Understanding & controlling user privacy in social media via exposure

The recent popularity of Online Social Media sites (OSM) like Facebook and Twitter have led to a renewed discussion about user privacy. In fact, numerous recent news reports and research studies on user privacy stress the OSM users’ urgent need for better privacy control mechanisms. Thus, today, a key research question is: how do we provide improved privacy protection to OSM users for their social content? In this thesis, we propose a systematic approach to address this question. We start with the access control model, the dominant privacy model in OSMs today. We show that, while useful, the access control model does not capture many theoretical and practical aspects of privacy. Thus, we propose a new model, which we term the exposure control model. We define exposure for a piece of content as the set of people who actually view the content. We demonstrate that our model is a significant improvement over access control to capture users’ privacy requirements. Next, we investigate the effectiveness of our model to protect users’ privacy in three real world scenarios: (1) Understanding and controlling exposure using social access control lists (SACLs) (2) Controlling exposure by limiting large-scale social data aggregators and (3) Understanding and controlling longitudinal exposure in OSMs, i.e., how users control exposure of their old OSM content. We show that, in each of these cases, the exposure control-based approach helps us to design improved privacy control mechanisms.Die Popularität von sozialen Netzwerken (SN), wie Facebook, haben zu einer erneuten Diskussion über die Privatsphäre geführt. Wissenschaftliche Publikationen untersuchen die Privatsphäre und zeigen wie dringend SN Benutzer besseren Datenschutz benoötigen. Eine zentrale Herausforderung für in diesem Bereich ist: Wie kann der Schutz der Privatsphäre von SN Benutzern und ihren Inhalten garantiert werden? Diese Doktorarbeit schlägt Ansätze vor, die diese Frage beantworten. Wir untersuchen das Privatsphäremodel, das Access Control Modell, in SN. Wir zeigen auf, dass das Access Control Modell theoretische und praktische Aspekte der Privatsphäre nicht erfasst. Deshalb schlagen wir das Expositionssteuerunsgmodell vor und definieren Exposition für einen Inhalt als die Menge der Personen, die einen Beitrag ansieht. Unser Modell stellt eine bedeutende Verbesserung zu dem Access Control Modell dar. Wir untersuchen die Effektivität unseres Modells, indem wir den Datenschutz der Benutzer in drei realen Szenarien schützen: (1) Verständnis und Steuerung der Exposition von Inhalten mit Sozialen Access Control Listen (SACLs), (2) Steuerung der Exposition durch Begrenzung der umfassenden sozialen Datenaggregation und (3) Verständnis und Steuerung von Langzeitexposition in SN, z.B. wie Benutzer Exposition alter Inhalte begrenzen. In diesen Fällen fürt Expositionssteuerungsmethoden zu einem verbesserten Privatsphäresteuerungsmechanismus

Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives. Children’s rights, evidence of impact, methodological challenges, regulatory options and policy implications for the WHO European Region

There is unequivocal evidence that childhood obesity is influenced by marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, salt and/or free sugars (HFSS), and a core recommendation of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity is to reduce children’s exposure to all such marketing. As a result, WHO has called on Member States to introduce restrictions on marketing of HFSS foods to children, covering all media, including digital, and to close any regulatory loopholes. This publication provides up-to-date information on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children and the changes that have occurred in recent years, focusing in particular on the major shift to digital marketing. It examines trends in media use among children, marketing methods in the new digital media landscape and children’s engagement with such marketing. It also considers the impact on children and their ability to counter marketing as well as the implications for children’s rights and digital privacy. Finally the report discusses the policy implications and some of the recent policy action by WHO European Member States

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience

Addressing the cyber safety challenge: from risk to resilience describes the cyber safety issues emerging from a range of technology trends, how different populations are using technologies and the risks they face, and how we can effectively respond to each group’s unique cyber safety needs. Written by the University of Western Sydney for Telstra Corporation Ltd, the report advocates for continuing to move cyber safety from a ‘risk and protection’ framework to one that focuses on building digital resilience, as well as fostering trust and confidence in the online environment. To do this we need to: Address the needs of populations often neglected by current policies and programs – including adults, seniors, parents, and small to medium enterprises Continue to build the digital literacy skills of all populations, because digital literacy strongly influences users’ ability to engage safely online – this is best achieved by a hands-on learning approach Keep risk in perspective – the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand Broaden the focus from awareness-raising to long-term behaviour change. As digital technologies become further integrated into the everyday lives of Australians, users are potentially exposed to greater risks. However, the risks and benefits of digital participation go hand in hand. The challenge, therefore, is to support users to minimise the risks without limiting their digital participation and their capacity to derive the full benefits of connectivity. If Australians are to benefit as either consumers or providers of online services and products in the e-commerce environment, consumer safety and trust need to be improved. Cyber safety needs to be considered against a transforming backdrop of technology trends, products and practices. While the rise of social media has tended to dominate recent debate and developments in cyber safety, particularly in relation to young people, a range of other trends is also shaping how users engage online, the risks they potentially face in the new media landscape, and the strategies used to address them. These trends include the rise of user generated content and content sharing platforms; the uptake of mobile technologies and, in particular, the adoption of smartphones; cloud computing; platform integration and single sign-on mechanisms; and the rise of GPS and location based services

Recommender systems and their ethical challenges

This article presents the first, systematic analysis of the ethical challenges posed by recommender systems through a literature review. The article identifies six areas of concern, and maps them onto a proposed taxonomy of different kinds of ethical impact. The analysis uncovers a gap in the literature: currently user-centred approaches do not consider the interests of a variety of other stakeholders—as opposed to just the receivers of a recommendation—in assessing the ethical impacts of a recommender system

A children’s rights perspective on the responsibility of social network site providers

It is the aim of this paper to analyse this issue from a children’s right perspective and to identify a theoretical, broader basis that can be used by policymakers to persuade social network site providers to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to provide young users with a communication and interaction platform that respects and helps realising their fundamental rights.status: publishe