Great Ideas in Computer Science (CS 1) – Spring 2020

Module Topic: The ethics of electronic privacy
Module Author: Lyndal Grant

Course Level: Introductory undergraduate
AY: 2019-2020

Course Description: An introduction to the most important discoveries and intellectual paradigms in computer science, designed for students with little or no previous background. Explores problem-solving using high and low-level programming languages; presents an integrated view of computer systems, from switching circuits up through compilers and GUI design. Examines theoretical and practical limitations related to unsolvable and intractable computational problems, and the social and ethical dilemmas presented by such issues as software unreliability and invasions of privacy.” (Course description)

Semesters Taught: Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023

Tags

• social networks (CS)
• anonymization (CS)
• privacy (both)
• consent (phil)
• public interest (phil)

Module Overview

This module introduces the concept of electronic privacy and asks Why is electronic privacy valuable? Students are introduced to what Solon Barocas and Helen Nissenbaum call “the traditional privacy protection paradigm”, according which tech companies can adequately protect users’ privacy through a combination of informed consent and data anonymization. We explore a number of challenges to this paradigm. Are lengthy and complicated terms of service agreements an effective way to secure informed consent, for example? How does the fact that machine learning allows highly sensitive personal information to be inferred from seemingly mundane user data complicate questions about consent? Is de-identification an effective way to ensure data remains anonymous, given that a small number of datapoints are often adequate to re-identify particular users (as Latanya Sweeney has shown)? We also discuss why we should care about our own electronic privacy, and whether robust privacy protections are in the public interest.

    Connection to Course Material

This module follows up on class sessions in which students learn simple data encryption techniques. Since encrypting user data is one way to protect user privacy, this sets us up for a discussion of how user privacy has traditionally been understood in the tech industry, as well as recent challenges to that understanding.

Goals

Module Goals

1. Encourage students to consider a variety of explanations for the value of electronic privacy.
2. Help students to think critically about whether systems put in place by social media companies, online retailers, and the like genuinely protect their electronic privacy.
3. Discuss necessary and sufficient conditions for informed consent when it comes to giving away private information.

Key Philosophical Questions

1. Why is electronic privacy valuable?
2. Does a person who feels that they have “nothing to hide” nonetheless have
3. self-interested reasons to care about electronic privacy?
4. Are strong electronic privacy protections in the public interest?
5. Does the fact that companies can use personal information that you have
6. intentionally given them to infer personal information about you that you have not intentionally disclosed complicate questions about informed consent to data collection?

Materials

Key Philosophical Concepts

• Privacy
• Self-interest
• Public interest
• Informed consent

    Assigned Readings

• Salon Barocas and Helen Nissenbaum, “Big Data’s End Run Around Procedural Privacy Protections,” Communications of the ACM.
• Erica Pandey, “I’m being Watched at Amazon Go and I Don’t Care,” Axios.

Implementation

Class Agenda

1. What is privacy? Defining informational and electronic privacy.
2. The traditional privacy protection paradigm: informed consent + anonymization.
3. Challenges to traditional paradigm.
4. Case studies: Amazon Kindle’s terms of service agreement; Strava fitness app and US military bases; Samaritan’s RADAR suicide prevention program.
5. Do we have self-interested reasons to care about privacy if we have nothing to hide? Are there public interest reasons to care about privacy?

    Sample Class Activity

After discussing ways in which informed consent and anonymization might fail to protect privacy in the era of big data, students are encouraged to think about why we should care whether our electronic privacy is protected if we have nothing to hide. In small groups of 3-4, students briefly discuss the following questions, followed by a full-class debrief:

• Do those of us who have “nothing to hide” have self-interested reasons to care about privacy?
• Are there other, non-self-interested reasons to care about privacy?

Module Assignment

In the follow-up assignment, students are asked to write a short essay in response to an excerpt from a New York Times article about the sale of user data by telecommunications firms and mobile apps. The excerpt and essay prompt appear below.

Excerpt: “Telecommunications firms and mobile-based apps make billions of dollars per year by selling customer location data to marketers and other businesses, offering a vast window into the whereabouts of cellphone and app users, often without their knowledge.

That practice, which has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism in recent years, is now the subject of a proposed ban in New York City […]

The Bill would restrict cellphone companies and mobile apps from sharing location data to situations where they were “providing a service explicitly requested” by the customer. The language is designed to challenge the vague agreements customers click on when signing up for an app or a cellular service. The legislation would also exclude the collection of location data in ‘exchange for products or services.’”

– From a July 23, 2019 article in the New York Times, “New York City to Consider Banning Sale of Cellphone Location Data” (Jeffrey C. Mays)

Essay prompt: Do you think New York City should pass the legislation? Please support your answer using ideas from the lecture and/or readings, and make sure to consider at least one reason based in public interests. (Your response should be approximately two to three paragraphs in length.)

Lessons Learned

Student reaction to the module was very positive. However, the class was on the larger side (around 60 students), and participation was initially limited to a relatively small number of students until a small-group discussion activity encouraged more voices to join in. This reinforced our view that it helps to include a short active learning exercise as early as possible in the module – even a two- or three-minute pairs discussion activity can be an effective way to draw more students into the conversation and ensure the whole class is engaged.