Social concerns Privacy - Department of Computer … · Social concerns Technology changes ... • How our privacy changes when we change our social network? ... One Internet & mobile

1

COMPSCI 111 / 111GAn introduction to practical computing

Social Issues and Legal issues; Filesharing

Social concerns

Technology changes our world rapidly– Laws, traditions, social expectations change slowly

Problems– Unemployment– Crime– Privacy– Reliability. The amount of people contributing to the

information on the Web is only a few percent. The rest only consumes information

– Alienation – Exclusion of people without access to Internet

COMPSCI 111/111G - Social and Legal Issues 2

Reliability

• The Web already is influenced by small groups– "0.05% of the user population, attract almost 50% of all attention within Twitter" (50K users)[Wu, Hofman, Mason & Watts, WWW 2011]


[Baeza-Yates & Saez-Trumper, ACM Hypertext 2015]

Privacy

• How our privacy changes when we change our social network?

• Example: new friendship request


[Estivill-Castro & Nettleton; Singh, ASONAM 2015]

2



Social concerns

Technology changes our world rapidly– Laws, traditions, social expectations change slowly

Problems– Unemployment– Crime– Privacy– Reliability. The amount of people contributing to the

information on the Web is only a few percent. The rest only consumes information

– Alienation – Exclusion of people without access to Internet


Potential concerns for one’s personal life

• Spend too much time online– E.g unhealthy lifestyle, no exercise


3


Potential concerns for one’s personal life

• Spend too much time online– E.g unhealthy lifestyle, no exercise

• Lack of real human contact

• Trying to be everywhere at the same time

• Losing sense of reality

• Being connected through the Internet creates constant distraction. One Internet & mobile free day per week? (FoMO)

Information overload


Anonymity

Questions– Is the Internet anonymous?– Should it be anonymous?– What are the implications of anonymity?

Advantages– Allows discussion of sensitive issues– sexual abuse, mental illness, substance abuse

Disadvantages– Allows people to be irresponsible– False accusations, personal abuse


Cultural ImperialismThe Internet is an international resource

– Dominant language is English– Dominant culture is American– China is catching up in both respects. Weibo etc.

Smaller cultures– Diluted?– Empowered?

Who *really* controls the Internet?– Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)– Top‐level domain such as .com


4

"Dangerous" material

Material that could be misused?– How to guide for stalkers, rapists, murderers– How to pick locks, make guns, chemical warfare– Make bombs out of household cleaners– Make nuclear weapons

Other "dangerous" material– Religious views– Political views (Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism)– Racial views– Invasion of privacy (abortion)– Means to organise activists


Peer to Peer networks

BitTorrent Protocol created by Bram Cohen, 2001 – Allows ``swarming downloads’’

Peer to Peer networks based on BitTorrent; 50% of all Internet traffic

– Form a direct connection to other computers– Allows access to files on those computers


Copyright

Copyright Act (1994)– May not legally make copies– Backup permitted– May not change format

Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 No 27– Allows format shifting (1 copy of music per player)– Allows transient copying– Allows time‐shifting (must delete after watching)– Ongoing discussion about digital rights and copyright issues

Solutions: streaming, password protected files…

COMPSCI 111/111G - Social and Legal Issues 15http://www.parliament.nz

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/

Access across borders

Medicine– Illegal Pharmaceuticals

Films, Videos, and Publications Act (1993)– New Zealand censorship laws– Office of Film and Literature Classification– An objectionable publication is defined by section 3 of the

Act as one that deals with matters such as sex, horror, crime, cruelty or violence in a way that is likely to be harmful to the public good.

Two ways that censorship laws are broken– Viewing illegal material– Legal material being viewed illegally (by young people)

COMPSCI 111/111G - Social and Legal Issues 16http://www.censorship.govt.nz/

5

New Zealand classification labels


Sexual Content on the Web

WWW ‐ Legal material– Traditional Magazines (Playboy, Penthouse etc.)– Peep shows, Live Webcams, Streaming video– Amateurs

WWW ‐ Illegal material– Usually hidden– Illegal in one country, legal in another– Sometimes archived by search engines

Email, Chat, Forums

Social Networking


Protecting Children

Internet as Education Medium– Internet available in schools– Children, Parents, Teachers want access

Some material unsuitable for children– X‐Rated material– Coarse language– Anti‐social information

Online attention– 57% of children (12‐17) have created blogs or posted photos (U.S.)– 20% of children (10‐17) receive unwanted sexual solicitation (U.S. DOJ)

• Estimated 1 in 4 of these are from pedophiles


Methods available to parents

Supervise your children– Situate computer in public place (lounge)– Check the logs of sites visited– Discuss Internet content with your children

Blocking software– Stops access to sites based on the IP address– White list / Black list

Filtering software– Stops access to sites based on the content– Keyword / phrases / image analysis– PC, ISP, Third‐party

COMPSCI 111/111G - Social and Legal Issues 20http://www.aba.gov.au/newspubs/documents/filtereffectiveness.pdf

6

References ‐ Social Issues

Internet Safety Group (NZ)– http://www.netsafe.org.nz/

Report on Filtering– http://www.aba.gov.au/newspubs/documents/filtereffectivenes

s.pdf

Ministry of Economic Development– http://www.med.govt.nz– Copyright Law– Broadband


Filesharing


Cloud storage

Idea: The primary storage of important files is in the ``cloud’’ (i.e. someplace that is accessible through the Internet).

Cloud‐based storage services: Dropbox, MS OneDrive, Google Drive, SugarSync, … easy to use.– E.g. Dropbox and SugarSync clients can be installed on your

device. – Each time the device is online and the service running, the local

version of the file gets ``synced’’ (synchronized)– you can choose which files/ folders on your device to sync

GIT, SVN (subversion) are more powerful, but also more technical


Why would you want to do this?

• Files are accessible from any connected device

• Automatic backup. If one device gets lost or breaks, the primary version of the file still exists

• Usually the service is free for limited storage. (SugarSync isn’t)

• Good for collaboration. Files are not finished (like pics) but in progress (like an essay written jointly)


7

Filesharing for collaboration

• The same file is synced to devices of several users• Need a version control, for instance to handle conflicted versions of the same file,

• Need to keep history to return to previous versions – Free dropbox version: 30 days only

• FS is useful if several people work on the same project– joint paper in science– team, say in advertising

• FS can replace email attachments. – No more questions what the current version is.


Potential problems with filesharing

• Confidentiality‐ can a third party see it?

• Sync conflicts when people work on a file at the same time, or forget to save.

• Only the secondary memory (hard drive) gets synced!


Documents

Social concerns Privacy - Department of Computer … · Social concerns Technology changes ... • How our privacy changes when we change our social network? ... One Internet & mobile