Network Rules

Crawford compares the debate between the telcos and the online companies over broadband access regimes often called the network neutrality debate to the ongoing tussle between intellectual property maximalists and free culture advocates which are strikingly parallel sets of arguments. The maximalists claim that creativity comes from lone genuises (the romantic author) who must be given legal incentives to works but intellectual property scholars have carefully examined the incentives of their arguments and have pointed out that granting overly strong property rights to copyright holders might not be socially appropriate. Moreover, the network providers claim that they (the romantic builders) must be allowed by law to price-discriminate vis-a-vis content sources in order to be encouraged to build the network

Knowing Your Population: Privacy-Sensitive Mining of Massive Data

Location and mobility patterns of individuals are important to environmental planning, societal resilience, public health, and a host of commercial applications. Mining telecommunication traffic and transactions data for such purposes is controversial, in particular raising issues of privacy. However, our hypothesis is that privacy-sensitive uses are possible and often beneficial enough to warrant considerable research and development efforts. Our work contends that peoples behavior can yield patterns of both significant commercial, and research, value. For such purposes, methods and algorithms for mining telecommunication data to extract commonly used routes and locations, articulated through time-geographical constructs, are described in a case study within the area of transportation planning and analysis. From the outset, these were designed to balance the privacy of subscribers and the added value of mobility patterns derived from their mobile communication traffic and transactions data. Our work directly contrasts the current, commonly held notion that value can only be added to services by directly monitoring the behavior of individuals, such as in current attempts at location-based services. We position our work within relevant legal frameworks for privacy and data protection, and show that our methods comply with such requirements and also follow best-practice

Lessons Learned Too Well: Anonymity in a Time of Surveillance

It is no longer reasonable to assume that electronic communications can be kept private from governments or private-sector actors. In theory, encryption can protect the content of such communications, and anonymity can protect the communicator\u27s identity. But online anonymity-one of the two most important tools that protect online communicative freedom-is under practical and legal attack all over the world. Choke-point regulation, online identification requirements, and data-retention regulations combine to make anonymity very difficult as a practical matter and, in many countries, illegal. Moreover, key internet intermediaries further stifle anonymity by requiring users to disclose their real names. This Article traces the global development of technologies and regulations hostile to online anonymity, beginning with the early days of the Internet. Offering normative and pragmatic arguments for why communicative anonymity is important, this Article argues that anonymity is the bedrock of online freedom, and it must be preserved. U.S. anti-anonymity policies not only enable repressive policies abroad but also place at risk the safety of anonymous communications that Americans may someday need. This Article, in addition to providing suggestions on how to save electronic anonymity, calls for proponents of anti-anonymity policies to provide stronger justifications for such policies and to consider alternatives less likely to destroy individual liberties. In a time where surveillance technology and laws demanding identification abound, protecting the right to speak freely without fear of official retribution is critical to protecting these liberties

The mobile telephone: The transportation of social relationships

In the studies of contemporary electronic media artifacts and their effects on society, television, satellites, and computers have been extensively investigated and their various impacts well documented. With regards to telecommunication technologies, academic scholarship is somewhat less, with most comment being restricted to either historic evolution, or technical description. Exceptions to this are, Marvin\u27s reference to the telephone in her publication, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electronic Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (1988}, and Umble\u27s The Amish and the telephone: resistance and reconstruction (1992). Both of these publications are used for supporting arguments in my thesis investigating the societal and cultural effects associated with the use of the mobile telephone. I have selected this subject for my thesis, as I can find no previous significant scholarship relating to this particular field, and my research will redress this imbalance. In my thesis I present a contextual overview of the mobile telephone dealing with its historical evolution and technological change, and how its convergence with other technologies is reshaping future expectations in personal electronic communication strategies. Also within the overview I look at what conditions determine the access to becoming a mobile telephone user, the service expectations of the users against what is provided by the service suppliers, and how the service suppliers\u27 advertising strategies are driving a burgeoning market in mobile communications. The main thrust of my research is contained within arguments concerning the three major research questions. My primary focus is on the relationships between place, time, and space with the mobile telephone. In past research, Meyrowitz (1985) and Giddens (1990) and (1991) have categorically stated that place is no longer important, as electronic media have permeated the confines of encapsulated areas, and transported social relationships away from the necessity for face to face interaction. I argue that the mobile telephone has re-instated the importance of place by its capacity to intrude into any place, at the will of its user, invading personal privacy of non-users within both private and public arenas. Further I argue that place is assuming importance through its exposure to environmental degradation, with the building of transmission towers to supply the mobile telephone service. My secondary focus is on how the mobile telephone is affecting the workplace. To investigate this problem i have researched the phenomenon of telecommuting, and used the findings as a base for my investigations into the mobile office. Many of the problems relate to control, where extreme difficulties arise for authorities to manage effectively their charges when determining workers\u27 welfare, health regulations, and supervisory duties. In the case of the employees, the freedom from direct supervision, and the flexibility to organise work times to suit their personal requirements are stated advantages. The growth of mobile office working has the potential to change the traditional values of encapsulated workplaces, and as such will require different rules and strategies to be negotiated between employers and employees to adequately safeguard each others’ interests. Prior to my final major focus, the mobile telephone and \u27monopolies of knowledge\u27 (Innis, 1949, p.5), I look at technological convergence, and change. I examine the convergence of media technologies to show that the phenomenon is not new, but historically, a driving force behind the development of new communication systems. In the section titled \u27change\u27, I document how the mobile telephone has been accepted into many different societies and sub-cultures, bringing change to their communication habits and expectations. The sections on technological convergence, and change lead my research into the final major focus, where I examine the link between the mobile telephone and the creation of new ‘monopolies of knowledge\u27 (ibid), forming elite groups or sub-cultures which weaken the structure of community-based societies. To underpin my research focus I have used Umble (1992) to illustrate what happens when a new technology is introduced into a community-based lifestyle, creating elite groups or sub-cultures, which then challenge the basic values which support that community. Finally, in seeking information for my thesis I conducted a survey of 100 households, where I sought replies from both mobile telephone users and non-users. The response to my survey was better than most returns predicted in the literature which I read describing strategies for mail surveys. However, due to my research being original in its field, my questions were general for the thesis subject matter, and so did not supply an abundance of information which could be used within the narrowed structure of the research questions. Nevertheless the aggregated results are included in the appendices of this thesis

SECURITY AND PRIVACY ISSUES IN MOBILE NETWORKS, DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

Mobile communication is playing a vital role in the daily life for the last two decades; in turn its fields gained the research attention, which led to the introduction of new technologies, services and applications. These new added facilities aimed to ease the connectivity and reachability; on the other hand, many security and privacy concerns were not taken into consideration. This opened the door for the malicious activities to threaten the deployed systems and caused vulnerabilities for users, translated in the loss of valuable data and major privacy invasions. Recently, many attempts have been carried out to handle these concerns, such as improving systems’ security and implementing different privacy enhancing mechanisms. This research addresses these problems and provides a mean to preserve privacy in particular. In this research, a detailed description and analysis of the current security and privacy situation in the deployed systems is given. As a result, the existing shortages within these systems are pointed out, to be mitigated in development. Finally a privacy preserving prototype model is proposed. This research has been conducted as an extensive literature review about the most relevant references and researches in the field, using the descriptive and evaluative research methodologies. The main security models, parameters, modules and protocols are presented, also a detailed description of privacy and its related arguments, dimensions and factors is given. The findings include that mobile networks’ security along with users are vulnerable due to the weaknesses of the key exchange procedures, the difficulties that face possession, repudiation, standardization, compatibility drawbacks and lack of configurability. It also includes the need to implement new mechanisms to protect security and preserve privacy, which include public key cryptography, HIP servers, IPSec, TLS, NAT and DTLS-SRTP. Last but not least, it shows that privacy is not absolute and it has many conflicts, also privacy requires sophisticated systems, which increase the load and cost of the system.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Internet Nondiscrimination Principles: Commercial Ethics for Carriers and Search Engines

Unaccountable power at any layer of online life can stifle innovation elsewhere. Dominant search engines rightly worry that carriers will use their control of the physical layer of internet infrastructure to pick winners among content and application providers. Though they advocate net neutrality, they have been much less quick to recognize the threat to openness and fair play their own practices may pose. Just as dominant search engines fear an unfairly tiered online world, they should be required to provide access to their archives and indices in a nondiscriminatory manner. If dominant search engines want carriers to disclose their traffic management tactics, they should submit to regulation that bans stealth marketing and reliably verifies the absence of the practice. Finally, search engines\u27 concern about the applications and content disadvantaged by carrier fast-tracking should lead them to provide annotation remedies to indexed sites whose marks have been unfairly occluded by the search process. Fair competition online demands common commercial ethics for both dominant search engines and dominant carriers

Privatisation of public enterprises in COMESA: An exploration of approaches and strategies: the case of the privatization of Telkom Kenya

This thesis investigates Kenya's approach to the privatization process through an exploration of Telkom Kenya's (TKL) unfolding privatization. The thesis research identifies outlines and documents the developments in Kenya's approach to the privatization programs in a developing economy of the COMESA region. In the process, the analysis contributes to an approach of privatizing and restructuring in Kenya. It has also helped explain new phenomena in privatizing in an environment with no institutional infrastructure and in the process has generated and contributed to new knowledge whose detail is discussed in chapter five. The research took an exploratory approach because there are few or no earlier studies in which a secondary data analysis solely was to be analyzed. The empirical data was based on observing and experiencing the real world with a focus to gain insights and familiarity on approaches to the privatization process. Although there is a variety of privatization literature and studies, these have tended to focus on developed and emerging economies and lately specific sectors of their interest. The analysis uses field primary and secondary data sources and an extensive literature review on privatization focusing on specific elements of approaches and developments in the less developing countries (LDCs) and in Kenya. The data collection and analysis focused on outlining Kenya’s actual process of choosing and implementing sectors, objectives, methods, techniques and strategies of transacting Telkom Kenya as a strategic enterprise under the GOK's privatization program. In attempting to respond to the central research question raised in chapter one (page 9) the thesis undertakes an in-depth mixed method analysis (majorly qualitative) of approaches to the privatization process. The research is driven by the central research question (s): "What are (why and how) the approaches and strategies of Kenya's privatization program in a developing economy?” The research outcome identifies and outlines a 'sketch approach' to Kenya's privatization program and process. The research analysis concludes that efforts to institutionalize (i.e. regulatory framework) the process, in order to make Kenya's approach more tangible, effective, efficient, and accountable need further attention. Evidence further shows that privatisation of Kenya’s strategic state enterprises (SSE, s) raises concerns of the socio-political dynamics of the management of the selected approaches, methods, processes, and objectives of privatization by GOK. Indeed 80 % of the respondents argued that privatization is crucial in enabling the government divest from business. However, the political control remains an impediment to independent and fair strengthening and building of privatization institutions. In this regard, this thesis' major contribution of identifying Kenya's approach provides a first attempt at a 'guide’ to the privatization process that is clear, accountable and open to checks and balances