The impact of Cookie Consent Notices on user’s privacy concerns : an empirical analysis

Online privacy has become a significant issue in our society with the use of personal information widespread by websites and firms. To regulate this market, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation to protect online privacy and give back power to users, requiring firms to recover consent before gathering users’ personal information. Therefore, websites introduced cookie consent notices that allow users to specify their choice regarding the management of personal data. However, this design can manipulate user’s privacy concerns while navigating the website. To find out how, we developed an experiment divided into two steps: before, users displayed a cookie consent notice and, following, they answered to a set of ten questions with different intrusiveness levels, we aimed to measure the correlation between these two phases. We used the platform Amazon Mechanical Turk to gather data building a database of 320 respondents that we tested running random effects panel logistic models. We found out that users displaying a cookie consent notice with pre-ticked choices increase their privacy concerns when they face it without a “reject all” bulk option or when they answer to intrusive questions. Furthermore, we found out that users acting to protect their privacy tend to disclose more intrusive information and that users with a high level of privacy concern disclose less information compared to the others.A privacidade online tornou-se um problema significativo na nossa sociedade com o uso de informações pessoais generalizadas por sites e empresas. Para regular esse mercado, a União Europeia adotou o Regulamento Geral de Proteção de Dados para proteger a privacidade on-line e devolver o poder aos usuários, exigindo que as empresas recuperem o consentimento antes de coletar informações pessoais dos usuários. Portanto, os sites introduziram avisos de consentimento de cookies que permitem aos usuários especificar suas escolhas em relação ao gerenciamento de dados pessoais. No entanto, esse design pode manipular as preocupações com a privacidade do usuário enquanto você navega no site. Para descobrir como, desenvolvemos um experimento dividido em duas etapas: antes, os usuários exibiam um aviso de consentimento de cookies e, a seguir, respondiam a um conjunto de dez perguntas com diferentes níveis de indiscrição, com o objetivo de medir a correlação entre essas duas fases. Utilizamos a plataforma Amazon Mechanical Turk para coletar dados construindo um banco de dados de 320 respondentes que testamos executando uma análise de painel com efeitos aleatórios Logit modelos. Descobrimos que os usuários que exibem um banner pré-marcado aumentam suas preocupações com a privacidade quando enfrentam em um aviso de consentimento de cookie sem uma opção "rejeitar tudo" ou quando respondem a perguntas intrusivas. Ademais, descobrimos que os usuários que agem para proteger sua privacidade tendem a divulgar informações mais intrusivas e que os usuários com um alto nível de preocupação com a privacidade divulgam menos informações em comparação com os outros

The meanings of monuments and memorials: toward a semiotic approach

This paper aims at delineating the basic principles for a semiotic approach to monuments and memorials. Monuments are built forms erected to confer dominant meanings on space. They present an aesthetic value as well as a political function. Often, political elites erect monuments to promote selective historical narratives that focus on convenient events and individuals while obliterating what is discomforting. While representing selective historical narratives, monuments can inculcate specific conceptions of the present and encourage future possibilities. As such, monuments become essential for the articulation of the national politics of memory and identity through which political elites set political agendas and legitimate political power. However, once erected, monuments become social properties and users can reinterpret them in ways that are different or contrary to the intentions of the designers. Previous research has explored monuments as either aesthetic objects presenting historical and artistic values or as political tools in the hand of those in power. Hence, this research has wittingly or unwittingly created a gap between the material-symbolic and the political dimensions of monuments. Moreover, it has variously given more emphasis either to the intentions of the designers or to the interpretations of the users. The semiotic approach to monuments can address these issues providing a holistic approach that overcomes the rigid distinctions predominant in previous research on monuments. Although useful analytical categories, the distinction between material-symbolic and political dimensions cannot be extended to the ontological state of monuments. Semiotics can be useful in investigating the meanings of monuments as actively created by the interplay of the material, the symbolic and the political dimensions. It provides a methodological basis to consider designers and users as equally contributing to the meaning-making of monuments

Quantum computing with quantum-Hall edge state interferometry

Electron interferometers based on Hall edge states (ESs) proved to be robust demonstrators of the coherent quantum dynamics of carriers. Several proposals to expose their capability to build and control quantum entanglement and to exploit them as building block for quantum computing devices has been presented. Here, we review the time-dependent numerical modeling of Hall interferometers operating at the single-carrier level at integer filling factor (FF). By defining the qubit state either as the spatial localization (at FF 1) or the Landau index (at FF 2) of a single carrier propagating in the ES, we show how a generic one-qubit rotation can be realized. By a proper design of the two-dimensional electron gas potential landscape, an entangling two-qubit gate can be implemented by exploiting Coulomb interaction, thus realizing a universal set of quantum gates. We also assess how the shape of the edge confining potential affects the visibility of the quantum transformations

Nutraceutical approach to Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): the available clinical evidence.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a clinical condition characterized by lipid infiltration of the liver, highly prevalent in the general population affecting 25% of adults, with a doubled prevalence in diabetic and obese patients. Almost 1/3 of NAFLD evolves in Non-Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis (NASH), and this can lead to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. However, the main causes of mortality of patients with NAFLD are cardiovascular diseases. At present, there are no specific drugs approved on the market for the treatment of NAFLD, and the treatment is essentially based on optimization of lifestyle. However, some nutraceuticals could contribute to the improvement of lipid infiltration of the liver and of the related anthropometric, haemodynamic, and/or biochemical parameters. The aim of this paper is to review the available clinical data on the effect of nutraceuticals on NAFLD and NAFLD-related parameters. Relatively few nutraceutical molecules have been adequately studied for their effects on NAFLD. Among these, we have analysed in detail the effects of silymarin, vitamin E, vitamin D, polyunsaturated fatty acids of the omega-3 series, astaxanthin, coenzyme Q10, berberine, curcumin, resveratrol, extracts of Salvia milthiorriza, and probiotics. In conclusion, Silymarin, vitamin E and vitamin D, polyunsaturated fatty acids of the omega-3 series, coenzyme Q10, berberine and curcumin, if well dosed and administered for medium\u2013long periods, and associated to lifestyle changes, could exert positive effects on NAFLD and NAFLD-related parameters. View Full-Tex

Is there an effective therapy available for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is defined as fat accumulation in the liver, ranging from simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Although it used to be considered a benign condition, nowadays it is known to be associated with liver injury and the development of end-stage liver disease. NAFLD is the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MS) with an incidence rising in accordance with the increased prevalence of MS, the latter being considered the most common cause of liver enzyme elevation in Western countries. To date, no medications or surgical procedures have been approved for effective treatment of NAFLD, and all of the therapies tested so far must still be regarded as experimental. It is expected that, based on the large amount of data produced in the last few years and the ongoing large multicenter clinical trials, the effective treatment(s) for NASH will soon be defined. Meanwhile, lifestyle interventions and behavior therapy, the only treatments shown to be effective, must be introduced in daily clinical practice and, if possible, supported by public health programs

Two-electron selective coupling in an edge-state based conditional phase shifter

We investigate the effect of long-range Coulomb interaction on the two-electron scattering in the integer quantum Hall regime at bulk filling factor two.We compute the dynamics of the exact two-particle wave function by means of a parallel version of the split-step Fourier method in a 2D potential background reproducing the effect of depleting gates in a realistic heterostructure, with the charge carrier represented by a localized wave packet of edge states.We compare the spatial shift induced by Coulomb repulsion in the final two-electron wave function for two indistinguishable electrons initialized in different configurations according to their Landau index and analyze their bunching probability and the effect of screening. We finally prove the feasibility of this device as a two-qubit conditional phase shifter able to generate controlled entanglement from product states