderly: The Contribution of Technologies Cristina Albuquerque, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal ABSTRACT In this article the author underlines the potentialities of technological achievements and ICT applications in social and health care systems to best accomplish the goals of autonomy, social participation and quality of life of frail or dependent elderly. Additionally some critical questions concerning the use of technological devises to promote alternative responses to dependency and isolation of elderly are also discussed, namely associated with inequalities in the access and use of technology and with ethical questions of privacy and confidentiality. KEywoRDS Dependency, Elderly, ICT, Integration, Life Quality, Privacy, Social Care 1. INTRoDUCTIoN The aging of population is actually a worldwide reality that mobilizes social researchers and health professionals and the most diverse social and political areas. In fact, one of the most relevant concerns on the twentieth first century, especially in developed Western societies, is to protect and to care adequately of the elderly. Elderly people will be in fact one of the most substantial segments of near future societies, playing an important role in economic, cultural and social dimensions. For this, it is imperative to find processes to support their active, healthy and continued social and economic participation for as long as possible (Iyer & Eastman, 2006). Nevertheless, dependency is becoming a new social risk that needs innovative answers anchored in a most integrated and complex comprehension of elderly life and expectations. The increasing percentage of elderly in the global population is related not only with the low fertility rates, but also with the extended life expectancy produced and consolidated by improvements in health care systems and science/technology developments. According to European data projections, by 2050 almost 140 million people will be older than 65 in Europe. In the same way the number of 12