History of Privacy

• The concept of privacy is relatively recent, with the earliest legal rulings emerging in the 20th century.

Historical context of privacy

• Privacy was historically linked to property rights.
• Increased prosperity in the 19th century led to more private possessions and larger living spaces.
• Privacy was once viewed as a political threat.
• Early mail protection laws focused on property rights rather than privacy.
• The first laws explicitly addressing privacy in England and the USA aimed to shield celebrities from intrusive newspaper reporting.
• These laws were inspired by an 1890 Harvard Law Review article advocating for a "right to be left alone."
• Individual homes with private spaces became common by the 1950s, shifting privacy concerns beyond the wealthy and famous.
• Compared to 40-70 years ago, individuals today may have more privacy despite concerns about the internet age.

Privacy today

• The rise of computerized record-keeping in the 1960s and 1970s introduced the concept of data privacy, which existing legislation has struggled to address.

Canadian privacy legislation

Federal

• The Privacy Act of 1983 governs the federal government's handling of individual information.
• The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act of 2000 (PIPEDA) regulates Canada-wide private organizations and companies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information.
• PIPEDA mandates consent for data collection, except in matters of national security.
• Individuals can access their personal information held by companies and file privacy complaints with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
• The Privacy Commissioner can issue reports but lacks the power to enforce compliance.

Provincial

• Alberta's Freedom of Information and Privacy Act (FOIP) is the provincial equivalent of the federal Privacy Act, regulating Alberta government agencies.
• Alberta's Personal Information Act (PIPA) regulates incorporated private entities, allowing them to request only "reasonable data" relevant to their business, preventing data harvesting for resale.

Data tracking

• The extensive scale of modern data tracking raises concerns.
• Digital advertising platforms like Facebook and Google aim to predict future behavior for targeted advertising and potentially other purposes.

Surveillance Capitalism

• Shoshana Zuboff's book argues that digitally enabled automated surveillance represents a new form of capitalism.
• In the early days of the web, companies generated "behavioral surplus" data that could be used for purposes beyond service improvement.

Datafication and Algorithmic Governance

• Some scholars use the terms "dataification" and "algorithmic governance".
• Dataification refers to the technical growth of data quantification of human life and economic processes built around extracting value from this data.
• Zuboff believes that dataification is not just a monetary grift, but a key characteristic of newly emerging from of capitalism.
• "Algorithmic governance" is a term used instead of "behaviour modification"
• Facebook published papers in 2012 and 2014 demonstrating that emotional states could be widely influenced through networks, which was met with public concern.
• Unlike academic researchers, Facebook and other private companies are not always constrained by Institutional Ethics Review Boards (IERB).

Algorithmic Governance

• Digital environments provide partial information, influencing cognitive shortcuts in decision-making.

Platformization

• The growth and consolidation of platforms has been a key economic transformation of the last 10–15 years.
• Platforms are described as infrastructures with global user bases, complementors, and developers.
• A platform's user base can exert pressure on governments.

Enshitification

• Enshitification describes the decline in the quality of online services over time due to a monopoly or platform position.
• Initially, vendors provide high-quality service to attract users, but as the number of users increases, they shift their focus towards monetization.
• Once a platform achieves a certain size and monopoly, it focuses on extracting rents.

The internet's environmental costs

• Security risks
• Cyberwarfare + hacktivism

Hacking, Hacktivism, CyberTerrorism, Cyberwarfare

Hacking

• Hacking initially referred to clever solutions to computing problems.
• By the 1980s, hacking became associated with crime and mischief.

Hacktivism

• Hacktivism combines hacking with activism.
• Defacing websites, DDOS attacks, and doxing are typical acts.
• Whether hacktivism is considered a crime or civil disobedience is up for debate.

Cyber terrorism

• Cyberterrorism involves using computer crime and hacking to disrupt communication/internet infrastructure for political, ideological, or religious causes.
• Bodily harm or the threat of it is typically required for an act to be classified as cyberterrorism in the USA.

Notable Cyberattacks

• In 2007, Estonia was targeted by a massive DDOS attack that disabled most of its computer-related functionality.
• Stuxnet (2013) was a computer worm attack that damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges.
• The WannaCry cyberattack (2017) affected hundreds of thousands of computers by encrypting them and demanding ransom in Bitcoin, with healthcare infrastructure being a primary target.

Cyberwarfare

• Cyberwarfare employs computer techniques to erode a nation's economic strength, undermine its institutions, encourage social discord, and weaken international bonds.
• Western states began to recognize cyberwarfare as a real threat in the late 2010s.
• One example of cyberwarfare is information poisoning, which makes it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Dead Internet Theory

• The Dead Internet Theory proposes that the majority of online content is now machine-generated.

Legitimacy in Cyberwarfare

• Legitimacy refers to the belief that something is legal, proper, valid, and acceptable.
• When a state's institutions are considered legitimate, they have the support of the majority of the population and the right to operate and exercise control.
• Evidence of cyberwarfare can include declining political participation, shrinkage of centralist parties, growth in populist options, and the rise of extremist platforms.

The role of digital technology in societal discord

• The use of digital technology (especially social media and the internet) to create discord and distrust in rival nations relates to the breakdown of the civil public sphere.
• This is done by encouraging dislike and disbelief of those whose views differ from one's own.

Explanations for the current legitimation crisis (LC)

• Technological determinism: Technology (specifically impartial social networks) is the primary cause.
• Social forces: Larger social forces (e.g., financial capitalism) are the main drivers, with technology acting as a delivery vehicle.
• Technological momentum: Larger social forces are the root cause, but technology amplifies and worsens the crisis.

Group Polarization theory

• Group polarization theory is a concept from experimental psychology.
• Initial work began in the late 1950s, and has become one of the most studied phenomenon in psychology
• Solomon Asch's line experiments (late 1950s)
• Juries: Placing like-minded individuals together has shown that theory will come out of that deliberation with stronger views which will cause their views to become more polarized
• A dissenting voice can moderate the polarization effect: echo chambers are real but can be moderated in their effects.
• Traditional media: Traditionally acted as gatekeepers including dissenting voices.
• Internet: people tend to consume information sources that reflect individual's views, and engagement algorithms of SM also do this.

How Group Polarization works

• Social comparison: People alter and adjust their stances
• Persuasive argumentation: Persuaded to agree