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PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE

Module 7 - Self-Help, Free Software, Privacy-Enhancing Technologies, and Crytography

This module explores the relationship between “open code” and Internet privacy, presents a survey of commonly available privacy enhancing technologies, and introduces cryptography as a vital tool for preserving online privacy and anonymity. Lawrence Lessig developed a framework for understanding the laws of cyberspace in his books, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and The Future of Ideas. Under this framework, how we interact in cyberspace results from a confluence of government-made law, social norms, market influences, and architecture (or code). This module focuses particularly on the last of these forces: code. It will examine how the open source model of code production creates an architecture which enables Internet users to interact, publish and receive information, and engage in commerce, without compromising their privacy rights.

This module was researched and written by Adam Kessel.

• Open Code
  • End-to-End Design
  • Changing Architecture
  • Free Software and Open Source Movements
  • Control, Privacy, and Power
  • Discussion Questions
• Privacy Enhancing Technologies
  • Introduction
  • Example Technologies
  • P3P and Other Self-Regulatory Approaches
  • Discussion Questions
• Cryptography
  • Introduction
  • How Does Encryption Work?
  • A Survey of the Issues Surrounding Encryption
  • Arguments for Restrictions on Cryptography - Law Enforcement
  • Arguments against Restrictions on Cryptography - Free Commerce and the Right to Privacy
  • Another Way to Look at the Encryption Policy Debate: Individuals v. Marketeers
  • Example Uses
  • Footnotes from This Section
  • Discussion Questions
• Key Terms

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