2,087 research outputs found

    When Mobile Phones are RFID-Equipped - Finding E.U.-U.S. Solutions to Protect Consumer Privacy and Facilitate Mobile Commerce

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    New mobile phones have been designed to include delivery of mobile advertising and other useful location-based services, but have they also been designed to protect consumers\u27 privacy? One of the key enabling technologies for these new types of phones and new mobile services is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a wireless communication technology that enables the unique identification of tagged objects. In the case of RFID-enabled mobile phones, the personal nature of the devices makes it very likely that, by locating a phone, businesses will also be able to locate its owner. Consumers are currently testing new RFID-enabled phones around the globe, but the phones are not yet in general use by consumers in the United States and Europe. The incorporation of RFID into cell phones in order to deliver mobile advertising and other location-based services raises a host of important privacy questions that urgently need to be addressed before the phones become widely available. Analyzing the risks to consumer privacy in this new context, this paper offers a comparative law analysis of the applicable regulatory frameworks and recent policy developments in the European Union and the United States and concludes that there are many privacy concerns not presently addressed by E.U. and U.S. laws. This article also offers specific ideas to protect consumers\u27 privacy through applications of fair information practices and privacy-enhancing technologies. When mobile phones are RFID-equipped, consumers will need new privacy protections in order to understand the risks and make knowledgeable decisions about their privacy

    Personal Environmental Information: The Promise and Perils of the Emerging Capacity to Identify Individual Environmental Harms

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    A variety of modern technologies reveal individual behaviors that have environmental consequences with increasing clarity. Smart meters and related technologies detect detailed information about when and how individuals use electricity within the home. Radio frequency identification ( RFID ) chips embedded in recycling collection bins track household recycling behaviors, including everything from whether the household is recycling to whether its members properly separate their recyclables. Regulators use aerial imagery and geographic information systems ( GIS ) technology to detect violations of local building codes and the illegal filling of wetlands. Interactive ecomaps allow city residents to compare environmental performance by zip code. Even information generated for entirely distinct purposes (for example, Global Positioning System ( GPS ) devices for vehicles) yields insights into environmental behaviors (for example, driving behavior related to gas consumption). At the same time that the technological capability to identify individual behaviors with environmental consequences (or environmentally significant individual behaviors) is growing dramatically, many are also calling for environmental law and policy to reduce the environmental harms that those behaviors cause or exacerbate

    Security in Internet of Things: networked smart objects.

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    Internet of Things (IoT) is an innovative paradigm approaching both industries and humans every-day life. It refers to the networked interconnection of every-day objects, which are equipped with ubiquitous intelligence. It not only aims at increasing the ubiquity of the Internet, but also at leading towards a highly distributed network of devices communicating with human beings as well as with other devices. Thanks to rapid advances in underlying technologies, IoT is opening valuable opportunities for a large number of novel applications, that promise to improve the quality of humans lives, facilitating the exchange of services. In this scenario, security represents a crucial aspect to be addressed, due to the high level of heterogeneity of the involved devices and to the sensibility of the managed information. Moreover, a system architecture should be established, before the IoT is fully operable in an efficient, scalable and interoperable manner. The main goal of this PhD thesis concerns the design and the implementation of a secure and distributed middleware platform tailored to IoT application domains. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is evaluated by means of a prototype and real case studies

    After the Gold Rush: The Boom of the Internet of Things, and the Busts of Data-Security and Privacy

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    This Article addresses the impact that the lack of oversight of the Internet of Things has on digital privacy. While the Internet of Things is but one vehicle for technological innovation, it has created a broad glimpse into domestic life, thus triggering several privacy issues that the law is attempting to keep pace with. What the Internet of Things can reveal is beyond the control of the individual, as it collects information about every practical aspect of an individual’s life, and provides essentially unfettered access into the mind of its users. This Article proposes that the federal government and the state governments bend toward consumer protection while creating a cogent and predictable body of law surrounding the Internet of Things. Through privacy-by-design or self-help, it is imperative that the Internet of Things—and any of its unforeseen progeny—develop with an eye toward safeguarding individual privacy while allowing technological development

    Data Analytics in Higher Education: Key Concerns and Open Questions

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    “Big Data” and data analytics affect all of us. Data collection, analysis, and use on a large scale is an important and growing part of commerce, governance, communication, law enforcement, security, finance, medicine, and research. And the theme of this symposium, “Individual and Informational Privacy in the Age of Big Data,” is expansive; we could have long and fruitful discussions about practices, laws, and concerns in any of these domains. But a big part of the audience for this symposium is students and faculty in higher education institutions (HEIs), and the subject of this paper is data analytics in our own backyards. Higher education learning analytics (LA) is something that most of us involved in this symposium are familiar with. Students have encountered LA in their courses, in their interactions with their law school or with their undergraduate institutions, instructors use systems that collect information about their students, and administrators use information to help understand and steer their institutions. More importantly, though, data analytics in higher education is something that those of us participating in the symposium can actually control. Students can put pressure on administrators, and faculty often participate in university governance. Moreover, the systems in place in HEIs are more easily comprehensible to many of us because we work with them on a day-to-day basis. Students use systems as part of their course work, in their residences, in their libraries, and elsewhere. Faculty deploy course management systems (CMS) such as Desire2Learn, Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas to structure their courses, and administrators use information gleaned from analytics systems to make operational decisions. If we (the participants in the symposium) indeed care about Individual and Informational Privacy in the Age of Big Data, the topic of this paper is a pretty good place to hone our thinking and put into practice our ideas

    No Direction Home: Will the Law Keep Pace With Human Tracking Technology to Protect Individual Privacy and Stop Geoslavery

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    Increasingly, public and private employers are utilizing human tracking devices to monitor employee movement and conduct. Due to the propensity of American labor law to give greater weight toemployer property interests over most employee privacy expectations, there are currently few limitations on the use of human tracking in employment. The scope and nature of current legal principles regarding individual privacy are not sufficient to respond to the rapid development and use of human tracking technology. The academic use of the phrase “geoslavery” to describe the abusive use of such technology underscores its power. This article examines the use of such technology under current federal and state law and suggests potential means for developing greater legal protections against the abusive use of the technology and the intrusion into personal privacy

    No Direction Home: Will the Law Keep Pace With Human Tracking Technology to Protect Individual Privacy and Stop Geoslavery

    Get PDF
    Increasingly, public and private employers are utilizing human tracking devices to monitor employee movement and conduct. Due to the propensity of American labor law to give greater weight toemployer property interests over most employee privacy expectations, there are currently few limitations on the use of human tracking in employment. The scope and nature of current legal principles regarding individual privacy are not sufficient to respond to the rapid development and use of human tracking technology. The academic use of the phrase “geoslavery” to describe the abusive use of such technology underscores its power. This article examines the use of such technology under current federal and state law and suggests potential means for developing greater legal protections against the abusive use of the technology and the intrusion into personal privacy
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