Privacy (125)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 5 min
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
During Google’s attempt to merge with the company Fitbit, the NGO Amnesty International has provided warnings to the competition regulators in the EU that such a move would be detrimental to privacy. Based on Google’s historical malpractice with user data, since its status as a tech monopoly allows it to mine data from several different avenues of a user’s life, adding wearable health-based tech to this equation puts the privacy and rights of users at risk. Calls for scrunity of “surveillance capitalism” employed by tech giants.
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
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- 5 min
- Tech Crunch
- 2020
No Google-Fitbit merger without human rights remedies, says Amnesty to EU
During Google’s attempt to merge with the company Fitbit, the NGO Amnesty International has provided warnings to the competition regulators in the EU that such a move would be detrimental to privacy. Based on Google’s historical malpractice with user data, since its status as a tech monopoly allows it to mine data from several different avenues of a user’s life, adding wearable health-based tech to this equation puts the privacy and rights of users at risk. Calls for scrunity of “surveillance capitalism” employed by tech giants.
When considering how companies and advertisers may use them, what sorts of personal statistics related to health and well-being should and should not be collected by mobile computing devices? How can devices originally built to stand on their own as one technological artifact become more convenient or harmful to a user when they become part of a technological architecture?
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- 5 min
- Wired
- 2020
As means of preserving deceased loved ones digitally become more and more likely, it is critical to consider the implications of technologies which aim to replicate and capture the personality and traits of those who have passed. Not only might this change the natural process of grieving and healing, it may also have alarming consequences for the agency of the dead. For the corresponding Black Mirror episode discussed in the article, see the narratives “Martha and Ash Parts I and II.”
- Wired
- 2020
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- 5 min
- Wired
- 2020
The Ethics of Rebooting the Dead
As means of preserving deceased loved ones digitally become more and more likely, it is critical to consider the implications of technologies which aim to replicate and capture the personality and traits of those who have passed. Not only might this change the natural process of grieving and healing, it may also have alarming consequences for the agency of the dead. For the corresponding Black Mirror episode discussed in the article, see the narratives “Martha and Ash Parts I and II.”
Should anyone be allowed to use digital resurrection technologies if they feel it may better help them cope? With all the data points that exist for internet users in this day and age, is it easier to create versions of deceased people which are uncannily similar to their real identities? What would be missing from this abstraction? How is a person’s identity kept uniform or recognizable if they are digitally resurrected?
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- 5 min
- Gizmodo
- 2020
This article describes the new Amazon Sidewalk feature and subsequently explains why users should not buy into this service. Essentially, this feature uses the internet of things created by Amazon devices such as the Echo or Ring camera to create a secondary network connecting nearby homes which also contain these devices, which is sustained by each home “donating” a small amount of broadband. It is explained that this is a dangerous concept because this smaller network may be susceptible to hackers, putting a large number of users at risk.
- Gizmodo
- 2020
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- 5 min
- Gizmodo
- 2020
You Need to Opt Out of Amazon Sidewalk
This article describes the new Amazon Sidewalk feature and subsequently explains why users should not buy into this service. Essentially, this feature uses the internet of things created by Amazon devices such as the Echo or Ring camera to create a secondary network connecting nearby homes which also contain these devices, which is sustained by each home “donating” a small amount of broadband. It is explained that this is a dangerous concept because this smaller network may be susceptible to hackers, putting a large number of users at risk.
Why are “secondary networks” like the one described here a bad idea in terms of both surveillance and data privacy? Is it possible for the world to be too networked? How can tech developers make sure the general public has a healthy skepticism toward new devices? Or is it ultimately Amazon’s job to think about the ethical implications of this secondary network before introducing it for profits?
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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
As different levels of the U.S government have introduced and passed bills regulating or banning the use of facial recognition technologies, tech monopolies such as Amazon and IBM have become important lobbying agents in these conversations. It seems that most larger groups are on different pages in terms of how exactly face recognition algorithms should be limited or used, especially given their negative impacts on privacy when used for surveillance.
- Wired
- 2020
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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
Congress Is Eyeing Face Recognition, and Companies Want a Say
As different levels of the U.S government have introduced and passed bills regulating or banning the use of facial recognition technologies, tech monopolies such as Amazon and IBM have become important lobbying agents in these conversations. It seems that most larger groups are on different pages in terms of how exactly face recognition algorithms should be limited or used, especially given their negative impacts on privacy when used for surveillance.
Can and should the private sector be regulated in its use of facial recognition technologies? How is it that tech monopolies might hold so much sway with government officials, and how can this be addressed? Do the benefits of facial recognition, such as convenience at the airport, listed at the end of the article make enough of a case against a complete ban of the technology, or do the bad applications ultimately outweigh the good ones? What would the ideal bill look like in terms of limiting or banning facial recognition?
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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
After student members of the University of Miami Employee Student Alliance held a protest on campus, the University of Miami Police Department likely used facial recognition technology in conjunction with video surveillance cameras to track down nine students from the protest and summon them to a meeting with the dean. This incident provided a gateway into the discussion of fairness of facial recognition programs, and how students believe that they should not be deployed on college campuses.
- Wired
- 2020
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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
Facial Recognition Applications on College Campuses
After student members of the University of Miami Employee Student Alliance held a protest on campus, the University of Miami Police Department likely used facial recognition technology in conjunction with video surveillance cameras to track down nine students from the protest and summon them to a meeting with the dean. This incident provided a gateway into the discussion of fairness of facial recognition programs, and how students believe that they should not be deployed on college campuses.
How can facial recognition algorithms interfere with the right of people to protest? When it comes to facial recognition databases, are larger photo repositories better or worse? Does facial recognition and video surveillance have a place on college campuses? How does facial recognition and video surveillance embolden people in power in general?
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- 4 min
- Kinolab
- 1995
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. Major, a security officer, sees how a garbage man is sad to know that his ghost has been hacked and filled with false memories of a family, and dives to set up her own reflections with self-identity developed later in the film, especially as she starts to believe that she may be entirely a cyborg with no knowledge of such an existence. Essentially, because the human body has become so thoroughly and regularly augmented with cybernetic parts and even computer brains, defining a real “human” becomes harder and harder.
- Kinolab
- 1995
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- 4 min
- Kinolab
- 1995
Identity Through Memory and Data
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. Major, a security officer, sees how a garbage man is sad to know that his ghost has been hacked and filled with false memories of a family, and dives to set up her own reflections with self-identity developed later in the film, especially as she starts to believe that she may be entirely a cyborg with no knowledge of such an existence. Essentially, because the human body has become so thoroughly and regularly augmented with cybernetic parts and even computer brains, defining a real “human” becomes harder and harder.
If robots develop to the point where they can question their own existence as human, does the line between robot and human truly matter? For what reason? Is questioning human existence a fundamentally human trait? Can fake memories contribute to an identity as much as real ones? Is this a dangerous concept, or might it have positive utility? Do you agree with the assessment that “all data is just fantasy,” or an inaccurate abstraction of real life? What kinds of data, then, make up the human identity?
Ghost in the Shell: Fake Memories