The path towards clear and convincing digital privacy rights

This study was a legal based inquiry to determine to what extend digital privacy rights are adequately protected by existing law. Because the major statutory vehicle that guides privacy rights in America was passed in 1986, the courts have had to address issues not contemplated by the statute. This study reviews the rulings of all twelve United States Courts of Appeal to determine whether or not digital privacy rights are expanded or limited. Comparisons are made between various circuits and different regions of the country. Three questions are addressed in this study, summarized as; a question about the current status of digital privacy laws; a question about the impact of court decisions on digital privacy rights; and a question and assessment about the adequacy of digital privacy laws. Also, recommendations are suggested for how digital privacy rights can be enhanced in the future. These recommendations would first change the standard needed to issue warrants and to access an individuals’ digital privacy rights to a “clear and convincing” analysis and standard. Secondly, the author recommends that digital privacy rights should become analogous to intellectual property rights and should have the same level of protection afforded intellectual property rights. Although digital privacy is not yet firmly recognized as more akin to Intellectual Property deserving of heightened protection, this study recommends that digital privacy, along with trade secret, copyright and patents, and trademark law should all be considered a type of intellectual capital that needs to be protected from those not authorized to access or utilize that intellectual property

These Walls Can Talk! Securing Digital Privacy in the Smart Home Under the Fourth Amendment

Privacy law in the United States has not kept pace with the realities of technological development, nor the growing reliance on the Internet of Things (IoT). As of now, the law has not adequately secured the “smart” home from intrusion by the state, and the Supreme Court further eroded digital privacy by conflating the common law concepts of trespass and exclusion in United States v. Jones. This article argues that the Court must correct this misstep by explicitly recognizing the method by which the Founding Fathers sought to “secure” houses and effects under the Fourth Amendment. Namely, the Court must reject its overly narrow trespass approach in lieu of the more appropriate right to exclude. This will better account for twenty-first century surveillance capabilities and properly constrain the state. Moreover, an exclusion framework will bolster the reasonable expectation of digital privacy by presuming an objective unreasonableness in any warrantless penetration by the state into the smart home

Toward a social compact for digital privacy and security

Executive summary The Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) was established in January 2014 to articulate and advance a strategic vision for the future of Internet governance. In recent deliberations, the Commission discussed the potential for a damaging erosion of trust in the absence of a broad social agreement on norms for digital privacy and security. The Commission considers that, for the Internet to remain a global engine of social and economic progress that reflects the world’s cultural diversity, confidence must be restored in the Internet because trust is eroding. The Internet should be open, freely available to all, secure and safe. The Commission thus agrees that all stakeholders must collaborate together to adopt norms for responsible behaviour on the Internet. On the occasion of the April 2015 Global Conference on Cyberspace meeting in The Hague, the Commission calls on the global community to build a new social compact between citizens and their elected representatives, the judiciary, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, business, civil society and the Internet technical community, with the goal of restoring trust and enhancing confidence in the Internet. It is now essential that governments, collaborating with all other stakeholders, take steps to build confidence that the right to privacy of all people is respected on the Internet. It is essential at the same time to ensure the rule of law is upheld. The two goals are not exclusive; indeed, they are mutually reinforcing. Individuals and businesses must be protected both from the misuse of the Internet by terrorists, cyber criminal groups and the overreach of governments and businesses that collect and use private data. A social compact must be built on a shared commitment by all stakeholders in developed and less developed countries to take concrete action in their own jurisdictions to build trust and confidence in the Internet. A commitment to the concept of collaborative security and to privacy must replace lengthy and over-politicized negotiations and conferences

What's That Noise? Or, a Case Against Digital Privacy as a Matter of Regulation and Control

Digital privacy is typically understood as the restriction of access to personal information and user data. This assumes regulation and control on the part of governments and corporations, realized through various laws and policies. However, there exists another realm bearing on digital privacy. This realm involves a wider network of actors carrying out practices and techniques beyond merely governmental and corporate means: users who engage and manipulate digital privacy software that is created by coders, as well as the software itself for the ways in which it mediates the relationship between users and coders. The dissertation argues that by focusing attention on this other realm of coders, users and software interacting with one another we as analysts develop alternative understandings of digital privacy, specifically by attending to each actors noisemaking: the deliberate (or even incidental) process of obfuscating, interrupting, precluding, confusing or misleading access to digital information. The dissertation analyzes how each of these three actors engage in noisemaking across three different types of encrypted Internet systems: The Onion Router web browser; the WhatsApp instant messaging service; the SpiderOak One file hosting service. These relatively taken-for-granted actors instruct the academy that digital privacy is less about regulating and controlling information as much as it is about surrendering control over information management and security. The dissertation demonstrates that digital privacy thus ought to be understood as a reflection of the variegated, contingent and incidental nature of social and political forces unfolding at the edge of and even beyond the purview of governments and corporations

What Happens Next? Using the Story Completion Method to Surface the Affects and Materialities of Digital Privacy Dilemmas

People’s ideas and practices concerning their personal data and digital privacy have received growing attention in social inquiry. In this article, we discuss findings from a study that adopted the story completion method together with a theoretical perspective building on feminist materialism to explore how people make sense of and respond to digital privacy dilemmas. The Digital Privacy Story Completion Project presented participants with a set of four story prompts (‘stems’) for them to complete. Each introduced a fictional character facing a privacy dilemma related to personal data generated from their online interactions or app use. Our analysis surfaces how privacy is imagined as simultaneously personal and social, redolent with affective intensities, and framed through relational connections of human and nonhuman agents. While the story stems involved scenarios using digital technologies, participants’ stories extended beyond the technological. These stories offer insight into why and how the potential for and meaning of digital privacy unfolds into more-than-digital worlds

Digital Privacy Blog Project Reflection

A reflection of blogging to increase understanding of digital privacy while using Facebook and other social media outlets

Digital Privacy in the Home

This workshop covers how to stay safe in a digital environment while using the many conveniences a smart home offers. The first half focuses on understanding where the risks are in the digital environment and how to stay safe by creating secure networks and employing strong security tactics with biometrics, passwords, and other available features. The second half focuses on the Internet of Things, covering everything you are likely to find in a smart home. The presentation offers tips on how to reduce the risk of hackers invading your privacy through smart speakers and TVs, as well as addressing the risks associated with connected cars and smart appliances. teach you how to identify where your PII (personally identifiable information) is at risk and how to protect your privacy in the digital world when using everything from your phone to online bill paying to communicating with the Internet of Things (all those “smart” devices). We will consider questions such as: Are biometrics really more secure than a good password? Is your Alexa listening to you ALL the time? Can you delete your internet presence? Are all privacy browsers created equal? Join us to learn more about these topics and others related to digital privacy

[How] Can Pluralist Approaches to Computational Cognitive Modeling of Human Needs and Values Save our Democracies?

In our increasingly digital societies, many companies have business models that perceive users’ (or customers’) personal data as a siloed resource, owned and controlled by the data controller rather than the data subjects. Collecting and processing such a massive amount of personal data could have many negative technical, social and economic consequences, including invading people’s privacy and autonomy. As a result, regulations such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have tried to take steps towards a better implementation of the right to digital privacy. This paper proposes that such legal acts should be accompanied by the development of complementary technical solutions such as Cognitive Personal Assistant Systems to support people to effectively manage their personal data processing on the Internet. Considering the importance and sensitivity of personal data processing, such assistant systems should not only consider their owner’s needs and values, but also be transparent, accountable and controllable. Pluralist approaches in computational cognitive modelling of human needs and values which are not bound to traditional paradigmatic borders such as cognitivism, connectionism, or enactivism, we argue, can create a balance between practicality and usefulness, on the one hand, and transparency, accountability, and controllability, on the other, while supporting and empowering humans in the digital world. Considering the threat to digital privacy as significant to contemporary democracies, the future implementation of such pluralist models could contribute to power-balance, fairness and inclusion in our societies

An Overview of Understanding Digital Privacy

This presentation is part of the Digital Scholar Studio\u27s workshop series and is an overview of best practices related to digital security and privacy at home, work, and in the university setting. It covers the use of computers, mobile devices, and data storage and anonymization