22,590 research outputs found
Cultures in Community Question Answering
CQA services are collaborative platforms where users ask and answer
questions. We investigate the influence of national culture on people's online
questioning and answering behavior. For this, we analyzed a sample of 200
thousand users in Yahoo Answers from 67 countries. We measure empirically a set
of cultural metrics defined in Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Robert
Levine's Pace of Life and show that behavioral cultural differences exist in
community question answering platforms. We find that national cultures differ
in Yahoo Answers along a number of dimensions such as temporal predictability
of activities, contribution-related behavioral patterns, privacy concerns, and
power inequality.Comment: Published in the proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext
and Social Media (HT'15
From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis
Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better
understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as
financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without
large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible.
Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research
centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a
network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted
to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural
systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human
techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending
events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more
accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually
customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting
way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing
Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well.
As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the
public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data
available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic
societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems.
Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility
and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits,
where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient
justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good,
as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for
society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see
http://www.visioneer.ethz.c
How Do Tor Users Interact With Onion Services?
Onion services are anonymous network services that are exposed over the Tor
network. In contrast to conventional Internet services, onion services are
private, generally not indexed by search engines, and use self-certifying
domain names that are long and difficult for humans to read. In this paper, we
study how people perceive, understand, and use onion services based on data
from 17 semi-structured interviews and an online survey of 517 users. We find
that users have an incomplete mental model of onion services, use these
services for anonymity and have varying trust in onion services in general.
Users also have difficulty discovering and tracking onion sites and
authenticating them. Finally, users want technical improvements to onion
services and better information on how to use them. Our findings suggest
various improvements for the security and usability of Tor onion services,
including ways to automatically detect phishing of onion services, more clear
security indicators, and ways to manage onion domain names that are difficult
to remember.Comment: Appeared in USENIX Security Symposium 201
Indecent Exposure: Do Warrantless Searches of Cell Phones Violate the Fourth Amendment?
This article argues that searches of student’s cell phone should require a warrant in most circumstances. The amount and personal nature of information on a smart phone warrants special Fourth Amendment protection. This issue is particularly relevant in the public school setting where administrators routinely confiscate phones from students caught using them in school. With more frequency, administrators are looking at the phones, scrolling through text messages and photos, and on some occasions, responding to text messages. The U.S. Supreme Court in Safford v. Redding, acknowledges the special considerations that school children should be afforded in part because of the unique subjective view they have of their own privacy. This same unique perspective should similarly be applied to the contents of a student’s cell phone. Over 75% of teenagers carry a cell phone on a daily basis, and many use the device as a private diary and portal for personal data and information. Teens appear willing to capture in their phone’s text or photos their most private world, and this might seem to signal a renunciation of their privacy. However it is because teens are so willing to expose themselves in a world that they think is private that their expectation of privacy in their phones should be accorded substantial protection. Cell phones in and of themselves are not dangerous. They cannot hold drugs or weapons - only information about drugs or weapons. Given that a cell phone contains highly private information, poses no imminent danger, and its contents can be preserved while a warrant is obtained, school officials should be required to get a warrant unless there are exigent circumstances such as immediate, apparent threat to student safety
The Role of User Psychological Contracts in the Sustainability of Social Networks
Many emergent ventures, such as social networks, leverage crowd-sourced information assets as essential pillars supporting their business models. The appropriation of rights to information assets through legal contracts often fails to prevent conflicts between the users and the companies that claim information rights. In this paper, we focus on social networks and examine why those conflicts arise and what their consequences are by drawing on psychological contract theory. We propose that intellectual property and privacy expectancies comprise core domains of psychological contracts between social networks and their users. In turn, perceived breaches of those expectancies trigger a psychological contract violation. We use the exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect typology to define the user behavioral outcomes. We evaluated our framework by surveying 598 Facebook users. The data support our framework and indicate that perceived breaches of privacy and intellectual property rights generate the affective experience of a psychological contract violation, which is strongly associated with exit intentions
Psychological Contracts in Information Exchanges
Information assets continue to grow in importance of contribution to economic activity. Many emergent businesses, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, leverage crowd-sourced information assets as essential pillars supporting their business models. The appropriation of rights to information assets is commonly done through legal contracts. In practice this approach often fails to prevent conflicts between the information contributors and the companies claiming information rights. In research presented here I attempt to understand when and why the conflicts arise. I draw on psychological contract theory and I develop the framework of psychological contracts in information exchanges. I propose that intellectual property and privacy expectancies comprise core domains of psychological contracts in information exchanges. The proposed framework predicts that perceived breach of expectancies in relation to intellectual property rights and/or privacy triggers the affective experience of psychological contract violation characterized by feelings of anger and betrayal which undermines the sustainability of information exchanges. I also develop and evaluate a nomological network of antecedents and consequences associated with perceptions of a psychological contract breach in information exchanges. I investigate the effects of psychological ownership of information and privacy concerns as antecedents of perceived breach of intellectual property rights and privacy respectively. I also evaluate the attitudinal and behavioral adjustments which follow the affective experience of psychological contract violation. I examine the effects of psychological contract violation on commitment and cynicism attitudes and I use the exit, voice, loyalty and neglect typology to evaluate the behavioral outcomes which result from psychological contract violations. I evaluate the proposed framework in the context of information exchanges on a social networking site by surveying 598 Facebook users. The empirical data support the core hypotheses in proposed framework and indicate that perceptions of a privacy breach and/or an intellectual property breach trigger the affective experience of a psychological contract violation which is most strongly associated with exit intentions. These findings point to the critical role of psychological contracts in influencing the sustainability of information exchanges and offer a novel theoretical lens for examining sustainability of information exchanges across different contexts
Are anonymity-seekers just like everybody else? An analysis of contributions to Wikipedia from Tor
User-generated content sites routinely block contributions from users of
privacy-enhancing proxies like Tor because of a perception that proxies are a
source of vandalism, spam, and abuse. Although these blocks might be effective,
collateral damage in the form of unrealized valuable contributions from
anonymity seekers is invisible. One of the largest and most important
user-generated content sites, Wikipedia, has attempted to block contributions
from Tor users since as early as 2005. We demonstrate that these blocks have
been imperfect and that thousands of attempts to edit on Wikipedia through Tor
have been successful. We draw upon several data sources and analytical
techniques to measure and describe the history of Tor editing on Wikipedia over
time and to compare contributions from Tor users to those from other groups of
Wikipedia users. Our analysis suggests that although Tor users who slip through
Wikipedia's ban contribute content that is more likely to be reverted and to
revert others, their contributions are otherwise similar in quality to those
from other unregistered participants and to the initial contributions of
registered users.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy, May 202
Study of Fundamental Rights Limitations for Online Enforcement through Self-Regulation
The use of self-regulatory or privatized enforcement measures in the online environment can
give rise to various legal issues that affect the fundamental rights of internet users. First,
privatized enforcement by internet services, without state involvement, can interfere with the
effective exercise of fundamental rights by internet users. Such interference may, on occasion,
be disproportionate, but there are legal complexities involved in determining the precise
circumstances in which this is the case. This is because, for instance, the private entities can
themselves claim protection under the fundamental rights framework (e.g. the protection of
property and the freedom to conduct business).
Second, the role of public authorities in the development of self-regulation in view of certain
public policy objectives can become problematic, but has to be carefully assessed. The
fundamental rights framework puts limitations on government regulation that interferes with
fundamental rights. Essentially, such limitations involve the (negative) obligation for States
not to interfere with fundamental rights. Interferences have to be prescribed by law, pursue a
legitimate aim and be necessary in a democratic society. At the same time, however, States
are also under the (positive) obligation to take active measures in order to ensure the effective
exercise of fundamental rights. In other words, States must do more than simply refrain from
interference. These positive obligations are of specific interest in the context of private
ordering impact on fundamental rights, but tend to be abstract and hard to operationalize in
specific legal constellations.
This study’s central research question is: What legal limitations follow from the fundamental
rights framework for self-regulation and privatized enforcement online?
It examines the circumstances in which State responsibility can be engaged as a result of selfregulation
or privatized enforcement online. Part I of the study provides an overview and
analysis of the relevant elements in the European and international fundamental rights
framework that place limitations on privatized enforcement. Part II gives an assessment of
specific instances of self-regulation or other instances of privatized enforcement in light of
these elements
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