Category Archives: Privacy
Do You Know Who Your iPhone’s Been Calling?
Privacy policies are largely garbage from an end-user perspective. API developers need to adopt ethics of privacy, instil it throughout their code, and cut off those who abusing the API in manners that clearly violate both the terms and aims of the privacy ethic and policy. APIs should be run past privacy-minded technologists prior to being rolled out, and be modified where it is clear that the API permits and encourages invasive surveillance without the end-user’s consent. Ideally we’d see mass opt-in requirements for this kind of surveillance but I fear that this is unlikely, at least in the short term. Developing an ethic of privacy, combined with accessible three-layer privacy policies, might at least keep application and API developers honest at best, and give grounds for suit in front of the FTC, OPC, and EU Commission at worst. Continue reading
References for Traffic Analysis, Privacy, and Social Media
In my presentation at Social Media Camp Victoria, I drew heavily from various academic literatures and public sources. Given the nature of talks, it’s nearly impossible to cite as you’re talking without entirely disrupting the flow of the presentation. This post is an attempted end-run/compromise to that problem: you get references and (what was, I hope) a presentation that flowed nicely! Continue reading
Forthcoming Talk at Social Media Club Vancouver
I suggest that those involved in social media are well advised to develop an ethic of privacy to supplement legally required privacy statements. By adopting clear statements of ethics, supplemented with legal language and opt-in data disclosures of personal information, operators of social media environments can be part of the solution to society’s privacy malaise. Rather than outlining an ethic myself, I provide the building blocks for those attending to establish their own ethic. I do this by identifying dominant theoretical approaches to privacy: privacy as a matter of control, as an individual vs community vs hybrid issue, as an issue of knowledge and agency, and as a question of contextual data flows. With an understanding of these concepts, those attending will be well suited to supplement their privacy statements and policies with a nuanced and substantive ethics of privacy. Continue reading
Forthcoming Talk at Social Media Camp Victoria
I’ll be talking about the use of traffic analysis and data mining practices that can be used to engage in massive surveillance of social networking environments and the value of drawing links between users rather than investigating the content of communications. The argumentative ‘thrust’ is that freedoms of expression and association may offer a approach to secure privacy in the face of weakened search laws. The full abstract can be read below. Continue reading
