COM 354 Week 2.1 New Media Ethics

Twitter Updates What accounts to follow? Stories of the week?

OUTLINE Privacy in the digital age Privacy and democratic freedom Case studies (Google, Facebook) Privacy and ethics (discussion) Small group activity

Privacy in the digital age Surveillance capacities have grown exponentially Increased ability for companies to sort, sift, profile, categorize, classify And collect = big data

Privacy in the digital age automated surveillance not embodied persons watching each other less obvious and overt more systematic and subtle factual fragments abstracted from individuals yet tied to individual identities...

Privacy in the digital age Digital dossiers filled w/ Actions , cell phone, movements, Web search, browser history, credit cards, ATMs, grocery shopping, libraries, health visits, Information name, address, phone number, age, income, location, types of credit cards, vehicles, browsing and purchasing habits, entertainment tastes, health status

Privacy in the digital age implications Social control, compliance Discrimination Targeting (“soft cage”) Identify theft, fraud Loss of political freedom

Privacy in general Three views of privacy (Tavani) 1. Accessibility – let alone, free from intrusion in one's physical space 2. Decisional – freedom from interference in one's choices and decisions 3. Informational – control over flow of personal information

Privacy in general Intrinsic and extrinsic goods Intrinsic good - valuable in and of itself Extrinsic good – valuable as a means for another good

Privacy and political freedom Extrinsic goods Anonymity – freedom from interference in holding political beliefs - “A shield from the tyranny of the majority” Autonomy – freedom from interference in -developing opinions- ability to make decisions based on one’s own opinions, beliefs (free of coercion)

Privacy and political freedom Extrinsic goods Anonymity – freedom from interference in holding political beliefs - “A shield from the tyranny of the majority” Autonomy – freedom from interference in -developing opinions- ability to make decisions based on one’s own opinions, beliefs (free of coercion)

Privacy: a Comparative View EU - deontologicalUS - utilitarian statutory protectionsstatutory protections, privacy policies enforceable by lawmostly self-regulated and unenforceable Responsibility placed on governments and industry Responsibility placed largely on the user

Case Study – Google Search engines under scrutiny privacy watchdog groups brought increased scrutiny to leading search engine practices: cookie life server logs targeted ads Google declared worst in protecting user privacy!

Case Study – Google yourself (now) What Google knows about us Search data Clickstream data Different media sources Cloud computing services

Google and user search data Server logs: – 25/Mar/ :15:32 – – Firefox 1.07; Windows NT 5.1 – ce2123e969 Internet Protocol addressInternet Protocol address (unique ID, identifies the computer) – xxx (Google redacts the fourth octet after 9 months) Date and time of query Requested page (including term searched) Browser and operating system used Persistent and unique cookie ID

Google also records Clickstream data What search results and ad links a user clicks Records different kinds of data searched Images News stories Videos (Youtube) Blog posts Book Search

Cloud Computing and Google Google combines user search data with info collected in the Google cloud! A suite of over 45 products and services: Google Mail (stores ) Google Calendar (organizes events) Google Docs (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations) Google Mobile (Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube and other Google products on mobile device) Account-based used to track user activity across products and services

Case Study - Google Philosophical considerations What kind of privacy does Google violate? (accessibility, decisional, informational)

Case Study - Google Framing a moral question Is this monitoring of personal information justified? What kind of ethical argument are you offering? (utilitarian, deontological,etc) Which argument is most persuasive?

Case Study - Facebook What does Facebook know? Social graph – sum total of connections, profile data, wall posts, preferences, recommendations

Case Study - Facebook 'blow forward' or 'here now, privacy later' Social games Beacon December changes (your networks and friends, everyone) Open Graph (like don't take it personal!)

Case Study - Facebook Philosophical considerations Is this monitoring of personal information justified? What kind of ethical argument are you offering? (utilitarian, deontological,etc) Which argument is most persuasive?

Case Study - Government Surveillance for national security USA Patriot Act

Case Study - Government Philosophical considerations Is this surveillance justified? What kind of ethical argument are you offering? (utilitarian, deontological,etc) What about political freedom?

HWK (Due Tuesday 1/29) Journal #2 (on Wiki) Read Chapter 3