Internet Privacy: Tracking and Filtering, a Policy

Question

PP290: Information Technology and Public Policy | Jason Christopher and Prof. Michael O’Hare, GSPP

Tuesday, 30 August 2011 - Ideas

Administrative• Any questions from last time?

• Forthcoming addition to the syllabus: final papero Pick a organization, company, institution, govt. agency … from a

(policy) field of interest such as, healthcare, renewable energy, finance, etc. Do an analysis of the IT components of the organization and its integration with the organization---past, present, future--- specifically discussing the pros and cons of maintaining the IT infrastructure and IT projects. Include in your analysis a discussion of costs and IT alternatives.

• Jason’s Office Hourso Monday 2:00 -4:00o Friday 2:00 – 4:00o Or by appointment

Discussion Points• What is the internet? What is the web? What is the

distinction between the two? Hint: system v. service• Broadcast, narrowcast, democratized news media • What is the “killer app” of the web?• What is an internet cookie? How does it work?• What are third-party cookies and why are they a

threat to privacy?• What is internet tracking?• What is internet filtering?• *Theme: Unintended Consequences

Internet and Web• internet: network of interconnected networks.

“Traffic” on the network follows agreed upon rules to keep the flow going.o IP (internet protocol) for addressing | *ping www.cnn.com | *public and

private addressing in briefo DNS (Doman Name System) names to numbers, a phonebook

• web: a global set of documents connected by hyperlinks using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)|a “service” that runs on the internet. There are many other services that use the internet. Ex. E-mail, DHCPo PC: open command window; at *command prompt, type: ipconfig, the

ipconfig /all, ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew

• Protocols use ports | 0 to 65535 | HTTP 80

Browsing the Web• Your web browser of preference…• nytimes.com: 80• Page sample: http://“www.nytimes.com”• What are the economics of pages/sites? How is it

funded?• Browser: view page source at nytimes.com• Find “singleAD” on page• Logging on to a site, your account information…

o Login nytimes.com

• Try other sites, look for adds in the page source

Advertising Revenue

Ex. www.zenni.com |$15mil company paying $50K/month to Google for add service

Tracking: Cookie Tech 101

• Allows for increasingly targeted advertising and loss of privacy. Are there any potential gains?

• An “ever-growing data-base” of you! For how long?

• …My IP address, but what if I am on a private net-work?

• Leakage and taking control• Browser: find third-party

cookies and control on your favorite browser…

Public Policy• Do people have ownership over their private

information?

• Consumer control: turn off third-party cookies, don’t use Gmail? Do Not Track – Stanford

• Should government step in?o Consumers don’t know that information is being collectedo The danger of data being combined… “ever-growing database”o Competition among advertising platforms may not result in optimal

provision of privacy

Filtering: Not just Adds…

• Filters that show the internet the way we want to see it, including the news

• Ex. Google, NY Times, Washington Post

• Experiment: Search for “Egypt”• Facebook: Relevance to you! • “When the result is that our favorite

pizza parlor shows up first when we Google pizza, it’s useful. But when the result is that we only see the information that is aligned with our religious or social or political beliefs, it’s difficult to maintain perspective.”

---Eli Pariser, Board President and former Executive Director of MoveOn.org

For Next Time• Lab session: “Hardware: Getting to Know Your

Electronic Cadaver”

Your Moment of Zen

• http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

1968