Weaponizing the GDPR: How Flawed Implementations Turn the Gold Standard for Privacy Laws into Fool\u27s Gold

Despite its ambitious goals of protecting personal data and generally being well-received, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can be exploited for identity theft by weaponizing subject access requests (SARs). To understand this threat and investigate the impact of victims’ privacy awareness and public exposure on its effectiveness, we selected three victims – highly privacy aware person, average user, and semipublic figure – and tasked six realistic attackers with stealing their personal data. Based on 718 submitted SARs, we provide novel insights from a realistic case study of a law being weaponized and advance the understanding of GDPR-based identity theft by demonstrating its practical viability. Further, we derive patterns from common flaws observed in SAR handling processes, and explore threat mitigation options for individuals, organizations, and lawmakers. Generalizing our findings, we uncover approaches for cybersecurity researchers to probe further laws for flaws

Ethical AI Research Untangled: Mapping Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Information Systems Research

We provide a systematic overview of the interdisciplinary discourse on ethical AI by combining bibliometric and text mining approaches on a corpus of 23,870 ethical AI publications from journals and conference proceedings. In our research in progress, we offer three contributions of interest to IS scholars: First, in our term analyses, we empirically delineate ethical AI and related terms such as responsible or trustworthy AI. Second, we unearth the intellectual structure of the field and identify five thematic clusters, some of which are directly relevant to IS scholars. Third, we identify that IS research on ethical AI should more intensely consider fairness and transparency as well as the link to explainability. Additionally, we suggest that IS scholars contribute towards policymakers’ ethical AI guidelines by contributing their strong expertise in practical applications

The Secreted Immunoglobulin Domain Proteins ZIG-5 and ZIG-8 Cooperate with L1CAM/SAX-7 to Maintain Nervous System Integrity

During nervous system development, neuronal cell bodies and their axodendritic projections are precisely positioned through transiently expressed patterning cues. We show here that two neuronally expressed, secreted immunoglobulin (Ig) domain-containing proteins, ZIG-5 and ZIG-8, have no detectable role during embryonic nervous system development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans but are jointly required for neuronal soma and ventral cord axons to maintain their correct position throughout postembryonic life of the animal. The maintenance defects observed upon removal of zig-5 and zig-8 are similar to those observed upon complete loss of the SAX-7 protein, the C. elegans ortholog of the L1CAM family of adhesion proteins, which have been implicated in several neurological diseases. SAX-7 exists in two isoforms: a canonical, long isoform (SAX-7L) and a more adhesive shorter isoform lacking the first two Ig domains (SAX-7S). Unexpectedly, the normally essential function of ZIG-5 and ZIG-8 in maintaining neuronal soma and axon position is completely suppressed by genetic removal of the long SAX-7L isoform. Overexpression of the short isoform SAX-7S also abrogates the need for ZIG-5 and ZIG-8. Conversely, overexpression of the long isoform disrupts adhesion, irrespective of the presence of the ZIG proteins. These findings suggest an unexpected interdependency of distinct Ig domain proteins, with one isoform of SAX-7, SAX-7L, inhibiting the function of the most adhesive isoform, SAX-7S, and this inhibition being relieved by ZIG-5 and ZIG-8. Apart from extending our understanding of dedicated neuronal maintenance mechanisms, these findings provide novel insights into adhesive and anti-adhesive functions of IgCAM proteins

Navigating Uncertain Waters: How Organizations Respond to Institutional Pressure in Times of the Looming EU AI Act

The looming AI Act puts significant pressure on organizations to develop safe and reliable AI. First, we analyze 975 AI incidents to provide an overview of the actors involved in identifying primary AI failures. Second, using institutional theory and based on over two years of observation of more than 400 actors, we identify four strategies (circumvent, comply, compromise, and control) and exemplary response practices (relabel, redefine, balance, and predefine) for how firms respond to institutional pressures from AI regulation. We thereby extend the institutional theory perspective on AI regulation. Using our longitudinal multi-actor perspective, we develop the 4C-Framework for how organizations actively respond to AI regulation. Moreover, we demonstrate how this framework can be applied to impending AI regulation, including strategies for engaging with regulators, exploring opportunities for collaboration, and dealing with the spread of misinformation. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive approach for companies to proactively shape AI regulation

Towards an holistic view of the energy and environmental impacts of domestic media and IT

To date, research in sustainable HCI has dealt with eco-feedback, usage and recycling of appliances within the home, and longevity of portable electronics such as mobile phones. However, there seems to be less awareness of the energy and greenhouse emissions impacts of domestic consumer electronics and information technology. Such awareness is needed to inform HCI sustainability researchers on how best to prioritise efforts around digital media and IT. Grounded in inventories, interview and plug energy data from 33 undergraduate student participants, our findings provide the context for assessing approaches to reducing the energy and carbon emissions of media and IT in the home. In the paper, we use the findings to discuss and inform more fruitful directions that sustainable HCI research might take, and we quantify how various strategies might have modified the energy and emissions impacts for our participants

Are there limits to growth in data traffic?:on time use, data generation and speed

This discussion paper considers the nature of growth in data traffic across the Internet, as a basis for asking whether and how such growth might slow down or otherwise be limited. Over the last decade, data growth has been dramatic, and forecasts predict a similar ongoing pattern. Since this is associated with increasing electricity consumption, such a trend is significant to global efforts to reduce carbon emis- sions. In this paper, we selectively explore aspects of data growth that are linked to everyday practices and the way they draw upon and generate Internet data. We suggest that such growth does have some conceivable limits. However, the nature of ‘Internet use’ is changing and forms of growth are emerging that are more disconnected from human ac- tivity and time-use. This suggests that although there may well be limits, in principle, to some forms of growth, total data traffic seems likely to continue growing. This calls for careful attention to the nature of the trends involved, as a basis for intentionally building limits into this system be- fore levels of Internet electricity demand becomes directly and more explicitly problematic

Resting state correlates of subdimensions of anxious affect

Resting state fMRI may help identify markers of risk for affective disorder. Given the comorbidity of anxiety and depressive disorders and the heterogeneity of these disorders as defined by DSM, an important challenge is to identify alterations in resting state brain connectivity uniquely associated with distinct profiles of negative affect. The current study aimed to address this by identifying differences in brain connectivity specifically linked to cognitive and physiological profiles of anxiety, controlling for depressed affect. We adopted a two-stage multivariate approach. Hierarchical clustering was used to independently identify dimensions of negative affective style and resting state brain networks. Combining the clustering results, we examined individual differences in resting state connectivity uniquely associated with subdimensions of anxious affect, controlling for depressed affect. Physiological and cognitive subdimensions of anxious affect were identified. Physiological anxiety was associated with widespread alterations in insula connectivity, including decreased connectivity between insula subregions and between the insula and other medial frontal and subcortical networks. This is consistent with the insula facilitating communication between medial frontal and subcortical regions to enable control of physiological affective states. Meanwhile, increased connectivity within a frontoparietal-posterior cingulate cortex-precunous network was specifically associated with cognitive anxiety, potentially reflecting increased spontaneous negative cognition (e.g., worry). These findings suggest that physiological and cognitive anxiety comprise subdimensions of anxiety-related affect and reveal associated alterations in brain connectivity

Demand in my pocket:mobile devices and the data connectivity marshalled in support of everyday practice

This paper empirically explores the role that mobile devices have come to play in everyday practice, and how this links to demand for network connectivity and online services. After a preliminary device-logging period, thirteen participants were interviewed about how they use their iPhones or iPads. Our findings build a picture of how, through use of such devices, a variety of daily practices have come to depend upon a working data connection, which sometimes surges, but is at least always a trickle. This aims to inform the sustainable design of applications, services and infrastructures for smartphones and tablets. By focusing our analysis in this way, we highlight a little-explored challenge for sustainable HCI and discuss ideas for (re)designing around the principle of 'light-weight' data 'needs'

An investigation on the ability of Nanofibrillated cellulose to enhance the environmental sustainability of paper product manufacture

There are a number of products which are manufactured at a very large scale globally which are both energy and materials use intensive. In the case of paper and board manufacture, paper pulp (a mixture of cellulose, water and additives such as TiO2) require large quantities of cellulose, principally from trees and plant sources with the corresponding addition addition and removal of water by mechanical or thermal means.The objective of the study was to investigate the potential benefit if using a nanofibrillated form of cellulose (NFC) to reduce the total paper pulp quantities used while retaining paper mechanical and printing performance of the paper stock produced