Issues

Privacy and Security

Information technology lets people learn about one another on a scale previously unimaginable. Information in the wrong hands can be harmful. Scholars on this site consider problems of privacy, fraud, identity, and security posed by the digital age.

Quotes

"Those with unfettered access to your data, and especially those whose usage of your own data you cannot inquire about or limit, have power over you." — Alessandro Acquisti, Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

"Facial recognition is probably the most menacing, dangerous surveillance technology ever invented. We should all be extremely skeptical of having it deployed in any wearable technology, particularly in contexts [where] the surveilled are so vulnerable, such as in many contexts involving law enforcement." — Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law and Computer Science, Northeastern University

"Having the director of national intelligence reporting to Congress, having the threat bandied about very publicly, could get platforms to work more on these problems. This is the kind of feedback loop we need." — Danielle Citron, Professor of Law, University of Maryland

This article outlines the path one California resident, Alastair Mactaggart, took to pursue privacy legislation through a statewide ballot initiative. University of California, Berkeley privacy expert Chris Hoofnagle was asked to share his expertise.

"Drugstore chains may, for instance, monitor your credit card purchases in their stores to help them anticipate what you might buy in the future." — Joseph Turow, Professor of Communication, University of Pennsylvania

As Evan Selinger, a professor of philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, pointed out in a recent essay, facial recognition is a technology so "potently, uniquely danger," "so inherently toxic," it warrants being "completely rejected, banned, and stigmatized" — not just in schools, but everywhere.

Social networking websites are places on the Internet where people can connect with those who share their interests. Additionally, they can function as economic “platforms” that serve different groups of many users, including consumers, advertisers, game developers, and others.