MIT 6.805/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier

Class on Nov. 1
Privacy and information accountability

Reading preparation for class

• Department of Homeland Security: Fair Information Practice Principles

• Privacy on the Books, Privacy on the Ground by Kenneth Bamberger and Deirdre Mulligan (to appear, January 2011). This is a long paper, but read it carefully enough to at least get a sense of the contents: It's a study of "reality" of today's privacy issues and practices, based on interviews with industry chief privacy officers.

• Information Accountability by Danny Weitzner, Hal Abelson, Tim Berners-Lee, Joan Feigenbaum, Jim Hendler, and Gerry Sussman, CACM, June 2008. A short overview of the TRansparency and Accountability perspective that's being explored in the CSAIL Decentralized Information Group.
• Facebook: threats to Privacy, by Harvey Jones and Jose Soltren. This is a paper from 6.805 in Fall 2005. Just skim it. It's an example of an outstanding class paper. Also think about how different the Facebook privacy story is now, than when the paper was written.