CMDS 2500 Final Test Review Guide PDF

Final Test Date: November 27, 2024 12:30-2:30pm, location: CLH D **[CMDS 2500: Final Test Review Guide]** - Internet enthusiast v. internet skeptic - Digital policy literacy (Shade and Shepherd reading) - The acquisition of knowledge about digital policy issues. This leads to u...

Final Test Date: November 27, 2024 12:30-2:30pm, location: CLH D **[CMDS 2500: Final Test Review Guide]** - Internet enthusiast v. internet skeptic - Digital policy literacy (Shade and Shepherd reading) - The acquisition of knowledge about digital policy issues. This leads to us being informed consumers of information online. - Are we just consuming information off the internet blindly or do we truly understand what we are consuming? - This involves the understanding of big data collection, AI use, online privacy, digital divides, and IP protections. - What are social media? - Services that are based on web 2.0 technologies. - Based on UGC (user-generated content) - Users interact with these services through profile. - Through these profiles, you interact not only with the content of the site, but with other profiles. - Problem of definition (social media) - You can send someone a meme through fax... is this social media? - A distinction between standalone and built in functionality needs to be made in order to classify a service or site as social media. - Stand alone and built-in functionality - Instagram, tiktok, and youtube are standalone. - Some apps and sites are not entirely social media, but contain aspects of it. For example, CBC news allows you to comment on articles. - Social media definition (Obar and Wildman reading) - - What is the internet? - "International network" --- the global network of devices including your phone, computer, servers, and IoT devices. - Layer model of the internet - Physical layer - Your computer, the wires that connect it to the network, exchange points, data centers, etc. - Logical layer - The language through which data is transmitted over the internet. IP (internet protocol) - Is made possible by the previous layer. - Application layer - The software you use. Needs to understand the internet protocol. - This could be a browser or your OS. Or another app that connects to the internet for whatever reason. - Content layer - The contents of the software. - UGC, images, video, gameplay, etc. - As well as analytical data! - Internet service provider and internet transit provider - ISP: an organization that connects consumers to the internet. - ITP: an organization that connects internet networks together. ISPs connect consumers to these. - Packet-switched communication - Info sent on the internet is broken up into packets. - Each packet is a very small piece of information, and it takes a random path to the server. This random path is often the "cheapest" rather than the most efficient. - Signals intelligence - The act of collecting information through interception of signals used for human communication. - CSE in Canada and NSA in America facilitate this. - In America, the NSA collects data from multiple IXPs via a splitter. All data that passes through this is logged and analyzed by the CIA - Boomerang routing - When domestic internet traffic leaves the country. If you are in ontario connecting to the gov't of canada website, your traffic may leave the country, to be surveillance by american intelligence. - Network sovereignty (Clement reading) - The principle of a country maintaining control over its physical network infrastructures, so we don't rely on foreign networks as they present privacy issues, even though they are often cheaper for ISPs to work with. - Internet exchange point - Physical location and infrastructure through which ISPs exchange internet traffic and are connected to each other. - Data localization - The principle of keeping data within its sites of creation (ex. Keeping canadian data in canada) wherever possible. - One way to encourage this is by encouraging companies to invest in more canadian internet exchanges and encourage their use. - What is artificial intelligence (AI)? - Technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, and creativity. - People \> data \> algorithms \> automation \> decision - The "underlying politics" of big data and AI (Crawford reading) - Policy processes, - Political economy, - Infrastructure - There is an insidious side to data collection and analytics. Wether you realize it not, AI does contribute to outcomes that could impact you. - What is Big Data? - Extremely large datasets... where the definitions of "large" is constantly growing. It is a term that has disappeared as it has been normalized. - Defining Big Data - The early definition was any large dataset that required supercomputers to process. This definition is constantly changing as big data gets bigger, and home computers become powerful enough to process this data on their own. - Data collection, management, use/analysis, retention, and sharing - Data collection --- gathering information from a source or sources to develop, understand, and answer questions. This could be gov't, corporate, etc. - Data management--- when collected data is organized into data variables and datapoints. - Data use and analysis --- analyzing and interpreting organized data. - Data retention --- the storage of this data to be used again in the future. - Data sharing --- sending this stored information to another entity so they can use it. - The Four V's of Big Data - Volume --- the scale of the data - Variety --- data coming from all sorts of sources - Velocity --- analysis is data. - Veracity --- the uncertainty of data - Defining Big Data (boyd and Crawford reading) - Metadata - "Data about data" - Like names, sizes, locations, and timestamps that are part of a file. - Digital Dossier - A collection of digital tracks about you, an organization, event, product, or other entity. - Each entity can have multiple dossiers. - This may differ depending on the intentions of each collector. - Six critical questions for Big Data (boyd and Crawford reading) - Big data changes the definition of knowledge. - Claims to objectivity and accuracy are misleading. - Bigger data is not always better data. - Big data loses its meaning depending on context. - Accessible doesn't mean ethical. - Limited access to data creates digital divides. - What is an algorithm? - A set of instructions for solving a task, typically followed by a computer. - What are analytics? - There are 3 different types of analytics, and they help us to find answers to fundamental questions. - Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics - descriptive --- analyzing current and historical data to indentify trends and relationships. How do we describe what we see? - Predictive --- analyzing data to predict future trends and events. You can craft a picture of the future and make decisions. - Prescriptive --- analyzing data to determine an optimal plan or course of action. One example is investment decisions. Is this investment a good idea based on past data? - The scored society (Pasquale reading) - - Eligibility determinations - Big data contributes to eligibility lists, determine if you're, hired, fired, accepted into college, and vice versa. - How Big Data discrimination happens - Biased datasets --- data is not always representative of the truth. - Biased algorithms --- services are programmed by humans whose values are unintentionally embedded into software. - Biased individuals interpreting results --- for example, employers in republican areas favor christian candidates over muslim ones for a job. Even if the algo and data were free of bias, the human component always introduces some. - What are mobile devices? - Computers that can be used while one is mobile, like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearable/implantable devices. - What is the mobile internet? - Based on the cellular network, the mobile internet is a significantly more limited version of the desktop internet. - Mobile-only and mobile-mostly - Mobile-only can be used to describe people who only connect to the internet via a mobile device. - Mobile-mostly is the same, but with people who do have a PC to access the internet with despite still often using only a mobile device. - Mobile internet underclass (Napoli and Obar reading) - A percentage of the population that for whatever reason is confined to mobile only internet access is subject to an inferior browsing experience. This creates a digital divide. - Hardware, software and usage divides - Mobile internet compared to broadband connections is slower, often with data caps, limiting browsing - Mobile devices are smaller, less powerful, and are limited to boiled down "mobile editions" meaning mobile users have access to less information than PC users. - Research is never done on mobile devices as a result. Mobile devices are better suited toward entertainment, while PC is better suited as the device for research. - Embodied computing (Pedersen and Iliadis reading) - Material, body-centered technologies that can be in, on, or around the body. This includes, wearables, digestibles, and implantables. - Two different types of embodied computing: topographical (on the body's surface, like a glucose monitor) and visceral (inside the body) - Privacy definitions and the challenge of definition - There are many definitions of privacy, which is why it's hard to define it. Definitions could e depending on the situation. - Some definitions are: - The ability to opt out - The ability to be left alone - The ability to not have anyone watch you in your own home. - Alan Westin (Privacy fundamentalist, pragmatist and unconcerned) - Privacy fundamentalists care a lot about privacy. - They decline opportunities to share or disclose data, and believe the government should do better to address privacy threats. - Privacy unconcerned people on the other hand do not. - They do not care about privacy, think that it is a waste of time, and excessive. - They believe that no government intervention is necessary. - Privacy pragmatists are middle ground. - They are concerned with trade-offs involving privacy. - Like what will happen, or what they will get in return for disclosing personal information. - Pragmatists make up half of the US population. - The "nothing to hide" argument (Solove reading) - The idea that we should not have any issues with our data being examined by third parties if you have no dirt on your boots. There are problems with thus. - The idea that nothing will happen to you, nor will you experience the negative effects of data collection and surveillance if you're not doing anything wrong. - Problems with the "nothing to hide" argument (Solove reading) - There is more to privacy than just concealing bad things. - Small privacy issues become part of bigger ones, like big data. - All the small things that companies collect becomes big data. - Privacy protective behaviours - Actions we can take to try and achieve privacy. - One of these actions is reading and understanding notice materials before we agree to them. - "Biggest lie on the internet" study (Obar and Oeldorf-Hirsch reading) - "I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy" is one of the biggest lies on the internet, according to J. Obama. - A study found that most people signing up to a dummy site did not bother to even access the privacy policy. - Notice policy - Another name for terms of service and privacy policies. - They were introduced with the intention to allow users to be more in charge of their data, however this has not worked. - Terms of service and privacy policies are written in Legalese, are long-winded and are difficult to understand. Nobody wants to bother reading that! - The clickwrap - Big, bright buttons prompting you to agree, sign up, and get to the next step. - Click wraps bring attention to getting you into the action fast, while also putting less emphasis on ToS and privacy policies that you should read. - The clickwrap benefits companies in this way, since you did not read anything, you only clicked sign up! - You click you lie, you use you lie - Nobody reads the terms of service and privacy policies. In fact, a study showed that on a dummy site, 75% of people did not even open the privacy policy. - Do you really agree to what these policies say if you don't even know? - Why don't we read policies? - Policies are written in Legalese, are long winded, and tough to understand. - Clickwrap further draw attention away from these documents. - Who wants to read for 40 minutes? People just want to use a service. - Surveillance installation (camera and signage) - Open internet - Networked information economy (Benkler reading) - Removing barriers to entry into the information economy. This comes through the form of "commons based peer production." - Decentralized, digitally mandated groups that contribute to a project without a hierarchy. - Commons-based peer production - One example of how open-source projects are built online. - Wikipedia is an example! So is GitHub and SourceForge, two sites that display how open source collaboration leads to real outcomes. - Digital commons - Communal ownership of ICTc, information, and data. - Wikis, open source software, open access materials, and IP licensed under CC. - Communal ownership of technologies and communal access to data and sources. - Intellectual property - A creation of the mind. Includes investigations, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images used in business. - Open source concept - A development model that encourages universal access to control of an entity's design. - Anyone can modify open source material. - Nobody owns products, they are often free. - Ideology vs. Reality. - Open source motivations (Hars and Ou reading) - Intrinsic motivations --- the desire to advance internal ideals linked to themselves. People like feeling like part of a community and contributing! - Extrinsic motivations --- desire to achieve goals realized outside the self. Like becoming better at something. Skill development, revenue from future opportunities, boosting a resume. - Open source ideology - Sharing information is important. - Helping others is important. - Reputation development is important. - Open access - A system that afford the individuals an opportunity to consume products and services without being inhibited by barriers to entry. - E.x. open journals, open data, research archives. - Copyright - The right to produce or reproduce a work, or a substantial part of it in any form. - Includes literary, musical, software, and communication signals. - Creative Commons License (web reading) - A license far less restrictive and more malleable than traditional copyright law. Can be modified to suit your desires. - "Some rights reserved." - 4 components of CC licensing: - CC by attribution: original work must be credited when reused. - CC-BY-NC: non commercial, cannot make any money off of this work if reused. - CC-BY-ND: no derivatives, cannot alter original work when reusing. - CC-BY-SA: share-alike, new works incorporating original content must share the same license as the original. - What is Wikipedia? - A free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. - Wiki means "hurry hurry" in Hawaiian. - "Pedia" comes from encyclopedia. - It is one of the biggest success stories of open-source principles and has many of the same problems as social media sites. - Misinformation/disinformation (Cooke reading) - Misinformation is information that is not entirely true for a reason that is not intentional. - It can be biased, subjective, myopic, incomplete, inaccurate, vague, ambiguous, or otherwise not intended to be deceitful. - Disinformation is intentionally and verifiably false, associated with problematic intent. - What is information literacy? - A set of skills and knowledge that allow us to find, parse, and use info that we do need, as well as to filter out info that we don't need. - Why information literacy? - It is a necessary set of tools to help us evaluate the present and future landscape of information. - It also helps identify problems and being able to locate, use, synthesize, and evaluate information based on these problems. - Information society - A society where the creation, distribution, use, integration, and manipulation of information is a significant component of economy, culture, and politics. - Civic online reasoning (McGrew reading) - Another term for information literacy. - It is the ability to effectively search for, evaluate, and verify social and political information from online sources. - Strategies for addressing fake news - Determine who's behind the information. - Investigate the author, organization, their motives, etc. - What is the evidence? - Consider sources cited. - How do they present the source? - Does the evidence support the claims made? - Verify evidence by consulting other sources. - Find other sources that could validate or invalidate claims made. Also consider the quality of other sources. Please let me know if you have any questions.