679 research outputs found
Mapping the Focal Points of WordPress: A Software and Critical Code Analysis
Programming languages or code can be examined through numerous analytical lenses. This project is a critical analysis of WordPress, a prevalent web content management system, applying four modes of inquiry. The project draws on theoretical perspectives and areas of study in media, software, platforms, code, language, and power structures. The applied research is based on Critical Code Studies, an interdisciplinary field of study that holds the potential as a theoretical lens and methodological toolkit to understand computational code beyond its function. The project begins with a critical code analysis of WordPress, examining its origins and source code and mapping selected vulnerabilities. An examination of the influence of digital and computational thinking follows this. The work also explores the intersection of code patching and vulnerability management and how code shapes our sense of control, trust, and empathy, ultimately arguing that a rhetorical-cultural lens can be used to better understand code\u27s controlling influence. Recurring themes throughout these analyses and observations are the connections to power and vulnerability in WordPress\u27 code and how cultural, processual, rhetorical, and ethical implications can be expressed through its code, creating a particular worldview. Code\u27s emergent properties help illustrate how human values and practices (e.g., empathy, aesthetics, language, and trust) become encoded in software design and how people perceive the software through its worldview. These connected analyses reveal cultural, processual, and vulnerability focal points and the influence these entanglements have concerning WordPress as code, software, and platform. WordPress is a complex sociotechnical platform worthy of further study, as is the interdisciplinary merging of theoretical perspectives and disciplines to critically examine code. Ultimately, this project helps further enrich the field by introducing focal points in code, examining sociocultural phenomena within the code, and offering techniques to apply critical code methods
Internet e jurisdição : reestabelecendo a conexão perdida entre o direito internacional público e o direito internacional privado
Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Marcia Carla Pereira RibeiroTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Jurídicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito. Defesa : Curitiba, 07/03/2023Inclui referências: p. 323-359Resumo: A tese que ora se apresenta procura identificar qual o papel do Direito Internacional Público e do Direito Internacional Privado na regulação da Internet. Para isto, a tese emprega o método dedutivo de abordagem e, como teoria de base, a Análise Econômica do Direito, conduzindo a investigação em torno de cinco premissas fundamentais. A primeira, diz respeito a necessidade de regulação pública da Internet. Referida premissa mostra-se verdadeira pela percepção das falhas de mercado existentes no cenário digital e pelo equívoco fundamental da compreensão da Internet como um espaço livre para interações humanas, tendo em vista a artificialidade da tecnologia e a dependência de suas funcionalidades de fontes privadas de normatividade, como as grandes empresas de tecnologia. A segunda premissa é a de que as diferenças pelas quais Internet e Direito consideram o território geográfico prejudicam as capacidades regulatórias dos Estados soberanos. Referida premissa é parcialmente confirmada, a partir do exame das características da tecnologia e da forma como o Direito Internacional Público e o Direito Internacional Privado encaram os conceitos de jurisdição. Observa-se, porém, que os Estados têm encontrado meios para disciplinar a Internet a despeito de sua indiferença à geografia. A terceira premissa é a de que a regulação da Internet pelos Estados soberanos é ineficiente e prejudica o bem-estar global, o que também é parcialmente confirmado, especialmente numa perspectiva descritiva do comportamento dos Estados, evidenciando suas tendências oportunistas que impedem uma cooperação internacional. A quarta premissa é a de que uma regulação uniforme para a Internet pode ser possível, o que se mostra acertado quando se cogita a possibilidade de uma uniformização espontânea movida por forças do mercado, ainda que não abarcada por instrumentos formais de Direito. Contudo, aponta-se que os resultados dessa uniformização espontânea podem ser nocivos, ao mesmo tempo em que se demonstra a implausibilidade da construção de um Direito uniformizado a partir de um debate consciente e democrático entre os diferentes atores do sistema internacional. A quinta premissa, então, é a de que existem alternativas à uniformização, e a tese passa a examinar como uma perspectiva confluente do Direito Internacional Público e do Direito Internacional Privado pode permitir uma coordenação da regulação da Internet pelos Estados soberanos de modo a garantir o respeito à pluralidade de valores e culturas, bem como às diferenças socioeconômicas existentes entre os Estados, sem sacrificar a liberdade na Internet e os benefícios da tecnologia na condução de um diálogo intercultural. O que se conclui, portanto, é que o Direito Internacional Público e o Direito Internacional Privado possuem um papel complementar, devendo ser compreendidos como parte de um único sistema e pautarem-se, em especial, no norte valorativo do Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos (DIDH) na construção de uma regulação descentralizada e coerente para a Internet. A relevância da análise advém dos desafios jurisdicionais trazidos pela tecnologia, que, ao contrário do Direito, por padrão, funciona de maneira indiferente aos limites geográficos. Se em um primeiro momento isso fez com que a Internet parecesse impassível de regulação pelos Estados soberanos, na atualidade o que se testemunha é a incidência simultânea de normas provenientes de diversos sistemas jurídicos, disciplinando as relações que acontecem no ambiente digital muitas vezes de maneira conflitante, o que gera riscos tanto à eficiência das regulações estatais quanto à promoção da liberdade e da concorrência no mercado digital.Abstract: The thesis presented here seeks to identify the role of Public International Law and Private International Law in the regulation of the Internet. To this end, the thesis employs the deductive method of approach and, as a basic theory, the Economic Analysis of Law, conducting the investigation around five fundamental premises. The first is the need for public regulation of the Internet. This premise is true due to the perception of market failures in the digital scenario and the fundamental misunderstanding of the Internet as a free space for human interactions, given the artificiality of the technology and the dependence of its functionalities on private sources of normativity, such as large technology companies. The second premise is that the differences in the way Internet and Law consider geographic territory hinder the regulatory capacities of sovereign states. This premise is partially confirmed by examining the characteristics of technology and how public international law and private international law view the concept of jurisdiction. It is observed, however, that States have found ways to discipline the Internet despite their indifference to geography. The third premise is that the regulation of the Internet by sovereign states is inefficient and harms global welfare, which is also partially confirmed, especially from a descriptive perspective of states' behavior, highlighting their opportunistic tendencies that hinder international cooperation. The fourth premise is that a uniform regulation for the Internet may be possible, which proves to be correct when one considers the possibility of a spontaneous standardization driven by market forces, even if not covered by formal legal instruments. However, it is pointed out that the results of this spontaneous standardization can be harmful, at the same time demonstrating the implausibility of the construction of a standardized Law based on a conscious and democratic debate between the different actors of the international system. The fifth premise, then, is that there are alternatives to standardization, and the thesis goes on to examine how a confluent perspective of Public International Law and Private International Law can allow for a coordination of Internet regulation by sovereign states so as to guarantee respect for the plurality of values and cultures, as well as for the socioeconomic differences existing among states, without sacrificing Internet freedom and the benefits of technology in conducting an intercultural dialogue. The conclusion, therefore, is that public international law and private international law have a complementary role and should be understood as part of a single system, and be guided, especially, by the values of International Human Rights Law in the construction of a decentralized and coherent regulation of the Internet. The relevance of the analysis stems from the jurisdictional challenges brought about by technology, which, unlike law, by default operates indifferently to geographical limits. If at first this made the Internet seem impassable to regulation by sovereign states, today the scenario is market by the simultaneous incidence of rules from different legal systems, regulating the relationships that take place in the digital environment often in conflict, which generates risks both to the efficiency of state regulations and the promotion of freedom and competition in the digital market
Parakeet: Practical Key Transparency for End-to-End Encrypted Messaging
Encryption alone is not enough for secure end-to-end encrypted messaging: a server must also honestly serve public keys to users. Key transparency has been presented as an efficient solution for detecting (and hence deterring) a server that attempts to dishonestly serve keys. Key transparency involves two major components: (1) a username to public key mapping, stored and cryptographically committed to by the server, and, (2) an out-of-band consistency protocol for serving short commitments to users. In the setting of real-world deployments and supporting production scale, new challenges must be considered for both of these components. We enumerate these challenges and provide solutions to address them. In particular, we design and implement a memory-optimized and privacy-preserving verifiable data structure for committing to the username to public key store.
To make this implementation viable for production, we also integrate support for persistent and distributed storage. We also propose a future-facing solution, termed \u27\u27compaction\u27\u27, as a mechanism for mitigating practical issues that arise from dealing with infinitely growing server data structures. Finally, we implement a consensusless solution that achieves the minimum requirements for a service that consistently distributes commitments for a transparency application, providing a much more efficient protocol for distributing small and consistent commitments to users. This culminates in our production-grade implementation of a key transparency system (Parakeet) which we have open-sourced, along with a demonstration of feasibility through our benchmarks
“Down the rabbit hole” Exploring the role of Psychopathological and Socio-Cognitive Factors in Conspiracy Theory Beliefs and Stratergies for Intervention.
The spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation has become increasingly common in recent years, particularly becoming a rather topical area on social media platforms since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such theories have been linked to several negative social and health consequences, leading to them becoming a topic of interest for researchers. Research in psychology has focused on factors that contribute to the adoption of conspiracy theories from various levels of approach. This thesis explores the individual differences that may contribute to how conspiracy information is evaluated, and, in turn, may explain why conspiracy beliefs are endorsed as well as the implications for challenging these belief systems. To this end, I conducted five studies which examined various individual differences, some yet to be explored in the conspiracy theory literature. A particular focus was to extend the range of clinical measures considered in this area, and, to develop a greater understanding of cognitive factors related to conspiracy beliefs through a more integrated approach (e.g., the inclusion of multiple explanatory lines from research). Following the introductory chapter reviewing the relevant existing literature, Chapter 3 presents Study One which focussed on the potential role of autistic traits as a confounding factor between the relationship between schizotypy and conspiracy beliefs. Chapter 4 reports differences in cognitive style, information seeking behaviour and conspiracy theory beliefs for those who scored above the clinical ASD cut-off compared to the rest of the sample. Chapter 5 presents a refined approach towards thinking styles and examined how people engage in the scientific appraisal of conspiracy information. Chapter 6 assessed the within-individual variation of schizotypy, autistic traits, socio-cognitive tendencies associated with conspiracy beliefs and scientific reasoning ability through a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA). Chapter 7 presents the fifth and final study, to which an intervention approach examined whether encouraging a stronger orientation toward critical scientific appraisal of conspiracy theories could reduce their acceptance. This thesis closes with a general discussion of how it has made a novel contribution to the area of conspiracy research and other related fields. Specifically, I discuss the theoretical and methodological contributions advanced by this thesis through the inclusion of novel psychopathological and socio-cognitive features, how such advancement improved our understanding of the different pathways which lead to conspiracy beliefs, then, how this research into conspiracy beliefs may represent a novel contribution to clinical research. One of the main contrutions being the significance of scientific reasoning skills as amenable to an intervention approach for conspiracy theory beliefs. I conclude with the implications of this work for future research and the conclusions that could be drawn from this thesis.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 202
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