“Networked Privacy” (my PDF talk)
Our contemporary ideas about privacy are often shaped by legal discourse that emphasizes the notion of “individual harm.” Furthermore, when we think about privacy in online contexts, the American...
View ArticleJust How Dangerous Is Facial Profiling?
Within the next 60 days, state law enforcement agencies across the nation are set to implement a new facial profiling technology that will enable them to scan faces of people in a crowd and cross-check...
View Article“Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power
Everyone’s abuzz with the “nymwars,” mostly in response to Google Plus’ decision to enforce its “real names” policy. At first, Google Plus went on a deleting spree, killing off accounts that violated...
View ArticleDoes Facial Recognition Technology Mean the End of Privacy?
At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, researchers from Carnegie Mellon demonstrated how the same facial recognition technology used to tag Facebook photos could be used to identify random...
View ArticleDesigning for Social Norms (or How Not to Create Angry Mobs)
In his seminal book “Code”, Larry Lessig argued that social systems are regulated by four forces: 1) the market; 2) the law; 3) social norms; and 4) architecture or code. In thinking about social media...
View ArticleThe Existential Angst of the Facebook Timeline
Once Facebook flips the switch on the official public launch of its all-new Timeline feature, nearly any action that you take will become instantly sharable online to your friends as part of an ongoing...
View ArticleWhy Parents Help Children Violate Facebook’s 13+ Rule
Announcing new journal article:“Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’” by danahboyd, EszterHargittai,...
View ArticleDebating Privacy in a Networked World for the WSJ
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal posted excerpts from a debate between me, Stewart Baker, Jeff Jarvis, and Chris Soghoian on privacy. In preparation for the piece, they had us respond to a...
View ArticleHow the Proposed 2012 EU Directive on Data Privacy Could Impact Social Media
Guest Post by: Jo StratmannLast week we held a senior executive round table event at Claridges and one of the topics of discussion was about the proposed European Union (EU) directive on data privacy...
View ArticleHow Parents Normalized Teen Password Sharing
In 2005, I started asking teenagers about their password habits. My original set of questions focused on teens’ attitudes about giving their password to their parents, but I quickly became enamored...
View ArticleYou No Longer Have a Right to Privacy
The concept of privacy is undergoing a radical transformation, thanks to our continuing willingness to provide companies like Facebook and Google our data for free. If, before, we largely lived our...
View ArticleBrands need consumers’ permission to capitalise on social media data
December is often a time for predictions, and the most consistent predictions for social media in 2013 concern data. Whether it’s called big data or social media data, brands are expected to make more...
View ArticleWill Drones Over Manhattan Lead to Privacy Speakeasies?
In a radio interview last week, controversial New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg all but conceded that unmanned NYPD spy drones would one day be flying overhead in Manhattan.read more
View ArticleWhen social media posts come back to haunt you. Why we all need a right to be...
After just a few days in the job, the UK’s first youth crime commissioner, Paris Brown, resigned over some of her past Twitter postings. There are no doubt many posts that she wishes could be deleted,...
View Articlethoughts on Pew’s latest report: notable findings on race and privacy
Yesterday, Pew Internet and American Life Project (in collaboration with Berkman) unveiled a brilliant report about “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy.” As a researcher who’s been in the trenches on...
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