An Ethical Framework: Mechanisms For User-Enabled Choice and Normative Claims Marshall Conley, Christina Patterson, Carolyn Watters & Michael Shepherd InfoEthics 2000 Paris November 13-15

Universal Declaration of Human Rights UNESCO has human rights competence in a number of areas, including: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stresses the right to information, including freedom of opinion and expression This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers Article 12 refers to arbitrary interference with privacy …

UNESCO and the Information Highway: The Balance Between Control and Access The Web is increasingly important for the exchange of knowledge, information & experience UNESCO's INFO-ethics Programme stresses the importance of universal access to information in the public domain

UNESCO’S INFO-ethics Programme Encourages international co-operation in promotion of: the principles of equality, justice and mutual respect in the emerging Information Society the identification of major ethical issues in the production, access, dissemination, preservation and use of information in the electronic environment the provision of assistance to Member States in the formulation of strategies and policies on these issues

Ethical Frameworks and User-Enabled choice There are no unified authorities, only multiple stakeholders with complex and contradictory agendas This decentralized participation results in the individual user adding new content and tools to the system as a whole The unified operating authority is replaced by a contradictory, and even chaotic form of control Structural and systemic elements, such as web-filtering systems, represent ‘acknowledged conditions’ to uphold freedom of expression through ‘choice mechanisms’

The Good, the Bad and the Illegal Like other communication technologies, the Internet carries a potentially harmful or illegal content and can be misused as a vehicle for criminal activities However, there exist a number of different legal regimes at the national and international level to deal with this: National security – instructions for bomb making, illegal drug production, etc Protection of minors – violence, pornography, abusive forms of marketing Protection of human dignity – incitement to racial hatred or racial discrimination

Ethical Considerations } normative orientation and public dialogue Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have the option to provide users with the choice to control the content delivered to users over the Internet Rather than retrieving items from the Web, filtering systems are used to selectively restrict access to materials on the Web

Control? The deployment of content control should be a reflection of individual, community and social policies and preferences We can use systems which ‘filter out’ Web sites or Web pages that contain material that is objectionable to a community of users Two principles must be considered: Communication Principle: The right of communications as a fundamental human right Free Expression Principle

Codes of Conduct? The important questions: Whose strategy? Whose choice? During this time of process innovation, codes of conduct, the realities, significance, and consequences of barriers to access, whether publicly or privately created, must be explored

Mechanisms for Realization of these Policies We feel that a combination of mechanisms is required: Normative Codes of Conduct developed by UNESCO Industry self-regulation Facilitation of end-user choice through technology Technology by itself is not the solution

A Caveat By early July 2000 a new Internet model began to evolve – ‘peer-to-peer’ Peer-to-peer communications takes away the ISP as the middleman. This means that you and I can communicate directly as long as we both have IP addresses and know each other’s address The importance is that government will not be able to impose filtering at the ISP level

The Problem: the Web 1 billion documents (April 2000) Average query is 2 words (e.g., sara name) Continual explosive growth Balance global indexing and access and unintentional access to inappropriate material

What were we doing pre-Web? Channel access Deny access Check for age

Internet opens new Channels E-mail ftp telnet List servers Bulletin boards Discussion groups Chat rooms Instant messaging Web pages

Filtering label base Web doc URL lists keywords ratings URLs

What have we got to work with?

Page Filtering Application Types Client-side: Special purpose browser applications e.g., SurfMonkey Server-side: Child friendly portals e.g.,Yahoo, Lycos Proxies Black and white lists Keyword profiles Labels

Browser Application: www.surfmonkey.com

Server-Side: Public Portals

Sneaky!!

Proxy level (hidden)

What works well? Nothing

What’s the problem? Site Labels Black and White lists Trust Who does the labels? Are the labels authentic? Has the source document changed? Scale - A billion docs? Black and White lists Ditto Text analysis of page contents Poor results

Other Filtering Application Types Authorized Access to Adult material e.g., Australian plan  credit card proof of age Anonymity protection ZeroKnowledge Non-Http Filters Email, etc. Activity Monitors privacy

On-going Issues to be addressed Freedom of Expression Protection of Minors

Summary Technology by itself is not the solution A combination of mechanisms is required: Normative Codes of Conduct developed by UNESCO Industry self-regulation Facilitation of end-user choice through technology End-user must know what is being filtered, when it is being filtered, and why it is being filtered Technology by itself is not the solution

More Info on Filtering Industry Canada report Content Filtering Technologies and Internet Service Providers: Enabling User Choice http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/internet European Commission – Info. Society Website http://www.ispo.cec.be/iap Web information filtering lab: http://www.cs.dal.ca/wifl {shepherd | watters}@cs.dal.ca Marshall.Conley@knowledgehouse.net