Control and Code: Privacy Online

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Syllabus


April 3

Code is law; the architecture of the Internet and the software that runs on it will determine to a large extent how the Net is regulated in a way that goes far deeper than legal means could ever achieve (or at least ever achieve alone). Technological advances have also produced many tempting options for regulation and surveillance that may severely alter the balance of privacy, access to information and sharing of intellectual property. By regulating behavior, technological architectures or codes embed different values and political choices. Yet code is often treated as a technocratic affair, or something best left to private economic actors pursuing their own interests. If code is law, then control of code is power. If important questions of social ordering are at stake, shouldn't the design and development of code be brought within the political process? In this class we delve into the technological alternatives that will shape interactions over the Internet, as well as the implications of each on personal freedom, privacy and combating cyber-crime.



Readings

Optional Readings


Class Discussion

April 3: Control and Code: Privacy Online Just Johnny 17:12, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

This NYTimes article about surveillance over a variety of technological mediums in Great Britain could easily be another piece of HW for tomorrow's class if anyone is interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/europe/british-government-eavesdropping-plans-draw-protest.html?hp

Interesting about Hotspot Shield, I definitely was one of the people who used it and got the impression it was private without actually noticing what it allowed AnchorFree to track. On the other hand, I'm not at all surprised by the level of intentionally misleading speech Google employs to explain its (lack of) privacy protections by taking some extremely literal approaches to what they do or don't collect. If you have all of the components of a bomb and the ability to create it, it is a little misleading to say "I do not have a bomb in my possession in any way." I doubt the police would agree with this literally correct statement. That's what Google is doing when it says it doesn't collect personal info... it just collects all of the resources needed to immediately extrapolate that personal info, which it may or may not do any time it pleases.

There is still always the problem of information overload: it's no longer what info you can collect (since, as Google shows, you can get basically anything from the average user), but rather how good you are at searching and parsing it into something useful. There is also the issue that, like we discussed with the value of immediacy over accuracy in news reporting through Twitter, it is quite possible for people with good intentions to ruin someone's privacy and safety through a rush to judgement. Look at the Trayvon case, where someone (I think it was Spike Lee?) tweeted what he though was the home address of Trayvon's killer and it ended up being the residence of an older couple who had to leave in fear for their lives. When everything is accessible, massive mistakes can be made in the space of a keystroke, and cannot be undone so easily.

I worry about the word "consent" in terms of the information we share through our technology nowadays. We lose a right to privacy when we intentionally share information with the public; we consent to have that data known. But how many people understand what they are sharing by having a smartphone/GPS in their pocket 24/7? Is the fine print in the cell phone contract enough to count as consent? What about the location tags if I post to Facebook from my phone? How do we measure the level of understanding an individual has of what their technology is broadcasting about them and decide if it counted as "informed consent?"

This week’s articles were so far the most interesting and appealing to me. The first article about the European Union and their Telecom surveillance was very accurate. The big difference between Europe and the United States in this matter is that unlike the US Government, most European governments are “spying” on their citizens through phone taps and the internet even when national security isn’t at risk. The best example of this are the numerous phone and computer taps applied to VIPs and politicians in Italy especially. The second article was also very fascinating especially when it cited George Orwell’s 1984. I fully agree with what is written in the article and I believe that people nowadays might complain about Government intrusion and their violation of our privacy, but to a certain extent people who use Facebook or even worse, Twitter to always let people know where they are or what they are having for breakfast, are the people who really shouldn’t have anything to say against governmental surveillance. I live in Italy and history has taught us that the biggest Mafia bosses like Toto’ Riina and Bernardo Provenzano were able to hide for decades without being tracked because they didn’t use technological instruments for communicating, but the famous “pizzini” which were pieces of paper with written commands passed on from man to man without being intercepted or tracked by the police. The Privacy 2.0 article was also interesting and I particularly liked reading the 1973 blue-ribbon panel report regarding the relationship between people and organizations/institutions where a physical person is starting to become simply a name on a computer file. I have experienced this to some extent in terms of job searching. I would describe myself as being a very charismatic person with a decent resume for my age, but unfortunately most jobs I have applied to in the past use an online application system where you just send in your resume and then wait for an improbable interview. I always feel as if I could really advertise myself well if I was given a chance to meet personally with an employer but so far this has not been the case, and I personally blame technology. The article written by Supreme Court Justices Warren and Brandeis was very eloquent and truthful. When I used to take Constitutional Law in college, I was always reminded by my professor that in the US Constitution there is no such word as “privacy”, even though it is one of the biggest legal issues concerning everyday citizens. Emanuele 16:14, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Great articles. I thought the Brandeis paper was fascinating because you could have removed the publication date and I'd be convinced this was written in the past 10 years and the technologies being discussed were the tools of social media and new media (twitter, blogging). @ Emmanuelle I thought you have some great insight into the EU article. Given the Murdoch UK Scandal I'd be interested in a study that measures the amount of cases "solved" with assistance of digital fingerprints or outright surveilance in contrast versus traditional policework. What is the trend? What is the trend in our quality of privacy given the Brandeis paper? His paper had me believe these problems make "1984" look like old news (or at least they foresaw a trend that would lead to further concern). Also concerned with the number of tools available for people today to snoop on others privacy such as the cellphone services. I'm interested to see what people think of the pro's v. cons of the evolution of our privacy slipping. Brendanlong 17:12, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Interesting point Brendan on the UK Murdoch scandal... There are certainly age-old constitutional questions regarding this week's readings The notion of privacy is at the heart of this age-old question of legal overreach concerning our "natural" rights to exchange information privately. In particular, the EU Data Retention article is an eyeopening reminder that the internet is full of holes in which security agencies can extract data in non-transparent or covert ways, particularly data that does not necessarily require the legal modalities to extract. Furthermore the centralized nature of the ISP's seems to establish the infrastructure for the practical monitoring of data. The fact that such large quantities of information can be centralized in a few major portals such as Google and Facebook must be a concern if laws are structured in such a way that these internet agencies must comply with private information requests from the government.

One section of the EU retention article is particularly telling:

"We know that the NSA is engaged in some level of warrantless surveillance of the international communications of U.S. citizens, but we do not know precisely what is being done with the data."

George W. Bush's administration was the first time in my generation that I had to be concerned about my privacy, and how the government could seemingly circumvent what we assumed to be legal protections from the Constitution. With the fluidity of the infrastructure, laws that may compel telecommunications companies to provide information, and furthermore a lack of transparency by government security apparatus's, privacy and the internet will be a continued subject for discourse, particularly as circumvention measures increase power of programmers over the security of the users as stated in the story. --Jimmyh 17:20, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Links

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