On the Identity Trail - .:publications:.

Revisiting the four horsemen of the infopocalypse: Representations of anonymity and the Internet in Canadian newspapers
By: Robert Carey & Jacquelyn Burkell

(2007) 12:8 First Monday

Abstract:

The concept of anonymity is central to much discussion about the Internet. In this paper, we wish to identify the term’s work in the context of more expansive claims about the function, value and consequences of networked information technology in society. We argue that themes and topics in a sample of Canadian print news stories are exemplary of a discourse about the Internet in which anonymity is portrayed as an element that facilitates positive or negative social outcomes of the technology.

Click here to download the article.

Seizing Control?: The Experience Capture Experiments of Ringley & Mann
By: Jane Bailey & Ian Kerr

(2007) 9:2 Ethics and Information Technology 129-139

Abstract:

Will the proliferation of devices that provide the continuous archival and retrieval of personal experiences (CARPE) improve control over, access to and the record of collective knowledge as Vannevar Bush once predicted with his futuristic memex? Or is it possible that their increasing ubiquity might pose fundamental risks to humanity, as Donald Norman contemplated in his investigation of an imaginary CARPE device he called the ‘‘Teddy’’ ? Through an examination of the webcam experiment of Jenni Ringley and the EyeTap experiments of Steve Mann, this article explores some of the social implications of CARPE. The authors’ central claim is that focussing on notions of individual consent and control in assessing the privacy implications of CARPE while reflective of the individualistic conception of privacy that predominates western thinking, is nevertheless inadequate in terms of recognizing the effect of individual uptake of these kinds of technologies on the level of privacy we are all collectively entitled to expect. The authors urge that future analysis ought to take a broader approach that considers contextual factors affecting user groups and the possible limitations on our collective ability to control the social meanings associated with the subsequent distribution and use of personal images and experiences after they are captured and archived. The authors ultimately recommend an approach that takes into account the collective impact that CARPE technologies will have on privacy and identity formation and highlight aspects of that approach.

Click here to read the article.

Soft Surveillance, Hard Consent
By: Ian Kerr, Jennifer Barrigar, Jacquelyn Burkell and Katie Black

(2006) 6 Personally Yours 1-14

ABSTRACT:
This article explores how, like newer approaches to State paternalism, both public and private sector surveillance increasingly rely on what Gary Marx refers to as “soft” measures. Taking their cue from the behavioral sciences, governments and businesses have come to realize that kinder, gentler approaches to personal information collection work just as well as coercion or deceit — and that engineering consent is the key to their success. In this article we contemplate various aspects of the role of consent in the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. After demonstrating how consent-gathering processes are often designed to quietly skew individual decision-making while preserving the illusion of free choice, we point out the dangers of these subtle schemes as well as the inadequacies of current privacy laws in dealing with them. In examining some potential remedies, we investigate the practical implications of data protection provisions that allow individuals to “withdraw consent.” Canvassing recent interdisciplinary work in psychology and decision theory, we explain why such “withdrawal of consent” provisions will not generally provide effective relief and argue that there is a need for a higher threshold of initial consent in privacy law than in private law.

Click here to download this article.

Internet Geolocation and Evasion
By: James Muir and Paul van Oorschot

Technical Report TR-06-05, School of Computer Science, Carleton University (8 April 2006)

ABSTRACT:

Internet geolocation technology (IP geolocation) aims to determine the physical (geographic) location of Internet users and devices. It is currently proposed or in use for a wide variety of purposes, including targeted marketing, restricting digital content sales to authorized jurisdictions, and security applications such as reducing credit card fraud. This raises questions about the veracity of claims of accurate and reliable geolocation, and the ability to evade geolocation. We begin with a state-of-the-art survey of IP geolocation techniques and limitations, and examine the specific problems of (1) approximating a physical location from an IP address; and (2) approximating the physical location of an end client requesting content from a web server. In contrast to previous work, we consider also an adversarial model: a knowledgeable adversary seeking to evade geolocation. Our survey serves as the basis from which we examine tactics useful for evasion/circumvention. The adversarial model leads us to also consider the difficulty of (3) extracting the IP address of an end client visiting a server. As a side-result, in exploring the use of proxy servers as an evasionary tactic, to our surprise we found that we were able to extract an end-client IP address even for a browser protected by Tor/Privoxy (designed to anonymize browsing), provided Java is enabled. We expect our work to stimulate further open research and analysis of techniques for accurate and reliable IP geolocation, and also for evasion thereof. Our work is a small step towards a better understanding of what can, and cannot, be reliably hidden or discovered about IP addresses and physical locations of Internet users and machines.

Click here to download the paper.

Compliance with Canadian Data Protection Laws: Are Retailers Measuring Up?
By: Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

In this report released May 1 2006, the CIPPIC provides the results of the first Canadian survey assessing the compliance of retailers with Canadian data protection laws. The results show widespread non-compliance with federal laws requiring openness, accountability, consent, and individual access to personal data. In a companion report also released May 1, CIPPIC exposes the many ways that detailed personal information about consumers is gathered and traded in the marketplace.

Click here to download the reports:

Report on Retailer Compliance with PIPEDA
Executive Summary - Compliance Report
Compliance Report - Appendices
Report on Databrokerage Industry
Executive Summary - Databroker Report

The reports are also available for download on www.cippic.ca.

The Implications of Digital Rights Management for Privacy and Freedom of Expression
By: Ian Kerr and Jane Bailey

in Info, Comm & Ethics in Society (2004) 2:2, Troubadour Publishing Ltd.

ABSTRACT:

This paper aims to examine some of the broader social consequences of enabling digital rights management. The authors suggest that the current, mainstream orientation of digital rights management systems could have the effect of shifting certain public powers into the invisible hands of private control. Focusing on two central features of digital rights management – their surveillance function and their ability to unbundle copyrights into discrete and custom-made products – the authors conclude that a promulgation of the current use of digital rights management has the potential to seriously undermine our fundamental public commitments to personal privacy and freedom of expression.

Click here to download this paper...

Allies and Aliens: A Mission in Critical Thinking
Media Awareness Network, 2005 (Valerie Steeves and Jane Tallim)

This interactive module for Grades 7 and 8 is designed to increase students’ ability to recognize bias, prejudice and hate propaganda on the Internet and in other media.

In Allies and Aliens students become agents on an intergalactic mission for earth. As students interact with alien characters and visit Web sites on the "Galactic Web", they come across varying degrees of prejudice and discrimination. These interactions help students to understand how such messages can promote hate.

Allies and Aliens is accompanied by an extensive Teacher's Guide that contains background information about the module, the issues that it addresses, and supporting discussion points and student activities.

Click here to start the game…

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three Little CyberPigs, 2nd edition
Media Awareness Network, 2005 (Valerie Steeves)

In this game, designed for ages 8-10, the CyberPigs play on their favourite Web site and encounter marketing ploys, spam and a close encounter with a not-too-friendly wolf.

The purpose of the game is to teach kids how to spot online marketing strategies, protect their personal information and avoid online predators.

The accompanying Teacher's Guide explains how to play the game, gives background information on the issues of online marketing, spam and children's privacy and provides activities and handouts for classroom use.

Click here to start the game…

Pass-thoughts: Authenticating With Our Minds
By: J. Thorpe, P.C. van Oorschot, A. Somayaji

in Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2005/121 (eprint.iacr.org) http://eprint.iacr.org/2005/121. Revised version (to appear): ACSA 2005 New Security Paradigms Workshop, Sept. 2005, Lake Arrowhead, California.

ABSTRACT:
We present a novel idea for user authentication that we call pass-thoughts. Recent advances in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology indicate that there is potential for a new type of human-computer interaction: a user transmitting thoughts directly to a computer. The goal of a pass-thought system would be to extract as much entropy as possible from a user’s brain signals upon “transmitting” a thought. Provided that these brain signals can be recorded and processed in an accurate and repeatable way, a pass-thought system might provide a quasi two-factor, changeable, authentication method resilient to shoulder-surfing. The potential size of the space of a pass-thought system would seem to be unbounded in theory, due to the lack of bounds on what composes a thought, although in practice it will be finite due to system constraints. In this paper, we discuss the motivation and potential of pass-thought authentication, the status quo of BCI technology, and outline the design of what we believe to be a currently feasible pass-thought system. We also briefly mention the need for general exploration and open debate regarding ethical considerations for such technologies.

Click here to download this paper...

Countering Identity Theft through Digital Uniqueness, Location Cross-Checking, and Funneling
By: Paul Van Oorschot and S. Stubblebine

in Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2005 (FC'05), Feb.28-Mar.3 2005, Commonwealth of Dominica. Proceedings: Springer LNCS (to appear).

16 September 2004 draft: http://www.scs.carleton.ca/~paulv/papers/pvoss6-1.pdf

ABSTRACT:
One of today’s fastest growing crimes is identity theft – the unauthorized use and exploitation of another individual’s identity-corroborating information. It is exacerbated by the availability of personal information on the Internet. Published research proposing technical solutions is sparse. In this paper, we identify some underlying problems facilitating identity theft. To address the problem of identity theft and the use of stolen or forged credentials, we propose an authentication architecture and system combining a physical location cross-check, a method for assuring uniqueness of location claims, and a centralized verification process. We
suggest that this system merits consideration for practical use, and hope it serves to stimulate within the security research community, further discussion of technical solutions to the problem of identity theft.

OpenVIDIA: Parallel GPU Computer Vision
By: James Fung, Steve Mann, Chris Aimone

Proceedings of the ACM Multimedia 2005 , Singapore, Nov. 6-11, 2005, pages 849-852

ABSTRACT:

Graphics and vision are approximate inverses of each other: ordinarily Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are used to convert \numbers into pictures" (i.e. computer graphics). In this paper, we propose using GPUs in approximately the reverse way: to assist in \converting pictures into numbers" (i.e. computer vision). The OpenVIDIA project uses single or multiple graphics cards to accelerate image analysis and computer vision. It is a library and API aimed at providing a graphics hardware accelerated processing framework for image processing and computer vision. OpenVIDIA explores the creation of a parallel computer architecture consisting of multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) built entirely from commodity hardware. OpenVIDIA uses multiple Graphics Processing Units in parallel to operate as a general-purpose parallel computer architecture. It provides a simple API which implements some common computer vision algorithms. Many components can be used immediately and because the project is Open Source, the code is intended to serve as templates and examples for how similar algorithms are mapped onto graphics hardware. Implemented are image processing techniques (Canny edge detection, filtering), image feature handling (identifying and matching features) and image registration, to name a few.

Click here to download this paper...

Young Canadians in a Wired World - Phase II
Student Survey, November 2005
By: Media Awareness Network (Valerie Steeves)

Media Awareness Network has unveiled the latest findings from the Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II (YCWW II) national research project – the most comprehensive and wide-ranging survey of its kind in Canada. Building on baseline research conducted in 2001, YCWW II looks at the online behaviours, attitudes, and opinions of more than 5,200 children and youth from grades 4 to 11, in every province and territory across the country.

The YCWW II research reveals that an astonishing 94 percent of young people access the Internet from home, with students as early as Grade 4 beginning to rely on the Internet to explore social roles, stay connected with friends and develop their social networks.

While young people’s online experiences are generally positive, Phase II findings confirm that hazards still exist for young people online, but that an increase in parental involvement has positive impacts.

The Phase II research project looks into current trends and provides a call to action for parents, educators and other working with youth to address the challenges and rich opportunities afforded by media to its youngest users.

Click here to read the report...

Click here to read the Media Awareness Network news release...

Bots, Babes, and the Californication of Commerce
By: Ian R. Kerr

(2004) 1 University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal 285-324

ABSTRACT:
Virtually all of the precious bits of legal attention devoted to automated electronic commerce have, until recently, focused on the issues surrounding contract formation.1 While, admittedly, it is extremely interesting to muse about the sense in which 'autonomous,' machine-based systems might be said to have the capacity to contract,2 or about whether the mere click of a mouse during the course of an automated transaction is sufficient to bind a consumer to an online service provider's Terms of Service,3 I am concerned that excessive attention to this renaissance of thought on the fundamentals of contract might inadvertently eclipse an illicit use of automation technologies. Although, as an academic, I remain grateful for the unusual opportunity that electronic commerce has afforded to legal scholars in terms of rethinking doctrines such as contractual capacity and consent, I believe that a warning flag is in order. With so much attention being paid to the enforceability of online contracts, few jurists seem to be demonstrating any interest at all in the consequences of automated electronic commerce for people.

Click here to download his paper...

The Role of ISPs in the Investigation of Cybercrime
By: Ian R. Kerr and Daphne Gilbert

in Information Ethics in an Electronic Age: Current Issues in Africa and the World, ed. Thomas Mendina and Johannes Brtiz (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press, 2004).

ABSTRACT:
In July of 1993, a now famous cartoon was published in the New Yorker magazine.1 The cartoon depicts a large black pooch with big floppy ears, sitting on an office chair in front of what is by, today's standards, a rather clunky PC. The pooch - who is talking to a smaller and extremely attentive pup - remarks that, "On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog." Besides being humorous, the cartoon demonstrated an important cultural discovery - in 1993, converging communications technologies created the possibility of online anonymity.

Click here to download this chapter...

BUDDY BOTS: How Turing's fast friends are under-mining consumer privacy
By: Ian R. Kerr and Marcus Bornfreund

forthcoming (2005) Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments (MIT PRESS)

ABSTRACT:
Recent developments in virtual reality have resulted in the creation of a range of computer applications, including various forms of animation used in automated ecommerce to create custom-designed online avatars. These avatars interact with consumers, enhancing their online experiences while, at the same time, employing various corporate strategies aimed at improving marketing, sales and customer service. In a rapidly evolving field known as “affective computing,” the creators of some virtual reality applications are utilizing various principles of cognitive science and artificial intelligence to generate virtual representatives and other avatars capable of garnering consumer trust. This is accomplished by programming avatar personalities that are well-suited to the targeted demographic – buddy bots, whose looks are appealing and whose manner of speaking is enticing. Unfortunately, these techniques can be exploited in virtual reality environments to facilitate extensive, clandestine consumer profiling under the guise of harmless, friendly conversation between avatars and humans. Buddy bots and other virtual reality applications are being used by businesses to collect valuable personal information and private communications without the informed consent of those who unwittingly supply real life personal information to their newly found virtual buddies. This article critically examines such practices and provides basic consumer protection principles with the aim of generating a more socially-responsible application of virtual reality and a greater respect for personal privacy in automated electronic commerce.

Click here to download their paper...

Infusing Privacy Norms in DRM: Incentives and perspectives from law
By: Alex Cameron

in Yves Deswarte, et al. (eds.), Information Security Management, Education and Privacy, IFIP 18th World Computer Congress, TC11 19th International Information Security Workshops, 22-27 August 2004, Toulouse, France (Kluwer 2004).

ABSTRACT:
This paper outlines some basic characteristics of digital rights management (DRM) systems, as well as the ways that DRM systems can threaten user privacy. The author asserts that consent-based privacy laws are alone insufficient to address privacy threats posed by DRM. The author suggests that privacy norms can be infused in DRM design and implementation and that the interests of end-users, DRM engineers and DRM users support striving toward that goal.

Click here to download his paper...

Non-Intrusive Cross-Domain Digital Identity Management
By: Stefan Brands

Proceedings of the 3rd Annual PKI R&D Workshop in Gaithersburg, April 2004.

ABSTRACT:
This paper presents a novel architecture for digital identity management. The proposedvarchitecture is highly secure and scales seamlessly across organizational boundaries, while at thevsame time protecting the privacy interests of individuals and organizations. To achieve thesevproperties, the architecture heavily relies on Digital Credentials, a cryptographic authentication technology specifically designed to allow data subjects and organizations to securely co-manage identity-related information. We also examine the use of the new architecture in the context of three emerging information-sharing applications: Electronic Health Record management, E-Government, and Digital Rights Management.

Click here to download his paper...

"Sousveillance" Inverse Surveillance in Multimedia Imaging
By: Steve Mann

International Multimedia Conference: Proceedings of the 12th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia (ACM Press, New York: 2004)

ABSTRACT: This is a personal narrative that began 30 years ago as a childhood hobby, of wearing and implanting various sensors, effectors, and multimedia computation in order to re-define personal space and modify sensory perception computationally. This work involved the creation of various computational seeing aids that evolved into a new kind of visual art, using multimedia cyborglogs. Becoming at one with the machine, the author was able to explore a new humanity at the nexus of cyberspace and the real world. The author presents what was discovered accidentally, as a result of facing "cyborg discrimination". In particular, over the past 30 years, peer discrimination has decreased, while institutional and organized discrimination has intensified. Most notably, it was discovered that cyborg discrimination was most intense in establishments having the most surveillance. Rather than avoid such establishments, the author was able to explore and capture unique aspects to understand surveillance in new ways. The word sur-veillance denotes a God's eye view from on high (i.e. French for "to watch from above"). An inverse, called sous-veillance (French for "to watch from below") explores what happens when cameras move from lamp posts and ceilings down to eye level. Finally, it is suggested that new personal multimedia technologies, like mass-produced wearable cameraphones, can be used as tools for artists to explore "equiveillance" by shifting this equilibrium between surveillance and sousveillance with inverse/reverse/accountability/recountability/continuability of continuous sur/sousveillance.

Click here to download his paper...

Digital Rights Management: Where Copyright and Privacy Collide
By: Alex Cameron

(2004) 2 Canadian Privacy Law Review 14

ABSTRACT: This short paper introduces some of the recent conflict that has arisen between copyright and privacy, provides a basic overview of DRM technology, and sketches DRMâ€™s privacy implications, including a short discussion of the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act. This paper calls for increased awareness regarding DRM's privacy implications in light of the imminent potential for the Canadian government to provide legal protection for DRM. Reprinted by permission of LexisNexis Canada Inc., from Canadian Privacy Law Review, edited by Michael Geist, Copyright 2004.

Click here to download his paper...

Surfing While Muslim: Privacy, Freedom of Speech and the Unintended Consequences of Cybercrime Legislation
By: Jason Young

A Critical Analysis of the Council of Europe Convention on Cyber-crime and the Canadian Lawful Access Proposal

Jason M. Young, "Surfing While Muslim: Privacy, Freedom of Expression & the Unintended Consequences of Cybercrime Legislation" Int. J. of Comm. L. & Pol’y, No. 9, December 2004, online: SSRN http://ssrn.com/abstract=653962

ABSTRACT: The history of investigatory detentions under highway safety legislation shows that subjectively-based assessments can too easily mask discriminatory conduct by law enforcement. Contrary to popular use, discrimination is a corollary of discretion, not a synonym for racism. Diluted judicial oversight in the context of cybercrime investigations expands law enforcement and third party discretion to discriminate and could lead to the de facto offences of, for example, 'surfing while Muslim', or belonging to any negatively-stereotyped group in cyberspace.

Applying traditional rules of lawful access to the persistent, pervasive and permanent information realm of cyberspace introduces new and unique implications for privacy and freedom of expression. The efficacy of electronic surveillance is such that it has the potential to annihilate any expectation that our communications will remain private. A society which exposes us, at the whim of the state, to the risk of having a permanent electronic recording made of our words every time we send an email or visit a web site might be superbly equipped to fight crime, but would be one in which privacy no longer had any meaning. Consequently, proposed legal solutions to what are often technological or administrative dilemmas may not be the most equitable approach for extending effective policing and intelligence authority to cyberspace. To the extent that governments choose legal tools to investigate and prosecute 'cybercrimes', great care must be taken that they do not abrogate existing constitutional protections.

Click here to download his paper...

Privacy, Rights and Moral Value
By: Dr. Steven Davis

University of Ottawa Law and Technlogy Journal (forthcoming)

OVERVIEW: Rights come in many different kinds: legal, moral, human, natural, and civil. I shall take it that the two main categories of rights are legal and moral and the other rights fall into one or another of these two categories. In Canada, there appears to be at least a partial legal right to privacy with respect to personal information held by the government. I shall return to this. The question I wish to raise is whether there is also a moral right to privacy. I shall not attempt to answer this question, which is too much to hope to accomplish in such a talk. Rather I shall try to set the framework for a discussion of the issue. I shall begin with one view about the general nature of rights and the status of privacy as a legal right in Canada. I shall then move on to a brief discussion of the nature of privacy. Finally, I shall close with some remarks about whether privacy has moral value.

.:works in progress:. | .:publications:. | .:presentations:. | .:id trail mix:.