Peeling Back the Onion of Cyber Espionage after Tallinn 2.0

Tallinn 2.0 represents an important advancement in the understanding of international law’s application to cyber operations below the threshold of force. Its provisions on cyber espionage will be instrumental to states in grappling with complex legal problems in the area of digital spying. The law of cyber espionage as outlined by Tallinn 2.0, however, is substantially based on rules that have evolved outside of the digital context, and there exist serious ambiguities and limitations in its framework. This Article will explore gaps in the legal structure and consider future options available to states in light of this underlying mismatch

Dystopian Realities : Investigating the Perception of and Interaction with Surveillance Practices

This article seeks to sketch out how the field of surveillance studies has conceptualized surveillance practices, and how cultural and technological shifts have prompted scholars to re-imagine these theoretical frameworks. The article investigates the interplay of (dystopian) popular cultural representations of surveillance cultures and the perception of and attitude towards contemporary surveillance practices, as well as how individuals react to and interact with them. The article also outlines a study regarding the aforementioned issues that was conducted among a sample of 150 university students, which focused especially on each participant’s subjective ability to distinguish between fictional scenarios and real-life surveillance practices

Introduction to Data Ethics

An Introduction to data ethics, focusing on questions of privacy and personal identity in the economic world as it is defined by big data technologies, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic capitalism. Originally published in The Business Ethics Workshop, 3rd Edition, by Boston Acacdemic Publishing / FlatWorld Knowledge

Turbulence, Turmoil, and Termination: The Dark Side of Social Networking Sites for Romantic Relationships

Excerpt: Social networking websites (SNSs) have become an integral medium for communicating within and about interpersonal relationships (boyd & Ellison, 2008; Stafford & Hillyer, 2012). SNSs have been lauded for their ability to unite distal friends, maintain relational ties, facilitate relationship development, and promote social capital (e.g., Ellison, Vitak, Gray, & Lampe, 2014; Fox, Warber, & Makstaller, 2013; McEwan, 2013). Although considerable research has elected to focus on the benefits of using SNSs, it is also important to examine the dark side of computer-mediated communication (DeAndrea, Tong, & Walther, 2011). For example, SNS use has been tied to decreases in psychological well-being (Chen & Lee, 2013), and scholars have noted negative psychological outcomes when users experience rejection on SNSs (e.g., Bevan, Ang, & Fearns, 2014; Tokunaga, 2011a, 2014)

Shining a Light on Policing of the Dark Web: An analysis of UK investigatory Powers

The dark web and the proliferation of criminals who have exploited its cryptographic protocols to commit crimes anonymously has created major challenges for law enforcement around the world. Traditional policing techniques have required amendment and new techniques have been developed to break the dark web’s use of encryption. As with all new technology, the law has been slow to catch up and police have historically needed to use legislation which was not designed with the available technology in mind. This paper discusses the tools and techniques police use to investigate and prosecute criminals operating on the dark web in the UK and the legal framework in which they are deployed. There are two specific areas which are examined in depth: the use of covert policing and hacking tools, known in the UK as equipment interference. The operation of these investigatory methods within the context of dark web investigations has not previously been considered in UK literature, although this has received greater analysis in the United States and Australia. The effectiveness of UK investigatory powers in the investigation of crimes committed on the dark web are analysed and recommendations are made in relation to both the law and the relevant Codes of Practice. The article concludes that whilst the UK has recently introduced legislation which adequately sets out the powers police can use during online covert operations and when hacking, the Codes of Practice need to specifically address the role these investigative tools play in dark web investigations. Highlighted as areas of particular concern are the risks of jurisdiction forum shopping and hacking overseas. Recommendations are made for reform of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 to ensure clarity as to when equipment interference can be used to search equipment when the location of that equipment is unknown

Introduction: Legal Form and Cultural Symbol – Music, Copyright and Information Studies

Writers in information and communication studies often assume the stability of objects under investigation: network nodes, databases, information. Legal writers in the intellectual property tradition often assume that cultural artefacts exist as objects prior to being governed by copyright law. Both assumptions are fallacious. This introduction conceptualises the relationship of legal form and cultural symbol. Starting from an understanding of copyright law as part of systems of production (in the sense of Peterson 1976), it is argued that copyright law constructs the artefacts it seeks to regulate as objects that can be bought and sold. In doing so, the legal and aesthetic logic of cultural symbols may clash, as in the case of digital music (the central focus of this special issue)

Intercommunication and persona: the intercommunicative public self

Through two concepts, this paper investigates how online culture is shifting our understanding of media, communication and what could be described as the public sphere. The concept of intercommunication is developed to explicate how online culture blends what has often been seen as separate domains: there is now a higher fluidity between what is seen as media and what is seen as a form of communication. In effect, there is now an interpersonal mediation of communication through social media where what we like and dislike is shared and exchanged. The result of this different structure of communication is a transforming public sphere that highlights how the personal dimension of communicationis privileged. To unpack this shifted structure of media and communication, the paper develops the concept of persona. Persona, as a structure and presentation of personal identity for different publics, helps us understand how the individualhas to present themselves strategically and tactically in this intercommunicative world. Through a series of examples that analyse memes, social network identity, and communication, and new iterations of what could be construed as private,public, and professional identity, the paper investigates this emerging "intercommunicative public self.&rdquo

Fundamental Rights of workers in the Digital Age: A methodological approach from a case study. WP C.S.D.L.E. "Massimo D'Antona" .INT - 89/2011

The relationship between employer and worker is not only obligatory but above all, as Sinzheimer said, a ‘relationship of power’. In the Digital Age this statement is confirmed by the massive introduction of ICT in most of the companies that increase, in practice, employer’s supervisory powers. This is a worrying issue for two reasons: on one hand, ICT emerge as a new way to weaken the effectiveness of fundamental rights and the right to dignity of workers; and, on the other hand, Spanish legal system does not offer appropriate solutions to ensure that efficacy. Moreover, in a scenario characterized by a hybridization of legal systems models –in which traditional hard law methods are combined with soft law and self regulation instruments–, the role of our case law has become very important in this issue. Nevertheless, despite the increase of judicialization undergone, solutions offered by Courts are so different that do not give enough legal certainty. Facing this situation, I suggest a methodological approach –using Alchourron and Bulygin’s normative systems theory and Alexy’s fundamental rights theory– which can open new spaces of decision to legal operators in order to solve properly these problems. This proposal can allow setting a policy that guarantees fundamental rights of workers, deepening their human freedom in companies from the Esping-Andersen’s de-commodification perspective. With this purpose, I examine electronic communications in the company as a case study