Instructor: Alex Halavais
Email: <alex@halavais.net> - please place [com628] in the subject line. Public key: http://alex.halavais.net/key.asc
Office Hours: By appointment, see http://alex.halavais.net/appt.html

The advent of networked computing and information technologies has provided new opportunities to observe from a distance. This seminar draws together graduate students who are interested in how new communications and surveillance technologies affect privacy and social interaction more generally. Why are some forms of communication private? How do these new technologies affect social technologies of privacy and intrusion that have existed in the past? How will the police, journalists, and citizens employ these technologies? The readings that are discussed will examine legal and policy protections of privacy, how the advent of new technologies has affected social structures, and how surveillance is related to control. Students are expected to help to lead the seminar, contribute to an accompanying web site, and to complete a substantial research project during the course of the semester.

Though privacy generally provides a broad range of topics that may be of interest, our focus will be on surveillance: including dataveillance and the accumulation of dossiers, but also including new imaging and monitoring technologies presently in use and imagined. In this, it represents a counterpoint to the "Virtual Publics" seminar offered last year. The seminar is split into three main components, and a significant amount of space has been left to take the course in the directions that most interest the participants. This flexibility is built into a structure that requires three major elements: leading a meeting, creating an accompanying web resource, and completing a substantial research project.

Overview (Weeks 1-8)

During the first part of the course we will examine what surveillance technologies exist and what the reactions to them have been. We will be reading extensively from these books, which can be ordered from your choice of on-line or local booksellers (links are available on-line):

Agre, P. & Rotenberg, M. (1998). Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Alderman, E. & Kennedy, C. (1997). The Right to Privacy. New York: Vintage.
Brin, D. (1999). The Transparent Society. New York: Perseus.
Etzioni, A. (2000). The Limits of Privacy. New York: Basic.
Schneier, B. (2000). Secrets & Lies. New York: John Wiley.

Please read the listed items before the class meets on Wednesday, and be ready to discuss the readings. Each Monday, please post to the board a short (<4 pages) response to the readings for the week.

January 15: Technologies of Physical Surveillance

• From MSN, "The new surveillance society." http://www.msnbc.com/news/surveillance_front.asp
• Readings from Peterson & Zamir, eds. (2000). Understanding Surveillance Technologies: Spy Devices, Their Origins & Applications. CRC. Available for download at the course website.
• Pankanti, S., Bolle, R.M. & Jain, A. (1999). Biometrics: The future of identification. IEEE Computer, Special Issue on Biometrics, 33 (2). Available for download at the course website.

January 22: History and Development of Dataveillance

• Schneier, part 1.
• Roger Clarke (1997). Introduction to dataveillance and information privacy, and definitions of terms. Available for download at the course website.

January 29: US Privacy Law

• Warren, S.D., and Brandeis, L.D. (15 December 1890). The right to privacy. Harvard Law Review, 4 (5), 193-220. Available for download at the course website.
• Alderman, E. & Kennedy, pp. 1-54, 154-343.
• Gellman, R. (1998). Does privacy law work? In Agre & Rotenberg.

February 5: Law & Policy Relating to Surveillance

• Adler, M. (1996). Cyberspace, general searches, and digital contraband: The Fourth Amendment and the net-wide search. 105 Yale L.J. 1093.
• Bennett, C. (1998). Convergence revisited: Toward a global policy for the protection of personal data. In Agre & Rotenberg.
• Diffie, W. & Landau, S. (1998). Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption. Cambridge: MIT Press. Chapters 4-7. Available for download at the site, or purchase on-line.

February 12: Prepare readings and outline for second half

February 19: Surveillance and Community

• Etzioni, introduction and chapters 3-6.

February 26: Surveillance and Transparency

• Brin, chapters 1-4, 8-11

March 5: Technological Remedies

• Bellotti, V. (1998). Design for privacy in multimedia computing and communications environment. In Agre & Rotenberg.
• Flaherty, David H. (1998). Controlling surveillance: Can privacy protection be made effective?
• Schneier, parts 2 and 3

Topics (Weeks 9-14)

During the first four weeks, we will set aside time to talk about what topics are of particular interest to members of the class. Each participant will work on two (of the eight) topics meetings during the semester. These topics may be restricted by domain (health, children, workplace, etc.), by technology (cryptography, thermal imaging, biometrics), policy (effect of jurisdiction, transborder data flow, administrative structure, etc.), or social sector (imbalances in surveillance, effects of profiling on certain groups, etc.). Indeed, as long as the topic is sufficiently constrained and comes roughly under the rubric of surveillance, technology, and society, it will be fine.

The participants will develop the following:

• a reading list for their week;
  
• at a minimum, a brief overview of the area and why it is important, to be posted on the course website;
  
• an annotated bibliography of hyperlinks and scholarly resources for the website;
  
• and a presentation and structure for discussion for their meeting day.

The organizers should be prepared to distribute readings on February 19.

Final Paper / Project Presentations (Week 15)

During the final week, we will each present a short overview of our final projects. The final paper should constitute a significant contribution to the field. There are at least two possibilities for this final paper. It might be an empirical investigation regarding some aspect of social behavior regarding surveillance technologies. Since much of the US law relies on an undefined "reasonable expectation of privacy," there is a place for the social scientist to contribute to a better understanding of how individuals and groups negotiate surveillance and privacy. Another alternative is a policy proposal, clearly indicating the evidence for a new policy direction. We can discuss other possibilities, including historical treatments, although the time constraints may preclude these. I am more than willing to hear proposals for alternative approaches or projects, but please come to me early so that we can make sure we agree on the nature of such a project. What the final paper should not be is a literature review; you should present original findings. An effective approach would be to build from one of the topics you present at an earlier stage in the course.

The final project should be of a quality that could be presented at a national or international conference. Two clear venues for work in this area are the Internet Research conference in Toronto next year, the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, one of the conferences hosted by the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the Association for Computing Machinery, or the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Evaluation

Grades will be based upon your final project (50%), written responses each week (20%), presentations and supporting materials (20%), and participation (10%).

Policies

Conviviality: You are expected to be at each class meeting. Everyone is responsible for making this an enjoyable experience. You do this by coming prepared and ready to talk to one another. You might also bring food to share, materials you think may help your classmates, or some interesting ideas or questions you have run across.

Extra help: You should feel free to ask questions about your research during the seminar; this is the nature of a seminar. If you would like to meet with me in a smaller group or individually, I am always happy to arrange a meeting. If you have a question regarding the material, ask it in class or over the discussion list, so that your classmates can benefit from the response. If you need to email me (for example, if your question is a private one), placing "[COM 628]" at the beginning of the subject line will ensure the fastest response. I encourage you to encrypt your email to me, using either PGP or Hushmail.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: We will take some time at the beginning of the semester to make very clear what the boundaries of plagiarism are. To make it perfectly clear: when you use someone else's words, paraphrase their words, or use their ideas, you must cite the source. Simply rearranging existing work without citing the source is not acceptable. When you use specific phrases, no matter how short (even two words), that have been taken from another source, they must be enclosed in quotation marks. When you use images from the web, or from anywhere else, their source must be indicated. Any cases of plagiarism or cheating will result minimally in a failing grade for the course, and possible dismissal from the program.

Late work: Weekly response papers cannot be handed in late, since they are designed to facilitate discussion. The grade on the term paper will be reduced by a third of a grade (e.g., from B- to C+) for every 48 hours it is late.

This morning's events are roughly equivalent to the Reichstag fire that provided the social opportunity for the Nazi take-over of Germany… Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little - largely illusory - safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously. - John Perry Barlow, 11 September 2001

We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country. - Sandra Day O'Connor, 1 October 2001