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Topic 4 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - i) Consider potential risks.
      - ii) Consider unintended readers or users.
      - iii) Consider ways to prevent access by unintended users.
    - - i) Some leaks serve valuable social purposes
      - ii) Sensitive material, leaked irresponsibly, can harm innocent people.
    - - i) Policy reversals by several large websites illustrate some of the dilemmas about posting legal material that is offensive to many people.
      - ii) Various online companies have policies against posting hate material, bomb-making information, and other unpleasant or risky material.
    - - Some leaks do not endanger lives, but they infringe privacy or threaten people’s jobs, reputations, freedom, and other values.
    - - i) The U.S. government documents that WikiLeaks made public included approximately 250,000 diplomatic cables and thousands of other documents.
      - ii) Climategate also experienced a leak when thousands of documents were also disclosed
    - - i) The site must have sufficient security to protect the whistleblowers—the people who supply the documents.
      - ii) The operators should have a well-thought-out policy about how to handle requests or demands from law enforcement agencies (of various countries) for the identity of a person supplying documents
  - - - Anonymity can mask illegal surveillance by government agencies—or legal but repressive surveillance in unfree countries
  - - - i) Child pornography includes pictures or videos of actual minors (children under 18) engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
      - ii) Sexting means sending sexually suggestive or explicit text or photos, usually by cellphone or social media
    - - i) Cases and free speech issues
        
        In 1996, about half of the email received at AOL was spam, and a lot of it came from an email advertising service called Cyber Promotions
      - ii) Reducing the spam problem
        
        1) Many people now see very little spam because their mail service provider filters it out.
        
        2) Many businesses subscribe to services that provide lists of spammers to block.
      - iii) Antispam laws
        
        The impact of antispam laws and decisions about their constitutionality can be quite significant
        
        Many antispam organizations opposed the CAN-SPAM Act because they preferred to see spam banned altogether (as it is in some countries), rather than legitimized by the regulation.
        
        The difficulty of distinguishing spam from real mail with absolute certainty suggests that the cycle of new spam techniques and better blocking techniques will continue
    - - i) Major Internet censorship laws
        
        Increasing publicity about porn on the Net and increasing political pressure led Congress to pass the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996
      - ii) Video games
        
        Some argue that the interactivity of video games has a more powerful impact on children than passively watching television or reading a violent story
      - iii) Alternatives to censorship
        
        1) The development of software filters is an example of a quick market response to a problem
        
        2)Wireless carriers set strict “decency” standards for companies providing content for their networks
        
        3) Parents have a responsibility to supervise their children and to teach them how to deal with inappropriate material and threats
    - - i) Several involve regulatory laws that restrict advertising and sales on the Web.
      - ii) Several companies sell self-help software to assist people in writing wills, premarital agreements, and many other legal documents
      - iii) The Web provides the potential for reducing prices for many products by eliminating the “middleman.”
    - - It could be political or religious speech, pornography, racial or sexual slurs, Nazi materials, libellous statements, abortion information, antiabortion information, advertising of alcoholic beverages, advertising in general, depictions of violence, discussion of suicide, or information about how to build bombs.
  - - - i) Search engine companies, social media companies, and news and entertainment companies based in free countries offer services in countries with strict censorship and repressive governments.
      - ii) Companies sell governments sophisticated tools to filter Internet content, to hack cellphones and computers, to block text messages, to collect and analyze massive amounts of Internet data, to plant spyware and other malware (malicious software), to monitor social networks, and to track cellphone users.
    - - Governments in relatively unfree countries that tightly control communications shut down access to the Internet or shut down cellphone service now and then.
    - - i) The vibrant communication made possible by
        the Internet threatens governments in countries that lack political and cultural freedom
      - ii) They use sophisticated interception and surveillance technologies to spy on their citizens more thoroughly than before
      - iii) In some countries, government agents, using social media, pretend to be dissidents and distribute information about planned protests; the police arrest anyone who comes
  - - - ii) The First Amendment covers spoken and written words, pictures, art, and other forms of expression of ideas and opinions
      - iii) Over the course of many years and many cases, the Supreme Court has developed principles and guidelines about protected expression.
        
        There is a censorship issue whenever the government owns or substantially subsidizes communications systems or networks (or controversial services).
      - i) The First Amendment was written precisely for offensive and/or controversial speech and ideas.
    - - ii) Television and radio are similar to newspapers in their role of providing news and entertainment, but the government regulates both the structure of the broadcasting industry and the content of programs
        
        The government has used threats of license revocation to get stations to cancel sexually oriented talk shows or to censor them
      - iii) As new technologies blurred the technical boundaries between cable, telephone, computer networks, and content providers, the law began to adapt.
        
        The Telecommunications
        Act of 1996 changed the regulatory structure
      - i) The three categories which are:
        
        2) Broadcast (television, radio)
        
        3) Common carriers (telephone, telegraph, and the postal system)
        
        1) Print media (newspapers, books, magazines, pamphlets)
- - - - iii) Choice of words, making subtle differences in a statement, sometimes illustrate the difference in perspective between Luddites and non-Luddites.
      - v) Luddites argue that technology has made no improvement in life, or at best improvements of little importance
      - ii) The Luddite view combines a negative attitude toward business with a high estimation of the power of corporations to manipulate and control workers and consumers
      - iv) Luddites make particularly strong criticisms of automobiles, of cities, and of most technologies involved in communications and transportation
      - i) Luddites generally have a negative view of capitalism, business, markets, consumer products, factories, and modern forms of work.
    - - i) The term “Luddite” has long been a derisive description for people who oppose technological progress. More recently, critics of technology have adopted it as an honorable term
      - ii) Among their specific criticisms are the following:
        
        4) Computers cause social disintegration; they are dehumanizing. They weaken communities and lead to isolation of people from each other.
        
        5) Computers separate humans from nature and destroy the environment.
        
        3) Computers cause social inequity
        
        6) Computers benefit big business and big government most.
        
        2) Computers “manufacture needs”; that is, we use them just because they are there, not because they satisfy real needs.
        
        7) Use of computers in schools thwarts development of social skills, human values, and intellectual skills in children. They create an “ominous uniformity of knowledge” consistent with corporate values.
        
        1) Computers cause massive unemployment and de-skilling of jobs. “Sweatshop labor is involved in their manufacture
        
        8) Computers do little or nothing to solve real human problems.
  - - - The development of communications and computer technology suggests the difficulty of evaluating the consequences and future applications of a new technology.
    - - i) People might acquire advanced mental powers through brain implants and computer– brain interfaces
      - ii) The term technological singularity refers to the point at which artificial intelligence or some combined human–machine intelligence advances so far that we cannot comprehend what lies on the other side.
        
        Some technologists welcome the idea of the human race transforming into an unrecognizable race of superintelligent, genetically engineered creatures within this century
        
        They see the possibility of the machines themselves achieving human-level intelligence, then rapidly improving themselves to a superhuman level.
      - iii) It is valuable to think about potential problems of superintelligent systems and intelligence enhancement for humans well before they confront us so that we can design the best protections
        
        We need to choose appropriate elements from the various proposals and develop the best protections we can
    - - The question is whether it is possible for a clan or society to choose to invent a violin or a book reader for blind people without the technological and economic base on which development of these products depends
    - - ii) The arguments and examples suggest two things:
        
        1) That we limit the scope of decisions
        about development of new technology, perhaps to particular products
        
        2) That we decentralize the decision-making process and make it noncoercive, to reduce the impact of mistakes, avoid manipulation by entrenched companies who fear competition, and prevent violations of liberty
      - i) The fundamental problem is not what decision to make about a particular technology
  - - - i) Approximately two billion people worldwide use the Internet, a fivefold increase over roughly a decade
      - ii) Both nonprofit organizations and huge computer companies have ongoing projects to spread computer access to more people in developing countries
        
        Some companies use the catchphrase “the next billion users” to describe the people their programs address.
      - iii) Companies have trained hundreds of thousands of teachers to use technology effectively in classrooms in China, India, and other countries.
      - iv) One Laptop per Child is a nonprofit organization that supplies an inexpensive laptop computer specially designed for elementary school children in developing countries.
      - v) Some people active in movements to shrink the “digital divide” emphasize the need to provide access in ways appropriate to the local culture.
    - - i) Cost is one factor that affects access by the general population
      - ii) Individuals, businesses, community organizations, foundations, and government programs contributed to the spread of computers and Internet access.
      - iii) Virtually all technological innovation is first available to the rich
      - iv) Access to broadband connection is a newer version of a digital divide
      - v) A related digital divide exists among content consumers and content producers on the Internet. Internet users create blogs, Web pages, videos, and product reviews.
  - - - i) A mathematical model is a collection of data and equations describing, or simulating, characteristics and behavior of the thing studied
      - ii) Models allow us to simulate and investigate the possible effects of different designs, scenarios, and policies.
      - iii) Predictions from expensive computers and complex computer programs impress people, but models vary enormously in quality. Some are worthless and others are very reliable
        
        Example: Modeling car crashes, Modelling climate
    - - i) Marketers and public relations firms spread unlabeled advertisements through blogs, social media, and video site
      - ii) The nature of the Internet encourages people to post their immediate thoughts and reactions without taking time for contemplation or for checking facts
      - iii) Example is Wikipedia
        
        Wikipedia is a collaborative project among large numbers of strangers worldwide. It is huge, free, participatory, noncommercial, ad-free, and written by volunteers