Privacy in a Digital World

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Privacy in a Digital World

• CSCI327

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Initial Questions

• Is privacy a fundamental right?
• other fundamental rights life, liberty, pursuit
  of happiness
• What do privacy rights have to do with computer
  science?

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ChoicePoint to pay 15M to settle charges The
data warehouser will settle charges that it
failed to protect consumers' personal financial
information, the FTC says. www.cnn.com -
January 26, 2006 WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
ChoicePoint Inc. has agreed to pay 15 million to
settle charges that it failed to adequately
protect consumers' personal financial
information, the Federal Trade Commission said
Thursday. The company has agreed to pay a 10
million civil penalty, provide 5 million to
compensate consumers, and take steps to better
safeguard personal information so it is used only
for legitimate purposes, the agency said. The
company last year admitted that more than 163,000
personal records had been compromised, the agency
said. The FTC charged ChoicePoint illegally gave
credit histories to people who were not
authorized to obtain them and failed to have
reasonable procedures to verify the identities of
those who requested the information and how the
data was to be used. The company also made false
and misleading statements about its privacy
policies, the FTC charged. A representative for
the company was not immediately available for
comment.
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Do computing related privacy problems occur
frequently?

• Chronology of electronic privacy problems since
  ChoicePoint

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Types of Privacy

• Freedom from Unwarranted Intrusion
• Freedom from Interference in One's Personal
  Affairs
• Control over the Flow of Personal Information

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Tech's Impact on Privacy

• amount of data gathered
• speed of data movement
• duration of data storage
• variety of data that can be shared

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Is online shopping different fromin-store
shopping?

• Q Does shopping at home online give you more or
  less privacy?
• more privacy - your neighbors will not see you
  there
• less privacy - online shopping gives the company
  much more info about you
• Q Is the data the company gathers different?
• online, they know every item you looked at, how
  long you spent looking, etc

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Sources of Personal Data

• phone book
• public records
• credit card statements
• rewards programs
• cookies
• spyware
• TiVo
• RFID

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Data Mining

• definition search through databases to discover
  patterns and relationships
• usually used for prediction
• example from textbook
• company XYZ operates toll booths and collects
  data about which car IDs pass and when
• company ABC buys XYZ's data and data from credit
  card companies. ABC now knows the addresses of
  frequent drivers along with credit limits
• ABC sells this secondary data to banks
• "We see that your car has 100,000 miles. Need a
  car loan?"

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Info Security

• How safe is that cookie data?
• Example Toysmart.com
• privacy statement said that the personal info of
  users would not be sold or exchanged
• the company went bankrupt in 2000
• Toysmart sold its assets, including the customer
  database

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Example DoubleClick.com

• gathers data from cookies from banners placed on
  a large number of web sites
• DC can cross-reference data to build profiles of
  individual users
• in 1999, DC announced that it planned to purchase
  Abacus, a consumer database company containing
  the names, addresses, phone numbers, etc of 90
  of American Households

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Writing Assignment

• Should the Federal Trade Commission have allowed
  DoubleClick.com to purchase Abacus Inc.? Why or
  why not?
• Grade based on clarity of argument and
  readability (minor).
• Correctly using ethical theories or critical
  thinking skills discussed earlier is a great way
  to strengthen your argument.