Current Events and Other Resources of Relevance to CSC 190B/290S:
Social Implications of Computing

Fall 2010

The following are links to recent (and some not-so-recent) articles related to the subject of the course.  They aren’t intended to be comprehensive or even representative of anything in particular—they’re just things that caught my eye, or were brought to my attention.  You may find them useful as starting-off points for current-events assignments.

You may also want to consult the Textbook Author’s Resource List, available on Blackboard. 

Tech-Related Public Policy Organizations

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• USACM, the public policy council of the Association for Computing Machinery
• Technology & Liberty Program of the American Civil Liberties Union
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.  (NB: website appears not to have been modified since December 2008; organization may be defunct)

Security and Privacy

• What They Know—Digital Privacy (Wall Street Journal)
• Sept.–Oct., 2005:  Two and a half years after its launch, SEVIS has become business as usual on campuses—almost (Christopher Connell, International Educator)
• Apr. 30, 2010:  Shoppers Who Can’t Have Secrets (NY Times)
• June 2010:  Myths and Fallacies of “Personally Identifiable Information” (Communications of the ACM)
• June 2010:  Privacy By Design:  Moving from Art to Practice (Communications of the ACM)
• Aug. 7, 2010:  Traffic-Camera Debate Heats Up Campaign Trails (NY Times)
• Aug. 13, 2010:  Experts Warn of a Weak Link in the Security of Web Sites (NY Times)
• Aug. 13, 2010:  Judges Divided Over Rising GPS Surveillance (NY Times)
• Sept. 7, 2010:  Are [Full-body Airport] Scanners Worth the Risk? (NY Times)
• Sept. 14, 2010:  Cellphones, social networks make eavesdropping OK? (USA Today)
• Sept. 19, 2010:  Cloud Computing Hits Snag in Europe (NY Times)
• Sept. 23, 2010:  Cyberwar Chief Calls for Secure Computer Network (NY Times)
• Sept. 27, 2010:  U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet (NY Times)
• Sept. 27, 2010:  India’s Surveillance Plan Said to Deter Business (NY Times)
• Sept. 27, 2010:  A Badge That Tells Consumers, ‘Trust This App’ (NY Times)
• Oct. 10, 2010:  New Web Code Draws Concern Over Privacy Risks (NY Times)
• Oct. 16, 2010:  US studying Australian Internet security program (AP/Yahoo News)
• Oct. 18, 2010:  U.S. Pushes to Ease Technical Obstacles to Wiretapping (NY Times)
• Oct. 18, 2010:  Facebook in Privacy Breach: Top-Ranked Applications Transmit Personal IDs (Wall Street Journal)
• Nov. 4, 2010:  E.U. to Overhaul Web Privacy Rules (NY Times)
• Nov. 9, 2010:  Stage Set for Showdown on Online Privacy (NY Times)—a “do not track” option for browsers?
• Nov. 16, 2010:  F.B.I. Seeks Wider Wiretap Law for Web (NY Times)
• Nov. 23, 2010:  Privacy Groups Fault Online Health Sites for Sharing User Data With Marketers (NY Times)
• Dec. 1, 2010:  F.T.C. Backs Plan to Honor Privacy of Online Users (NY Times)

Freedom of Speech

• June 17, 2010:  Victory for WikiLeaks in Iceland’s Parliament (NY Times)
• July, 2010:  Censored! (Communications of the ACM).  Countries use Internet censorship to dominate the political dialogue, but also to create favorable conditions for government-controlled businesses.
• Aug. 20, 2010:  Wikipedia Editing for Zionists (NY Times)

Intellectual Property

• The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA);
  Summary of the Act from the US Copyright Office 
• UR IT information on file sharing and downloading
• Dec. 2005:  A Risky Gamble With Google  (Siva Vaidhyanathan, Chronicle of Higher Education)
• July 2010:  Should the Google book settlement be approved?  (Pamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM)
• July 1, 2010:  New rules bring online piracy fight to US campuses (AP/Businessweek)
• Sept. 26, 2010:  Europe’s Parliament Addresses Patchwork of Copyright Laws (NY Times)
• Oct. 6, 2010:  One Step Closer to a National Digital Library (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Oct. 29, 2010:  U.S. Says Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents (NY Times)
• Nov. 2, 2010:  High Court to Hear Patent Case (Inside Higher Ed)
• Nov. 23, 2010:  SAP Ordered to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion (NY Times).  The largest copyright infringement judgment in history. 
• Nov. 26, 2010:  U.S. Shuts Down Web Sites in Piracy Crackdown (NY Times)

Risk Management

• Computer-Related Risks, by Peter G. Newmann.  Addison-Wesley, 1994.
• Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software, by David Rice.  Addison-Wesley, 2008.
• In general, see the long-running Inside Risks column, originally started by Newmann, in Communications of the ACM.
• Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine, by Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten.  Proc. of the 2007 USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, August 2007.
• Insecurities and Inaccuracies of the Sequoia AVC Advantage 9.00H DRE Voting Machine, by Andrew W. Appel, Maia Ginsburg, Harri Hursti, Brian W. Kernighan, Christopher D. Richards, and Gang Tan.  Expert testimony prepared for the New Jersey Superior Court, Sept. 2008.
• A Pinpoint Beam Strays Invisibly, Harming Instead of Healing (NY Times)

Cyber Crime

• Oct. 26, 2010:  E-Mail Spam Falls After Russian Crackdown (NY Times)
• Nov. 6, 2010:  Chasing Pirates: Inside Microsoft’s War Room (NY Times)
• Nov. 18, 2010:  Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges (NY Times)
• Nov. 2010:  Sabotage!, by David Alan Grier.  Computer, Vol. 43, No. 11, pp. 6–8.  “The idea that an organized team of computer scientists might have created a major worm comes at an uneasy time for engineers.”

Social Interaction

• Aug. 15, 2010:  Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain (NY Times)
• Sept. 29, 2010:  Private Moment Made Public, Then a Fatal Jump (NY Times)
• Nov. 1, 2010:  What NOT To Post On Facebook: 13 Things You Shouldn't Tell Your Facebook Friends (Catharine Smith and Bianca Bosker, The Huffington Post)
• Nov. 3, 2010:  Neighborhood Mischief Caught on Tape (NY Times)
• Nov. 21, 2010:  Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction (NY Times)
• Dec. 1, 2010:  Google Acts to Eliminate Distasteful Web Sellers (NY Times)
• Dec. 4, 2010:  As Bullies Go Digital, Parents Play Catch-Up (NY Times)

Legal Issues

• Web site of Prof. Pamela Samuelson, Univ. of California, Berkeley.
• In general, see the long-running Legally Speaking column, frequently authored by Samuelson, in Communications of the ACM.
• Sept. 24, 2010:  NY Bar: Lawyers May Comb Social Media For Dirt (AP/WCBS)
• Sept. 28, 2010:  USACM response to the proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act
• Oct. 2010:  Software Forensics Tools Enter the Courtroom: New computer tools uncover illegally copied software code, by Bob Zeidman (IEEE Spectrum)
• Nov. 2, 2010:  Justices Debate Video Game Ban (NY Times)
• Nov. 12, 2010:  I.R.S. Sits on Data Pointing to Missing Children (NY Times)

Ethics

• Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Association for Computing Machinery
• Code of Ethics, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Oct. 5, 2010:  What Kind of Community Do We Want to Be?  Statement by UR President Joel Seligman
• Nov. 27, 2010:  War Machines: Recruiting Robots for Combat (NY Times)

Technology in the Public Interest

• Rochester's Human-Computer Interaction project website
• TIER Project Website—Technology & Infrastructure for Emerging Regions.  See also Eric Brewer's talk at UC Berkeley's 2010 Research Symposium, and the profile of Brewer in the July 2010 issue of Communications of the ACM.
• Oct. 9, 2010:  Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic (NY Times)
• Oct. 29, 2010:  IPad Opens World to a Disabled Boy (NY Times)
• Nov. 12, 2010:  ‘Smart’ Meters Draw Complaints of Inaccuracy (NY Times)
• Nov. 23, 2010:  Partisan Rift Mires Product Safety Database Plan (NY Times)

The BlackBerry (RIM) Encryption Controversy

• Aug. 8, 2010:  BlackBerry Security Stance Sows Anxiety (NY Times)
• Aug. 9, 2010:  Texting with Terrorists (NY Times)
• Aug. 12, 2010:  India Warns It Will Block BlackBerry Traffic That It Can’t Monitor (NY Times)
• Aug. 17, 2010:  India May Soon Resolve BlackBerry Dispute (NY Times)

Net Neutrality

• Aug. 4, 2010:  Google and Verizon Near Deal on Web Pay Tiers (NY Times)
• Aug. 11, 2010:  Web Plan Is Dividing Companies (NY Times)
• Aug. 12, 2010:  Google’s response
• Aug. 15, 2010:  Google Plan Disillusions Some Allies (NY Times)
• Aug. 15, 2010:  Internet Proposal From Google and Verizon Raises Fears for Privacy (NY Times)
• Dec. 1, 2010:  Mixed Reaction to F.C.C. Internet Plan (NY Times)

China

• Dec. 4, 2010:  Vast Hacking by a China Fearful of the Web (NY Times)

Google Steetview

• Aug. 17, 2010:  Google Sued in Spain Over Data Collecting (NY Times)
• Oct. 27, 2010:  A Reassured F.T.C. Ends Google Street View Inquiry (NY Times)
• Nov. 10, 2010:  F.C.C. Investigates Google Street View (NY Times)

E-Waste

• Nov. 10, 2010:  ‘The Story of Stuff’ 2.0: An E-Waste Sequel (NY Times)

Last Change:  27 January 2011 /