Strangers in the Room: Unpacking Perceptions of 'Smartness' and Related Ethical Concerns in the Home

The increasingly widespread use of 'smart' devices has raised multifarious ethical concerns regarding their use in domestic spaces. Previous work examining such ethical dimensions has typically either involved empirical studies of concerns raised by specific devices and use contexts, or alternatively expounded on abstract concepts like autonomy, privacy or trust in relation to 'smart homes' in general. This paper attempts to bridge these approaches by asking what features of smart devices users consider as rendering them 'smart' and how these relate to ethical concerns. Through a multimethod investigation including surveys with smart device users (n=120) and semi-structured interviews (n=15), we identify and describe eight types of smartness and explore how they engender a variety of ethical concerns including privacy, autonomy, and disruption of the social order. We argue that this middle ground, between concerns arising from particular devices and more abstract ethical concepts, can better anticipate potential ethical concerns regarding smart devices.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '20

GRB 090426: The Environment of a Rest-Frame 0.35-second Gamma-Ray Burst at Redshift z=2.609

We present the discovery of an absorption-line redshift of z = 2.609 for GRB 090426, establishing the first firm lower limit to a redshift for a gamma-ray burst with an observed duration of <2 s. With a rest-frame burst duration of T_90z = 0.35 s and a detailed examination of the peak energy of the event, we suggest that this is likely (at >90% confidence) a member of the short/hard phenomenological class of GRBs. From analysis of the optical-afterglow spectrum we find that the burst originated along a very low HI column density sightline, with N_HI < 3.2 x 10^19 cm^-2. Our GRB 090426 afterglow spectrum also appears to have weaker low-ionisation absorption (Si II, C II) than ~95% of previous afterglow spectra. Finally, we also report the discovery of a blue, very luminous, star-forming putative host galaxy (~2 L*) at a small angular offset from the location of the optical afterglow. We consider the implications of this unique GRB in the context of burst duration classification and our understanding of GRB progenitor scenarios.Comment: Submitted to MNRA

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Enhancing Internet Service Provider-consumer security notifications

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2019Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-85).Security notification schemes hold great promise for improving both consumer cybersecurity and general network health as malware and other sources of malicious activity are becoming more prevalent on home networks. For example, botnets of Internet of Things devices engage in denial of service (DoS) attacks and ransomware holds data on personal and commercial systems hostage. Many of these threats are relatively opaque for an end user. An end user may not know that their smart device is participating in a DoS attack at all, unless they notice a protracted slowdown in network speeds. An upstream network provider like a consumer ISP has more visibility into the issue. Due to their privileged position, ISPs often have more data about the status of a malware infection, denial of service attack, or other malicious activity. This extra information can be of great benefit for the purposes of notification. For instance, an ISP may be able to notify a customer that a device on their network is being used for a DoS attackor that they see communication with a server involved in distributing ransomware. ISPs and other organizations that try and implement these schemes often run into a set of questions: How do I get the right data to power the notification? How do I ensure the user trusts the notification? Can I ensure the notification is not spoofed? Is there an optimal way to present the notification? How do I make sure a user takes the proper remedial action? This thesis presents a framework for new notification schemes to answer these questions by examining four key elements of a notification: form, delivery, and content. It also proposes multi-factor verification, a novel scheme to address trust and spoofing issues within a notification scheme. Finally, it provides a model for a new ISP-user security notification scheme within the context of the United States market and policy landscape.by Nathaniel H. Fruchter.S.M. in Technology and PolicyS.M.inTechnologyandPolicy Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Progra

Limits on radioactive powered emission associated with a short-hard GRB 070724A in a star-forming galaxy

We present results of an extensive observing campaign of the short-duration, hard spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) 070724A, aimed at detecting the radioactively powered emission that might follow from a binary merger or collapse involving compact objects. Our multiband observations span the range in time over which this so-called Li-Paczynski mini-supernova (mini-SN) could be active, beginning within 3 h of the GRB trigger and represent some of the deepest and most comprehensive searches for such emission. We find no evidence for such activity and place limits on the abundances and the lifetimes of the possible radioactive nuclides that could form in the rapid decompression of nuclear density matter. Furthermore, our limits are significantly fainter than the peak magnitude of any previously detected broad-lined Type Ic SN associated with other GRBs, effectively ruling out a long GRB-like SN for this event. Given the unambiguous redshift of the host galaxy (z = 0.456), GRB 070724A represents one of a small, but growing, number of short-hard GRBs for which firm physical/rest-frame quantities currently exist. The host of GRB 070724A is a moderately star-forming galaxy with an older stellar population component and a relatively high metallicity of 12 + log(O/H)(KD02) = 9.1. We find no significant evidence for large amounts of extinction along the line of sight that could mask the presence of an SN explosion and estimate a small probability for chance alignment with the putative host. We discuss how our derived constraints fit into the evolving picture of short-hard GRBs, their potential progenitors and the host environments in which they are thought to be produced

Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger

International audienceOn 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of $\sim 1.7\,{\rm{s}}$ with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg(2) at a luminosity distance of ${40}_{-8}^{+8}$ Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 $\,{M}_{\odot }$. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at $\sim 40\,{\rm{Mpc}}$) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position $\sim 9$ and $\sim 16$ days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta