IT Questions regarding the Future of Privacy
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Questions
- What technology and technological solutions are there to maintain privacy? (Folkert)
- In what technological areas does privacy play a role? (Folkert)
- How is the ubiquity of computers influence privacy? (Folkert)
- What is the influence of social networks and privacy? (MSN Email Chat) (Folkert)
- Which malware infringes privacy (spam / popup / spyware) ? (Folkert)
- Blogs and privacy? (Folkert)
- Progress or regression of privacy in relation uprising of blogs and websites? (Folkert)
- Is the privacy issue larger in IT than in "real life"?
- How will the new passports influence privacy? (stealing, data easily) (Robert)
- What privacy issues are related to customer loyalty cards?
- How does the price reduction and convergence of cameras affect privacy? (Patrick)
With over 85% of cell phones in Japan, and an estimated 80% in the USA and Western Europe having built-in cameras, it is becoming much easier for people to take pictures of unaware victims or secret products. Increasing the ease of being able to take a quality picture at any time, also increases the amount of clandestine pictures taken. Many venues are already taking or considering taking precautions to remove cell phones from public changing areas or court rooms for privacy reasons, seeing as pictures from cell phones can be published online in mere seconds.
- What is the influence of privacy on encryption algorithms?
- Does the progression of IT lead to easier stealing of private info? (Patrick)
- How much cyber crime is privacy related? (Robert)
- How does RFID, Galileo, GPS influence privacy? (Patrick)
RFID chips can be easily concealed in hidden places, this can be handy for supermarket checkouts, but it also means that once outside the store, strangers can continue reading exactly what is in a person's grocery bag. RFID chips can also hold personal information. New passports now carry a chip with details on the passport holder, which can be read from a distance and then cloned. Just by walking past an area, a copy of your passport could be made without your passport ever leaving your pocket. GPS and the Galileo Project make tracking and tracing of invididuals even easier. The marketing manager of Ericsson Australia said in an interview: “Factors holding back GPS included the availability of integrated handsets and consumer worries about tracking and privacy“. Assuming that the Ericsson marketing department has done sufficient research in the field to come to this conclusion, it serves as evidence that being able to see or trace anything at any time is a cause for privacy concerns. For example, in a survey done by Harris Interactive, only 6% of surveyed wanted their co-workers to know where they were at all times, and only 5% of people wished this for their employers.
- How is Google Earth viewed in regard to privacy? (Patrick)
Google Earth allows anybody to view relatively high resolution satellite images of almost any place in the world. This has led to complaints from private users as well as the British military troops posted in Basra, claiming that the terrorists can easily use Google Earth to plan attacks on the UK troops seeing as the bases are clearly visible on Google Earth. Personal blog posts on the internet also show concern for the visibility of nude sunbathers, and casual sunbathers in their backyards. This is seen as a violation of privacy rights. Culturally, privacy is held in higher regard than other places. For this reason Google Earth poses an even greater threat. An article in the Arab News posts concern for Google Earth, as in the muslim culture, privacy is important.
- File Sharing trend and privacy issues?
References
[1]Kanellos, Michael. Crave privacy? New tech knocks out digital cameras, September 19, 2005, CNET News, Link
[2]Charny, Ben. Gymgoers wary of camera phones, December 2, 2003, CNET News, Link
[3]Watching Them, Watching Us. RFID tag privacy concerns Retrieved from http://www.spy.org.uk/cgi-bin/rfid.pl on March 03, 2007
[4]Zetter, Kim. Hackers Clone E-Passports. August 3, 2006. Wired News, http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,71521-0.html
[5]Jenkins, Chris. Big interest, little use for GPS. January 12, 2007. Australian IT, http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,21048399%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
[6]Hart, Roger. Privacy Concerns a Key Hurdle for Locaton Based Services. February 23, 2007. GeoCarta Blog, http://geocarta.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
[7]Harris Interactive. Location-Based Services and Presence Technology: The Future of Telecommunications is Closer Than You Think. Volume 2, Issue 1, February 2007. The Harris Report
[8]Harding, Thomas. Terrorists 'use Google maps to hit UK troops'. January 13, 2007, Telegraph newspaper online, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/13/wgoogle13.xml
[9]Al-Ghalib, Essam. Google Earth Raises Privacy, Security Issues. March 27, 2006. Arab News. http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2006/060327-google-earth.htm