45,511 research outputs found
Callisto: a cryptographic approach to detecting serial perpetrators of sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is prevalent in workplace and education settings
but stigma and risk of further damage deter many victims from
seeking justice. Callisto, a non-profit that has created an online sexual assault reporting platform for college campuses, is expanding its
work to combat sexual assault and harassment in other industries.
In this new product, users will be invited to an online "matching
escrow" that will detect repeat perpetrators and create pathways
to support for victims. Users submit encrypted data about their
perpetrator, and this data can only be decrypted by the Callisto
Options Counselor (a lawyer), when another user enters the identity of the same perpetrator. If the perpetrator identities match,
both users will be put in touch independently with the Options
Counselor, who will connect them to each other (if appropriate) and
help them determine their best path towards justice. The client relationships with the Options Counselors are structured so that any
client-counselor communications would be privileged. A combination of client-side encryption, encrypted communication channels,
oblivious pseudo-random functions, key federation, and Shamir
Secret Sharing keep data confidential in transit, at rest, and during
the matching process with the guarantee that only the lawyer ever
has access to user submitted data, and even then only when a match
is identified.Accepted manuscrip
clicktatorship and democrazy: Social media and political campaigning
This chapter aims to direct attention to the political dimension of the social media age.
Although current events like the Cambridge Analytica data breach managed to raise awareness for the
issue, the systematically organized and orchestrated mechanisms at play still remain oblivious to most.
Next to dangerous monopoly-tendencies among the powerful players on the market, reliance on
automated algorithms in dealing with content seems to enable large-scale manipulation that is applied for
economical and political purposes alike. The successful replacement of traditional parties by movements
based on personality cults around marketable young faces like Emmanuel Macron or Austria’s Sebastian
Kurz is strongly linked to products and services offered by an industry that simply provides likes and
followers for cash. Inspired by Trump’s monopolization of the Twitter-channel, these new political
acteurs use the potential of social media for effective message control, allowing them to avoid
confrontations with professional journalists. In addition, an extremely active minority of organized
agitators relies on the viral potential of the web to strongly influence and dictate public discourse –
suggesting a shift from the Spiral of Silence to the dangerous illusion of a Nexus of Noise
Come On In. The Water's Fine. An Exploration of Web 2.0 Technology and Its Emerging Impact on Foundation Communications
According to the authors of Come on in. The water's fine. An exploration of Web 2.0 technology and its emerging impact on foundation communications, foundations that have adopted new and still emerging forms of digital communications -- interactive Web sites, blogs, wikis, and social networking applications -- are finding that they offer "opportunities for focused convenings and conversations, lend themselves to interactions with and among grantees, and are an effective story-telling medium." The report's authors, David Brotherton and Cynthia Scheiderer, of Brotherton Strategies, who spent nearly a year exploring how foundations are using new media, add that "electronic communications create an opportunity to connect people who are interested in an issue with each other and the grantees working on the issue."The report also acknowledges that the new technologies raise skepticism and concern among foundations. They include the "worry of losing control over the foundation's message, allowing more staff members to represent the foundation in a more public way, opening the flood gates of grant requests or the headache of a forum gone bad with unwanted or inappropriate posts."Still, the report urges foundations to put aside their worries and make even more forceful use of new media applications and tools. The report argues that whatever is "lost in message control will be more than made up for by the opportunity to engage audiences in new ways, with greater programmatic impact."Acknowledging that adoption of new media tools will require some cultural and operational shifts in foundations, the report offers suggestions from Ernest James Wilson III, dean and Walter Annenberg chair in communication at the University of Southern California, for how to deal with these challenges. He says that for foundations to make the best use of what the technology offers, they should concentrate on three things:Build up the individual "human capital" of their staffs and provide them the competencies they need to operate in the new digital world.Make internal institutional reforms to reward creativity and innovation in using these new media internally and among grantees.Build social networks that span sectors and institutions, to engage in ongoing dialogue among private, public, nonprofits and research stakeholders.As Wilson also says, "All of these steps first require leadership, arguably a new type of leadership, not only at the top but also from the 'bottom' up, since many of the people with the requisite skills, attitudes, substantive knowledge and experience are younger, newer employees, and occupy the low-status end of the organizational pyramid, and hence need strong allies at the top.
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