Internet Ethics Issues and Action in the United States

Internet Ethics Issues and Action in the United States

Michael Zimmer, PhDAssistant Professor, School of Information Studies

Director, Center for Information Policy ResearchUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

www.MichaelZimmer.org

International Symposium on Internet EthicsSeoul, South KoreaSept 12, 2012

Michael Zimmer | International Symposium on Internet Ethics | Sept 12, 2012

Ethical Dilemmas in the United States

• Sex, Violence• Hate Speech

• Hacking• Government

surveillance

• P2P File Sharing

• Mashup Culture

• Social Media• Behavioral

TargetingPrivacy Property

ContentSecurity


Social Media

Explosive rise of social media 66% of online adults in U.S. use social media Share personal information on Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn, MySpace Name, email, mobile, address Work and education history Political views, cultural tastes, sexual orientation Photos of self, family

Increasingly inter-connected with variety of online activities and domains

Privacy


Social Media

Facebook’s strategy to monetize: Users’ social graph Communication &

message streams “Likes” and activities

from the platform

Privacy


Social Media

“Four years ago, when Facebook was just getting started, most people didn’t want to put information about themselves on the Internet. So, we got people through this really big hurdle of getting people to want to put up their full name, a real picture, mobile phone number…and connections to real people.”

Mark Zuckerberg

Privacy


Social Media

Ethical dilemma: Expectations of privacy Does willingness to share personal data point to a broad

shift in privacy norms & expectations? Or, might users simply not understand how information is

made visible, captured, commodified?

Ethical dilemma: Value of privacy Are users simply willing to trade privacy for free and

valuable services? Is it a fair trade? Informed?

Privacy


Behavioral Targeting

Customizing online advertising to individual users, based on: Social media profiles Search query history Types of websites visited Actions on particular websites

Privacy



Privacy



Ethical dilemma: Privacy vs. free Is it right to expect users to trade their privacy for free

services, and more relevant advertising? Do users have the means to choose privacy?

Ethical dilemma: Privacy vs. business interests Is there a point at which the threats to privacy outweigh

the desire for increased profitability Can industry promises to behave ethically be trusted?

Ethical dilemma: Profiling & the “panoptic sort” Concerns over dignity, accuracy, and discrimination Privacy


Actions…

Some increased oversight by federal government U.S. Federal Trade Commission criticizing Facebook &

Google over practices and user notification Proposed “Do Not Track” mechanism for Internet users to

avoid behavioral targeting

User education & advocacy Google has impressed with its “Privacy Center” & videos Advocacy groups work to increase awareness:

ALA: PrivacyRevolution.org ACLU: DotRights.org

Privacy


Actions…

Scholars and researchers providing new means of thinking about privacy, and understanding expectations in social media environments Helen Nissenbaum, “Privacy in Context” Dan Solove, “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor,

and Privacy on the Internet” boyd & Marwick, “Social Privacy in Networked Publics:

Teens’ Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies” Turow, et al, “Americans Reject Tailored Advertising and

Three Activities that Enable It”

Privacy


Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Large, ad hoc networks of personal computers to facilitate the sharing of digital content, often in violation of copyright law In 2004, an estimated 70 million people participated in

online file sharing in the U.S. By 2006, 32 million Americans over the age of 12 had

downloaded at least one feature length movie from the Internet

58% of all Americans thought file sharing was acceptable in some circumstances 70% of 18 to 29 year olds

Property



Legal reaction by the content industry Litigate against P2P providers for willful infringement,

shutting them down Sue individual users accused of sharing/downloading

Letters to college kids threatening federal lawsuit, offering to settle for $3000

Joel Tenenbaum found guilty of sharing 30 songs, fined $675,000

“3-strikes” law, threatening to shutdown Internet connection after 3 warnings from ISP

Property



Ethical dilemma: Ethics of P2P? Can it be ethically justifiable to download a song to provide for

one’s happiness, when prices make ownership prohibitive?

Ethical dilemma: Validity of intellectual property laws IP was originally intended to spur creativity and protect authors’

moral rights, but increasingly viewed as restrictive of culture and motivated by corporate profits

Do property laws apply in digital environments?

Ethical dilemma: Tactics Is it ethical to indiscriminately target college students Is it ethical to monitor network traffic to fight possible copyright

violations Property


Digital Mashup Culture

Emerging creative process of cutting, combining, and mixing up digital files Roots in “sampling”, the re-use of particular parts of a

song in a new composition Often “transformative” – creating entirely new works While utilizing copyright protected material, often

considered “fair use” Transformative Often only small amounts used Often little impact on original market

Property



Dangermouse: Grey Album Mashing up the Beatle’s

White Album with Jay Z’s Black Album

Posted for free online Immediate take-down

notice by record companies

Property



Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis): Mashups and digital

sampling using small parts of popular songs

Typically uses 15-20 different snippets and loops to create new songs

Credits sources; gives music away for free

Property



Ethical dilemma: Ethics of mashups & fair use Is mashup culture sufficiently “transformative” to avoid

ethical concern over the rights of original authors? Are fair use exceptions to copyright sufficient to

encourage creation? Or are they robbing copyright holders of potential markets?

What is ethically on stronger ground: protecting rights of copyright holders or encouraging creativity for the greater good?

Property


Actions…

Government continues to fight P2P and piracy Digital Millennium

Copyright Act (DCMA), and now SOPA and PIPA

Department of Justice prosecuting Magaupload.com, and seizing domain names of infringers

Property


Actions…

But, new business models are emerging iTunes now largest music vendor in the world Film and television industry have launched own ventures

to combat piracy and illegal uploads Hulu, official YouTube channels, etc

Some artists provide music files for free

And scholars/advocates fight for protection of fair use and mashup culture Grey Tuesday American University Center for Social Media

Property


Online Sex & Violence

Online environment conducive for hosting and sharing controversial/taboo material Long history with USENET lists, discussion forums, porn

sites Current examples include live webcams, amateur video

hosting, fetish-specific communities, and “dark web” YouTube and related sites often criticized for hosting

violent videos: Animal violence Amateur and homeless violence Rape videos and sexual violence Content


Online Sex & Violence

Attempts to limit availability and control access typically fall short Difficult to monitor, track, delete offending content from

digital networks Strong 1st Amendment tradition to allow speech, unless

deemed “obscene”, and not overly restrictive Communications Decency Act: Unconstitutional Child Pornography Protection Act: Unconstitutional Child Online Pornography Act: Unconstitutional Children’s Internet Protection Act: Only Partially

Constitutional Content


Hate Speech

Internet provides new means for spread of hate speech: Loud, cheap, and anonymous megaphone to spread

ideas Spaces and tools for hate groups to organize,

communicate Web presence can add visibility and legitimacy to

otherwise fringe groups

Content


Hate Speech

Content


Online Sex & Violence // Hate Speech

Ethical dilemma: Content regulation & filtering Is it ethical to prohibit certain content deemed

unwanted by a portion of society? Is it ethical to impose filtering, which may be imprecise

and overly-restrictive? Does ease of access and distribution online change the

ethical equation of what is acceptable vs. harmful speech?

Is it ethical to regulate what people think and say (compared to physical actions)?

Content


Actions…

Internet companies try to balance speech and protecting/respecting users

Content


Actions…

Internet companies try to balance speech and protecting/respecting users Warnings Community standards & voting Willing to take down offensive/illegal material in certain

markets to comply with (valid) laws

Attempts to segregate content .xxx domain Pushed underground to the “hidden web”

Content


Hacking

White hat: Penetration testing, ensure systems are secure Rarely purposefully cause any damage Often hired by companies themselves

Black hat: Attack systems for profit, for fun, or for political motivations Often involve modification or destroying of data

Hactivism: Combining computer hacking for some broader

social/political cause (fight power, injustice, etc)Security


Hacking

Anonymous Attacks against Church of Scientology due to its

aggressive copyright policies Attacks against PayPal, MasterCard related to

Wikileaks affair

Ed Felton (Freedom to Tinker) Hacking electronic voting machines to reveal

security weaknesses

WikiLeaks Making illegally accessed material freely

available Security


Hacking

Ethical dilemma: The Hacker Ethic Does the ethics of “making information free” justify

unauthorized access, exposure, or damage? When can electronic civil disobedience be ethically

justifiable? Do laws preventing circumvention of security controls

(like DMCA) go too far, and restrict research and criticism that might serve the public good?

Security


Government Surveillance

Increase in government surveillance of Internet activities Total Information Awareness

Post 9/11 attempt Fusion centers, Trapwire SOPA and PIPA

Stated intent to monitor and prevent piracy

Security



Room 641A “Secret room" in AT&T's

Folsom Street office in San Francisco

Believed to be one of several internet wiretapping facilities at AT&T offices around the country feeding data to the NSA

Exposed by whistle-blower

Security



Ethical dilemma: Outdated security protections Laws meant to protect users (ECPA) are outdated and

irrelevant given Internet technologies

Ethical dilemma: Security vs. privacy Which ethical value is more important? Are “fishing expeditions” or attempts to data-mine and

create predictive profiles ethical?

Security


Actions…

Attempts to control hacking have limited success Occasional raids on Anonymous and 4chan members Often met with retaliation

Supporters of WikiLeaks prosecuted Bradley Manning Fight for Twitter account data

Advocates push for reforms Working towards updating ECPA to better protect Internet

communications from surveillance Seeking transparency in government actions (Wikileaks)Security


Ethical Dilemmas in the United States

• Sex, Violence• Hate Speech

• Hacking• Government

surveillance

• P2P File Sharing

• Mashup Culture

• Social Media• Behavioral

TargetingPrivacy Property

ContentSecurity

Education

Internet Ethics Issues and Action in the United States