Privacy

1. Privacy Aziz Doumith Michael Kot Luis Pacheco Emory Petermann Wyatt Pierson Henry Stigler

2. The Internet: • - Enables us to improve communication • - Removes physical barriers • Greatly absorbed into our society and touches nearly every part of our lives  • You may assume that the same laws or societal rules that protect your privacy in the physical world apply to the digital world as well.  But the Internet remains largely unregulated and the policies governing it underdeveloped. Privacy

3. How Personal Information is revealed through Internet Activities • Signing up for Internet Service • Email • Browsing the Internet • Search Engines • Cookies/Flash Cookies • Browsers • Interactive Use • Instant Messages • Social Networks • Personal Websites • Managing your financial accounts and online bill payments

4. ISPs • Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – Allow you to connect your computer to the Internet. • Internet Protocol (IP) Address • Does not provide personally identifiable information • However, ISPs know your IP address and is a weak link when it comes to protecting your privacy. • For example, if your father owns an ISP he can know every thing you do on the internet!

5. Email - When you send an email the recipient can send it to anybody they desire. • Laws distinguish between messages in transit and stored messages, the latter getting less protection. • Exceptions to emails in transit: • ISP can view emails if suspects damage to system or other users • Employers can view in emails sent from a business location • Government can access records about online activity without Court Orders after 9/11

6. Browsers • Being on the internet means relaying personal information to websites • Browsers provides IP Address and information of past websites visited to Web Site Operators • http://network-tools.com/analyze/ • Allow users to control how much information is stored. • Research shows that “Private Browsing” fails to purge all traces of online activity.

7. Cookies/Flash Cookies • Information entered on websites stored on hard drive. • Login or registration info, preferences, “shopping cart” info, etc. • Third-party cookies communicate data about you to advertising companies which are further shared with other marketers. • Flash-cookies are harder to get rid of and cannot be erased simply by doing so in your browser. • Myspace, ABC, ESPN, Hulu, MTV, Warner Brothers were alleged to have knowingly tracked users in a way not disclosed in their privacy policies

8. Wall Street Journal Study • http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703977004575393173432219064.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_6 • Did a study of 50 sites to determine how many trackers (cookies, beacons, etc) were installed • The 50 sites installed 3,180 tracking files • Companies with most tracking tools installed were Google, Microsoft, Quantcast. • Wikipedia only site to install none.

9. Search Engines • Use the ability to track each one of online searches. • Record IP Address, search terms used, time of search • Claim that retaining personal data helps provide better services. • Due to recent privacy concerns major search engines delete IP addresses according to the following schedule: • Yahoo-90 days • Bing - 6 months • Google-9 months

10. Google and Privacy • Tracks clicks of 99% of users • Track, record, and cross-reference click path behavior i.e. where user goes, what user seeks, does, reads, views, how often and for how long. • Email Scanning – Gmail allows emails to be scanned for content to deliver targeted advertising. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGT0y4f0ovQ

11. Government Access • http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/technology/20google.html • In 2006, the government issued a subpoena to Google requesting access to their search records. • The request was port of the government’s effort to uphold the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). • AOL, Yahoo, MSN all complied with subpoenas

12. Instant Messages • Have a sense of casualness attached them, making them more dangerous. • Archived, stored, and recorded as easily as emails • Conversations can be saved on computers

13. Social Networks • Store information remotely, rather on user’s computers • Identity thieves, scam artists, stalkers,and corporations use social networks to gain information about consumers. • Companies actually operate social networks so they can personally collect data about users to improve their customer service as well as to sell data to advertisers.

14. Facebook apps • http://hardgeek.org/facebook-apps-selling-personal-information-to-marketing-companies • Facebook apps (FarmVille, Zynga Game Network, Texas HoldEmPoker, FrontierVille and others) send unique Facebook user ID to at least 25 advertising and data firms • Most of these firms track the user’s online activates.

15. Domain Names • Individuals obtain their web site addresses. • ANYONE can look up the owner of a domain name online. • www.domainwhitepages.com

16. Online Banking • Convenient but requires transmitting lots of personal information over the internet • Fraudulent websites look like the “real thing” but really store personal information and access bank accounts. • Limit of online theft protection is only $50! • Some banks share information with others for advertising purposes unless you specifically tell them not to.

17. Cell Phone Tracking • http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html • Two years ago, bank robbers caught by FBI agents obtaining phone logs from mobile phone companies. • Obama administration argues warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy”.

18. Demonstration • google.com • http://www.whitepages.com/ • maps.google.com • http://www.pipl.com/