Privacy and Trust in Cyberspace

Building upon the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court has created and protected a concept of privacy in the physical world. Yet in Cyberspace (the world of interconnected computers) information about you and your loved ones is gathered, used, bought, and sold without your knowledge or permission. How is this possible? Why is undetected cyber-snooping relatively easy? What can you do to improve your information privacy? Who and what are you trusting as a citizen of cyberspace?

Note: After you have finished the reading, the last two items ask you to write a few pages and be prepared to discuss them.

  1. Read Amendments 1, 3, 4, 5, 9 of the U.S. Bill of Rights
  2. Read Utilities' smart meters save money, but erode privacy
  3. Read How we are losing our privacy online
  4. Skim Prescription data used to assess consumers
  5. Skim (not so new anymore but still out there) New Computer Virus for Voyeurs
  6. Skim Privacy and Consumer Profiling
  7. Read Data Mining Tells Government and Business a Lot About You
  8. Skim and follow a few links from The A to Z's of Privacy
  9. Skim Georgia Takes a Beating in the Cyberwar With Russia
  10. Read Big Brother?. For this you must be logged in from Swarthmore.
  11. Read Senate Committee Passes Patriot Act Reauthorization Bill
  12. Read Leading surveillance societies in the EU and the World. Note the US ranking and reasons (scroll way down for reasons). Also look at PHR2006 - Executive Summary
  13. Read Surprise! You're exposed This an old article but it is still going on. Poke around: datalossdb.
  14. Read Cisco Security Advisories and Notices. Look at a couple of the advisories. Cisco routers are the most common on the internet. That makes them a serious security concern.
  15. Skim The DNS Vulnerability from Schneier on Security
  16. Read Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks
  17. Go to Computer Emergency Respose Team Center vulnerability notes and explore a little. Click on and read some recent vulnerabilities.
  18. The European Union has acted on Information Privacy (much enacted in 1998). The US has not done much as evidenced in the Privacy International Survey . Note that the US ranks lowest with Russia and China in statutory protection and privacy enforcement. Most EU countries seem to do better on these metrics. Find out what the EU position is on information privacy. Consider the US situation.
    Make some notes briefly summarizing your understanding of the US and EU approaches to information privacy. Then write a couple of pages: Either argue that the US is doing just fine with regard to information privacy or suggest what can and should be done.
  19. Think hard about what privacy is and whether it is an obsolete idea or something to be cherished. Why? Write a short statement on this. You will not have to hand it in; but, be prepared to share your ideas at our meeting.