58 research outputs found

    The Information Privacy Law of Web Applications and Cloud Computing

    Get PDF
    This article surveys and evaluates the privacy law of web applications and cloud computing. Cloud services, and web applications in particular, are subject to many different privacy law requirements. While these requirements are often perceived as illfitting, they can be interpreted to provide a structurally sound and coherent privacy regime. The applicable body of law can be separated into two tiers: the primary privacy law and the secondary privacy law. The primary privacy law is created by the providers and users of cloud services through privacy contracts, especially, privacy policies. The secondary privacy law, contained, for example, in statutes and regulations, is for the most part only applicable where no valid privacy contracts exist. This supremacy of privacy contracts over statutory and other secondary privacy law enables individualized privacy protection levels and commercial use of privacy rights according to the contracting parties’ individual wishes

    AltersabhÀngige VerÀnderungen elektrophysiologischer Reizantworten von der Riechschleimhaut

    Get PDF
    Über 50 % der 65- bis 80-JĂ€hrigen leiden unter einer verminderten RiechfĂ€higkeit. Strukturelle VerĂ€nderungen in der Riechbahn sind wahrscheinliche GrĂŒnde. Der altersbedingte histologische RĂŒckgang des olfaktorischen Epithels wird seit langem erforscht. Die Darstellung der altersbedingten peripheren und zentralen VerĂ€nderungen auf elektrophysiologischer Ebene ist Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit. Insgesamt wurden 73 TeilnehmerInnen untersucht, darunter 40 jĂŒngere (davon 25 Frauen, Altersspanne 18-27 Jahre) und 33 Ă€ltere (davon 22 Frauen, Altersspanne 50-78 Jahre). Vor der Teilnahme an der elektrophysiologischen Untersuchung erhielten alle ProbandInnen eine nasale Endoskopie, eine standardisierte Anamnese sowie detaillierte Geruchstests mittels Sniffin‘ Sticks. ProbandInnen mit chronischen Erkrankungen des olfaktorischen Systems oder anderen Bereichen des zentralen Nervensystems wurden nicht in die Studie eingeschlossen. Zur intranasalen Stimulation wurden olfaktorische und trigeminale Reize verwendet. Als olfaktorische Stimulantien dienten Schwefelwasserstoff als eher unangenehmer und 2-Phenylethylalkohol als eher angenehmer Duft. Zur trigeminalen Stimulation diente Kohlendioxid. Mittels LuftverdĂŒnnungsolfaktometrie (Olfaktometer OM6b; Burghart, Deutschland) wurden Stimuli von 500 ms Dauer in einen konstanten Luftstrom von etwa 8 l/min eingebettet. Elektroolfaktogramme wurden als elektrophysiologisches Korrelat der olfaktorischen Rezeptorpotenziale direkt von der Riechschleimhaut abgeleitet. Gleichzeitig erfolgte die EEG-basierte Registrierung chemosensorisch-ereigniskorrelierter Potentiale (CSEP) bzw. bei Reizung mit Duftstoffen olfaktorisch- ereigniskorrelierter Potenziale (OERP). Die Ergebnisse der psychophysischen Riechtests ergaben eine deutlich negative Korrelation mit dem Alter der Teilnehmenden (r=-0,42, p< 0,001). Obwohl die EOG-Amplituden und Latenzen keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen den Altersgruppen zeigten, wurde ein deutlicher altersabhĂ€ngiger RĂŒckgang in der Anzahl der registrierten Potenziale festgestellt. FĂŒr die zentralnervöse CSEP-Reaktion zeigte sich eine altersabhĂ€ngige VerkĂŒrzung der relevanten Latenzen, so z.B. die P1-Latenz an Elektrodenposition Cz nach Stimulation mit PEA (t = 3,4, p = 0,003). Eine Korrelation von P2-Ampltiuden (Cz) und Alter bei Stimulation mit PEA zeigte darĂŒber hinaus einen signifikant negativen Zusammenhang (p=0,005, r=-0,44). Die VerĂ€nderungen der EOG und CSEP entsprachen in ihrer AusprĂ€gung nicht den altersabhĂ€ngigen VerĂ€nderungen in den psychophysischen Testergebnissen. Jedoch zeigen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse einen eher zentral-betonten, aber auch peripher nachweisbaren Alterungsprozess der elektrophysiologischen Geruchsverarbeitung. Die geringe AusprĂ€gung dieser VerĂ€nderungen ist möglicherweise Zeichen der EffektivitĂ€t von Kompensationsmechanismen und systemimmanenten Redundanzen, die es weiter zu erforschen gilt

    When Enough is Enough: Location Tracking, Mosaic Theory, and Machine Learning

    Get PDF
    Since 1967, when it decided Katz v. United States, the Supreme Court has tied the right to be free of unwanted government scrutiny to the concept of reasonable xpectations of privacy.[1] An evaluation of reasonable expectations depends, among other factors, upon an assessment of the intrusiveness of government action. When making such assessment historically the Court has considered police conduct with clear temporal, geographic, or substantive limits. However, in an era where new technologies permit the storage and compilation of vast amounts of personal data, things are becoming more complicated. A school of thought known as “mosaic theory” has stepped into the void, ringing the alarm that our old tools for assessing the intrusiveness of government conduct potentially undervalue privacy rights. Mosaic theorists advocate a cumulative approach to the evaluation of data collection. Under the theory, searches are “analyzed as a collective sequence of steps rather than as individual steps.”[2] The approach is based on the recognition that comprehensive aggregation of even seemingly innocuous data reveals greater insight than consideration of each piece of information in isolation. Over time, discrete units of surveillance data can be processed to create a mosaic of habits, relationships, and much more. Consequently, a Fourth Amendment analysis that focuses only on the government’s collection of discrete units of trivial data fails to appreciate the true harm of long-term surveillance—the composite. In the context of location tracking, the Court has previously suggested that the Fourth Amendment may (at some theoretical threshold) be concerned with the accumulated information revealed by surveillance.[3] Similarly, in the Court’s recent decision in United States v. Jones, a majority of concurring justices indicated willingness to explore such an approach.[4] However, in general, the Court has rejected any notion that technological enhancement matters to the constitutional treatment of location tracking.[5] Rather, it has found that such surveillance in public spaces, which does not require physical trespass, is equivalent to a human tail and thus not regulated by the Fourth Amendment. In this way, the Court has avoided quantitative analysis of the amendment’s protections. The Court’s reticence is built on the enticingly direct assertion that objectivity under the mosaic theory is impossible. This is true in large part because there has been no rationale yet offered to objectively distinguish relatively short-term monitoring from its counterpart of greater duration. As Justice Scalia recently observed in Jones: “it remains unexplained why a 4-week investigation is ‘surely’ too long.”[6] This article suggests that by combining the lessons of machine learning with the mosaic theory and applying the pairing to the Fourth Amendment we can see the contours of a response. Machine learning makes clear that mosaics can be created. Moreover, there are also important lessons to be learned on when that is the case. Machine learning is the branch of computer science that studies systems that can draw inferences from collections of data, generally by means of mathematical algorithms. In a recent competition called “The Nokia Mobile Data Challenge,”[7] researchers evaluated machine learning’s applicability to GPS and cell phone tower data. From a user’s location history alone, the researchers were able to estimate the user’s gender, marital status, occupation and age.[8] Algorithms developed for the competition were also able to predict a user’s likely future location by observing past location history. The prediction of a user’s future location could be even further improved by using the location data of friends and social contacts.[9] Machine learning of the sort on display during the Nokia competition seeks to harness the data deluge of today’s information society by efficiently organizing data, finding statistical regularities and other patterns in it, and making predictions therefrom. Machine learning algorithms are able to deduce information—including information that has no obvious linkage to the input data—that may otherwise have remained private due to the natural limitations of manual and human-driven investigation. Analysts can “train” machine learning programs using one dataset to find similar characteristics in new datasets. When applied to the digital “bread crumbs” of data generated by people, machine learning algorithms can make targeted personal predictions. The greater the number of data points evaluated, the greater the accuracy of the algorithm’s results. In five parts, this article advances the conclusion that the duration of investigations is relevant to their substantive Fourth Amendment treatment because duration affects the accuracy of the predictions. Though it was previously difficult to explain why an investigation of four weeks was substantively different from an investigation of four hours, we now have a better understanding of the value of aggregated data when viewed through a machine learning lens. In some situations, predictions of startling accuracy can be generated with remarkably few data points. Furthermore, in other situations accuracy can increase dramatically above certain thresholds. For example, a 2012 study found the ability to deduce ethnicity moved sideways through five weeks of phone data monitoring, jumped sharply to a new plateau at that point, and then increased sharply again after twenty-eight weeks.[10] More remarkably, the accuracy of identification of a target’s significant other improved dramatically after five days’ worth of data inputs.[11] Experiments like these support the notion of a threshold, a point at which it makes sense to draw a Fourth Amendment line. In order to provide an objective basis for distinguishing between law enforcement activities of differing duration the results of machine learning algorithms can be combined with notions of privacy metrics, such as k-anonymity or l-diversity. While reasonable minds may dispute the most suitable minimum accuracy threshold, this article makes the case that the collection of data points allowing predictions that exceed selected thresholds should be deemed unreasonable searches in the absence of a warrant.[12] Moreover, any new rules should take into account not only the data being collected but also the foreseeable improvements in the machine learning technology that will ultimately be brought to bear on it; this includes using future algorithms on older data. In 2001, the Supreme Court asked “what limits there are upon the power of technology to shrink the realm of guaranteed privacy.”[13] In this piece, we explore an answer and investigate what lessons there are in the power of technology to protect the realm of guaranteed privacy. After all, as technology takes away, it also gives. The objective understanding of data compilation and analysis that is revealed by machine learning provides important Fourth Amendment insights. We should begin to consider these insights more closely. [1] Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). [2] Orin Kerr, The Mosaic Theory of the Fourth Amendment, 111 Mich. L. Rev. 311, 312 (2012). [3] United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276, 284 (1983). [4] Justice Scalia writing for the majority left the question open. United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945, 954 (2012) (“It may be that achieving the same result [as in traditional surveillance] through electronic means, without an accompanying trespass, is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, but the present case does not require us to answer that question.”). [5] Compare Knotts, 460 U.S. at 276 (rejecting the contention that an electronic beeper should be treated differently than a human tail) and Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 744 (1979) (approving the warrantless use of a pen register in part because the justices were “not inclined to hold that a different constitutional result is required because the telephone company has decided to automate”) with Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 33 (2001) (recognizing that advances in technology affect the degree of privacy secured by the Fourth Amendment). [6] United States v. Jones, 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012); see also Kerr, 111 Mich. L. Rev. at 329-330. [7] See Nokia Research Center, Mobile Data Challenge 2012 Workshop, http://research.nokia.com/page/12340. [8] Demographic Attributes Prediction on the Real-World Mobile Data, Sanja Brdar, Dubravko Culibrk & Vladimir Crnojevic, Nokia Mobile Data Challenge Workshop 2012. [9] Interdependence and Predictability of Human Mobility and Social Interactions, Manlio de Domenico, Antonio Lima & Mirco Musolesi, Nokia Mobile Data Challenge Workshop 2012. [10] See Yaniv Altshuler, Nadav Aharony, Michael Fire, Yuval Elovici, Alex Pentland, Incremental Learning with Accuracy Prediction of Social and Individual Properties from Mobile-Phone Data, WS3P, IEEE Social Computing (2012), Figure 10. [11] Id., Figure 9. [12] Admittedly, there are differing views on sources of authority beyond the Constitution that might justify location tracking. See, e.g., Stephanie K. Pell & Christopher Soghoian, Can You See Me Now? Toward Reasonable Standards for Law Enforcement Access to Location Data That Congress Could Enact, 27 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 117 (2012). [13] Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 34

    The outsourcing of social care in Britain : what does it mean for voluntary sector workers?

    Get PDF
    While recent decades have witnessed a growth in the outsourcing of public services in Britain, the post-1997 UK Labour governments have sought to put in place mechanisms aimed at encouraging long-term collaborative contracting relationships marked by less reliance on cost-based competition. This article explores empirically how far these mechanisms have achieved their aims and thereby acted to protect the employment conditions of staff, and links this exploration to debates concerning the employment implications of organizational reforms within public sectors internationally. It concludes that in terms of bringing income security to the voluntary sector and stability to employment terms and conditions these efforts have been unsuccessful, and consequently casts doubts on more optimistic interpretations of the employment effects of organizational restructuring in the British public sector

    The construction of the efficient office: scientific management, accountability and the neo-liberal state

    Get PDF
    The office has been a central site of organizational planning, accountability, and control since the 19th century. Yet it has been the subject of relatively little accounting research. Through the dual theoretical lenses of Foucaultian and Labour Process theories, this study employs historical photo‐elicitation methodology to investigate the implementation of management control and accountability in the scientifically managed office which emerged in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Our analysis reveals the manner in which accounting records created new modes of disciplinary control and surveillance within the office and how accounting tasks were de‐skilled in a gradually feminized and mechanized office environment. We also witness the role of accounting in the physical structuring of office space through the assembly line arrangement of office furniture to facilitate paper flows and the installation of record‐keeping systems of surveillance. In addition, our visually derived historical account of these transformations in office administration allows us to reflect on some contemporary issues. The production‐line design and efficiency so promoted by scientific management served as a forerunner to today's open‐plan office, as well as influencing contemporary office management philosophies such as Activity‐Based Working. Furthermore, we seek to inform current debates on the role of accounting in contemporary neo‐liberal society. In the history of the scientific office, we gain an early glimpse of the subsequent role that accounting comes to play within a neo‐liberal agenda as a powerful technology of micro‐measurement and micro‐management

    AltersabhÀngige VerÀnderungen elektrophysiologischer Reizantworten von der Riechschleimhaut

    No full text
    Über 50 % der 65- bis 80-JĂ€hrigen leiden unter einer verminderten RiechfĂ€higkeit. Strukturelle VerĂ€nderungen in der Riechbahn sind wahrscheinliche GrĂŒnde. Der altersbedingte histologische RĂŒckgang des olfaktorischen Epithels wird seit langem erforscht. Die Darstellung der altersbedingten peripheren und zentralen VerĂ€nderungen auf elektrophysiologischer Ebene ist Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit. Insgesamt wurden 73 TeilnehmerInnen untersucht, darunter 40 jĂŒngere (davon 25 Frauen, Altersspanne 18-27 Jahre) und 33 Ă€ltere (davon 22 Frauen, Altersspanne 50-78 Jahre). Vor der Teilnahme an der elektrophysiologischen Untersuchung erhielten alle ProbandInnen eine nasale Endoskopie, eine standardisierte Anamnese sowie detaillierte Geruchstests mittels Sniffin‘ Sticks. ProbandInnen mit chronischen Erkrankungen des olfaktorischen Systems oder anderen Bereichen des zentralen Nervensystems wurden nicht in die Studie eingeschlossen. Zur intranasalen Stimulation wurden olfaktorische und trigeminale Reize verwendet. Als olfaktorische Stimulantien dienten Schwefelwasserstoff als eher unangenehmer und 2-Phenylethylalkohol als eher angenehmer Duft. Zur trigeminalen Stimulation diente Kohlendioxid. Mittels LuftverdĂŒnnungsolfaktometrie (Olfaktometer OM6b; Burghart, Deutschland) wurden Stimuli von 500 ms Dauer in einen konstanten Luftstrom von etwa 8 l/min eingebettet. Elektroolfaktogramme wurden als elektrophysiologisches Korrelat der olfaktorischen Rezeptorpotenziale direkt von der Riechschleimhaut abgeleitet. Gleichzeitig erfolgte die EEG-basierte Registrierung chemosensorisch-ereigniskorrelierter Potentiale (CSEP) bzw. bei Reizung mit Duftstoffen olfaktorisch- ereigniskorrelierter Potenziale (OERP). Die Ergebnisse der psychophysischen Riechtests ergaben eine deutlich negative Korrelation mit dem Alter der Teilnehmenden (r=-0,42, p< 0,001). Obwohl die EOG-Amplituden und Latenzen keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen den Altersgruppen zeigten, wurde ein deutlicher altersabhĂ€ngiger RĂŒckgang in der Anzahl der registrierten Potenziale festgestellt. FĂŒr die zentralnervöse CSEP-Reaktion zeigte sich eine altersabhĂ€ngige VerkĂŒrzung der relevanten Latenzen, so z.B. die P1-Latenz an Elektrodenposition Cz nach Stimulation mit PEA (t = 3,4, p = 0,003). Eine Korrelation von P2-Ampltiuden (Cz) und Alter bei Stimulation mit PEA zeigte darĂŒber hinaus einen signifikant negativen Zusammenhang (p=0,005, r=-0,44). Die VerĂ€nderungen der EOG und CSEP entsprachen in ihrer AusprĂ€gung nicht den altersabhĂ€ngigen VerĂ€nderungen in den psychophysischen Testergebnissen. Jedoch zeigen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse einen eher zentral-betonten, aber auch peripher nachweisbaren Alterungsprozess der elektrophysiologischen Geruchsverarbeitung. Die geringe AusprĂ€gung dieser VerĂ€nderungen ist möglicherweise Zeichen der EffektivitĂ€t von Kompensationsmechanismen und systemimmanenten Redundanzen, die es weiter zu erforschen gilt

    AltersabhÀngige VerÀnderungen elektrophysiologischer Reizantworten von der Riechschleimhaut

    No full text
    Über 50 % der 65- bis 80-JĂ€hrigen leiden unter einer verminderten RiechfĂ€higkeit. Strukturelle VerĂ€nderungen in der Riechbahn sind wahrscheinliche GrĂŒnde. Der altersbedingte histologische RĂŒckgang des olfaktorischen Epithels wird seit langem erforscht. Die Darstellung der altersbedingten peripheren und zentralen VerĂ€nderungen auf elektrophysiologischer Ebene ist Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit. Insgesamt wurden 73 TeilnehmerInnen untersucht, darunter 40 jĂŒngere (davon 25 Frauen, Altersspanne 18-27 Jahre) und 33 Ă€ltere (davon 22 Frauen, Altersspanne 50-78 Jahre). Vor der Teilnahme an der elektrophysiologischen Untersuchung erhielten alle ProbandInnen eine nasale Endoskopie, eine standardisierte Anamnese sowie detaillierte Geruchstests mittels Sniffin‘ Sticks. ProbandInnen mit chronischen Erkrankungen des olfaktorischen Systems oder anderen Bereichen des zentralen Nervensystems wurden nicht in die Studie eingeschlossen. Zur intranasalen Stimulation wurden olfaktorische und trigeminale Reize verwendet. Als olfaktorische Stimulantien dienten Schwefelwasserstoff als eher unangenehmer und 2-Phenylethylalkohol als eher angenehmer Duft. Zur trigeminalen Stimulation diente Kohlendioxid. Mittels LuftverdĂŒnnungsolfaktometrie (Olfaktometer OM6b; Burghart, Deutschland) wurden Stimuli von 500 ms Dauer in einen konstanten Luftstrom von etwa 8 l/min eingebettet. Elektroolfaktogramme wurden als elektrophysiologisches Korrelat der olfaktorischen Rezeptorpotenziale direkt von der Riechschleimhaut abgeleitet. Gleichzeitig erfolgte die EEG-basierte Registrierung chemosensorisch-ereigniskorrelierter Potentiale (CSEP) bzw. bei Reizung mit Duftstoffen olfaktorisch- ereigniskorrelierter Potenziale (OERP). Die Ergebnisse der psychophysischen Riechtests ergaben eine deutlich negative Korrelation mit dem Alter der Teilnehmenden (r=-0,42, p< 0,001). Obwohl die EOG-Amplituden und Latenzen keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen den Altersgruppen zeigten, wurde ein deutlicher altersabhĂ€ngiger RĂŒckgang in der Anzahl der registrierten Potenziale festgestellt. FĂŒr die zentralnervöse CSEP-Reaktion zeigte sich eine altersabhĂ€ngige VerkĂŒrzung der relevanten Latenzen, so z.B. die P1-Latenz an Elektrodenposition Cz nach Stimulation mit PEA (t = 3,4, p = 0,003). Eine Korrelation von P2-Ampltiuden (Cz) und Alter bei Stimulation mit PEA zeigte darĂŒber hinaus einen signifikant negativen Zusammenhang (p=0,005, r=-0,44). Die VerĂ€nderungen der EOG und CSEP entsprachen in ihrer AusprĂ€gung nicht den altersabhĂ€ngigen VerĂ€nderungen in den psychophysischen Testergebnissen. Jedoch zeigen die vorliegenden Ergebnisse einen eher zentral-betonten, aber auch peripher nachweisbaren Alterungsprozess der elektrophysiologischen Geruchsverarbeitung. Die geringe AusprĂ€gung dieser VerĂ€nderungen ist möglicherweise Zeichen der EffektivitĂ€t von Kompensationsmechanismen und systemimmanenten Redundanzen, die es weiter zu erforschen gilt

    The Information Privacy Law of Web Applications and Cloud Computing

    No full text
    This article surveys and evaluates the privacy law of web applications and cloud computing. Cloud services, and web applications in particular, are subject to many different privacy law requirements. While these requirements are often perceived as illfitting, they can be interpreted to provide a structurally sound and coherent privacy regime. The applicable body of law can be separated into two tiers: the primary privacy law and the secondary privacy law. The primary privacy law is created by the providers and users of cloud services through privacy contracts, especially, privacy policies. The secondary privacy law, contained, for example, in statutes and regulations, is for the most part only applicable where no valid privacy contracts exist. This supremacy of privacy contracts over statutory and other secondary privacy law enables individualized privacy protection levels and commercial use of privacy rights according to the contracting parties’ individual wishes

    Age-Related Changes In Resposiveness Of The Olfactory Epithelium

    No full text
    Olfactory impairment in aging adults&nbsp;&nbsp;is probably&nbsp;&nbsp;due to many causes, including structural changes at the level of the olfactory mucosa. Aim of the present investigation was to study age-related changes in response to olfactory and trigeminal stimuli at the level of the olfactory mucosa and the central nervous system, using electrophysiological responses. A total of 73 participants were examined (younger: n=40, 18-27 years; older: n=33, 50-78 years). All subjects received nasal endoscopy, a standardized medical history, and detailed olfactory testing (Sniffin Sticks). For intranasal stimulation olfactory (H2S, PEA) and trigeminal (CO2) stimuli were used. Stimuli of 500 ms duration were embedded in a constant airflow of ~8l/min using air-dilution olfactometry. Responses were recorded from the olfactory epithelium (electro-olfactograms, EOG). Simultaneously, EEG-derived olfactory event-related potentials (OERP) were analyzed.&nbsp;Results from psychophysical olfactory tests were negatively correlated with the age&nbsp;of the participants (r=-0.42, p&lt;0.001). Although EOG amplitudes and latencies did not show an age-related difference, younger individuals showed significantly more EOG responses than older ones. For the central-nervous OERP response latencies were significantly shorter in younger participants than in older ones. OERP amplitudes were significantly different between age groups. However, the number of detectable OERP responses was smaller in older participants.&nbsp;In conclusion, the present results showed small age-related differences between a younger and an older group, both at peripheral and central-nervous levels.&nbsp;The present results indicate relatively small changes in the processing of olfactory information possibly pointing at redundancies in the system or the effectivity of compensatory mechanisms.</p
    • 

    corecore