Caring is not enough: the importance of Internet skills for online privacy protection

This article explains Internet users’ self-help activities in protecting their privacy online using structural equation modeling. Based on a representative survey of Swiss Internet users, it reveals past experiences with privacy breaches as a strong predictor of current protective behavior. Further, in line with the ‘privacy paradox’ argument, caring about privacy (privacy attitudes) alone does not necessarily result in substantial self-protection. Most strikingly, however, general Internet skills are key in explaining users’ privacy behavior. These skills enable users to reduce risks of privacy loss while obtaining the benefits from online activities that increasingly depend on the revelation of personal data. Consequently, Internet skills are an essential starting point for public policies regarding users’ self-help in privacy protection.     

The digital divide in Sydney

In Australia, there has been limited research into the issue of the digital divide. Even less attention has been given to the social and spatial characteristics of this phenomenon, particularly within metropolitan areas. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining the social and spatial characteristics of computer and Internet use in Sydney. The findings suggest that those individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged have lower rates of computer and Internet use, and that these individuals also risk exacerbating their disadvantage status if these demand-side barriers are not addressed. If we are to address disparities in computer and Internet use in Australia we need to consider more fully the social and spatial nature of such disparities that prevent individuals from accessing such technologies in an increasingly 'wired' world.     

Saying Something: The Location of Social Movements in the Surveillance Society

Arguing for social movement-based critiques of public surveillance, this article proposes an alternative approach to the established parameters of research on the contemporary surveillance society. As cities become increasingly organized around a logic of insecurity and fear, there has been an eruption of concern and debate about the expansion of urban public surveillance. But most of the research on this subject has paid little attention to the deliberate, collective forms of political critique raised by anti-surveillance activism. Rather, the predominant focus has been on concerns about privacy rights, civil liberties, and the dilemmas of balancing freedom with security. Moreover, the prevailing critical narrative contends that the radical expansion of surveillance has been largely met with consent from the public. Moving beyond such a discourse of consent, this article examines two examples of cultural interventions that seek to contest the growth of public surveillance, not as a problem limited to the violation of privacy rights but as a process that signifies the metastasizing weaponization of everyday life and the authoritarian circulation of fear. I suggest that the significance of contemporary anti-surveillance activism is found in its embeddedness in broader struggles rather than in the opposition to surveillance as an autonomous political aim.     

INTERNET: A Framework for Analyzing Online Human Service Practices

SUMMARY

The Internet and related electronic communication technologies are used by human service professionals for many functions ranging from the storage and transmission of sensitive medical information to online counseling. Yet, there are many aspects of telecommunications law that work against privacy and thus the potential for ethical dilemmas has increased. This paper explores and discusses the complex reasons contributing to these ethical dilemmas. The article also presents a human service oriented framework, INTERNET, for analyzing and resolving these dilemmas.     

Privacy,technology, and conflict: Emerging issues and action in workplace privacy

IV. Conclusion Growing employee awareness of the degree to which their personal privacy is compromised in the workplace, particularly with regards to information/telecommunicatton-system use and work monitoring, has created an organizational and political climate that may yield significant restrictions on employee monitoring and on how employers maintain and distribute employees’ personal information. While both federal and state governments have generally deferred to the right of the employer-as-owner to set conditions of employment that may include intrusions into employee privacy (Grodin, 1991), a number of statutory restrictions have been promulgated or proposed that will significantly expand employee privacy rights in the workplace. Additionally, it is probable that unions will aggressively assert employee privacy rights within the context of collective bargaining, potentially using employee dissatisfaction with privacy intrusions as a basis for organizing nonunion firms.     

Privacy and confidentiality in social work

Abstract

In the human services confidentiality is a central principle defining the relationship between the worker and the client. In this paper the authors argue that the human services have privileged the notion of confidentiality over the more fundamental right of privacy. They argue there is a persistent confusion between these two concepts and that privacy is an important but neglected ethical concept within human services. The authors discuss the relationship between privacy and confidentiality and identii some of the implications of the privacy concept for practice.     

Privacy in the Information Age

In recent years, surveillance has become an increasingly salientpolitical issue in the United States. In this article we presentdata on public opinion about privacy invasions and surveillancetechniques since 1990. Generally speaking, the polls show thatconcern about threats to personal privacy has been growing inrecent years. Although the public was temporarily willing toexpand the government’s investigative powers in the aftermathof the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, support for mostforms of surveillance has declined.     

The Shifting "Balance' Between Criminal Investigation and Privacy

In the past decade, numerous ICT-related investigation powers have been introduced or extended. Have these shifted the balance between criminal investigation and privacy? Do governments allow more privacy infringements for the sake of law enforcement than they used to do? As a first step towards answering these questions, this paper presents the results of a case study of communications interception law in the Netherlands. The study offers a historical analysis of the introduction and changes in Dutch law regarding powers to investigate post, telegraphy, telephony, telecommunications, oral communications and traffic data in the period 1838- 2002. The case study shows that the balance between criminal investigation and privacy in Dutch law has shifted somewhat towards law enforcement, particularly in 2000, but privacy is not altogether discarded. Still, privacy does not appear to operate on a par with law enforcement: it seems a secondary rather than a primary factor in legislative practice. Governments and parliaments should pay more attention to substantiating the need for extending investigation powers, if they want to retain a semblance of truth when they speak of the "balance' between criminal investigation and privacy.     

Internet Addiction: Debating the Diagnosis

While the Internet has revolutionized the process of information gathering and communication in society, there has been mounting concern in the literature as to the effect of the medium on the individual. Researchers appear torn as to whether an individual can actually develop an addiction to the Internet. This report will review this controversy in detail, including proposed definitional criteria for problematic Internet use, explanatory theories of the manifestation of problematic Internet use, measures of problematic Internet use, and groups with a higher vulnerability of developing problematic Internet use. The report will conclude by identifying gaps in the literature, areas for future research, and implications for human service agencies and treatment providers.     

Information society and digital divide in South Africa: results of longitudinal surveys

Integration into the information society implies that information plays an increasingly important role in all sectors of society and holds distinct social and economic benefits. Discourses on the information society are, however, also associated with the digital divide and inequalities in access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Within sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is often regarded as one of the most information-integrated societies due to widespread mobile phone ownership, among other things. However, while ICT access has been emphasized, research also points to the role of demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors such as ethnicity, income, education and gender. This article discusses the results of questionnaire surveys conducted by Afrobarometer among probability South African samples in 2008 and 2011. The results indicate that individual Internet use and mobile Internet access were lower than estimated in the literature. Furthermore, gender gaps, as well as considerable gaps between population groups and educational levels, were found in Internet and computer use, mobile ownership and access to mobile Internet and accessing news via the Internet. Conclusions regarding strategies for bridging the digital divide and integrating South Africa into the information society are discussed.     

I spy with my little eye: the use of CCTV in schools and the impact on privacy

CCTV is widely acknowledged to be ubiquitous in British urban areas. It is therefore not surprising that its use has seeped into institutions such as the school. As such it is important, perhaps more than ever, to be able to attribute an inherent value to privacy and demonstrate that its infringement facilitated by the burgeoning of technological surveillance practices could have potentially serious consequences for society. Drawing upon empirical research conducted in three secondary schools in the United Kingdom, this paper examines the value of privacy as perceived by pupils and the extent to which this is undermined or eradicated by the presence of CCTV cameras.     

Ethical Issues for Qualitative Research in On-line Communities

Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in Internet technologies, which offer new possibilities for researching hard to reach groups. However, research guidelines, which could aid research in this new forum, have not yet been fully developed. The focus of the article will be ethical issues that may arise from using the Internet as a research tool if we are to protect and respect our participants. Questions surrounding gaining informed consent, privacy of participants and new power differentials, which may arise through interaction in an on-line forum, are raised. These are supplemented by reflections from work conducted by the authors using on-line discussion formus as method of research with people with autism.     

Ordinary Usage of New Media: Internet Usage via Mobile Phone in Japan

Abstract:  This paper, by analyzing Internet usage via mobile phones in Japan, aims to clarify an aspect of information behavior in present-day Japanese society.
Many discourses on the mobile Internet in Japan, either positive or negative, emphasize its novelty and describe this new media as an exotic phenomenon. These discourses can be divided into two categories. The nationalistic discourses and the moral panic discourses. Both types of discourse have built certain images of social influences of the mobile Internet in the future. However, it would be unwise to conclude that those images of the mobile Internet express the reality of this new medium, simply because they lack empirical ground.
With these points in mind, based on the result of our national survey conducted in 2001, we would like to show the actual status of use of the mobile Internet and discuss that the ordinary usage is a critically important realm to understand the process of social reception of the mobile Internet. As our data shows, although the actual usage of the mobile Internet is not very conspicuous, it gives us a chance to understand how the mobile Internet has been integrated into our everyday lives.     

Blogging PR: An exploratory analysis of public relations weblogs

Although there are ever more weblogs on the Internet, this is an area that has been little researched in public relations, and where they have been analyzed it has been as a tool for communication rather than a primary information source in the public relations body of knowledge. This paper provides an exploratory study of the structure and content of 67 blogs on public relations to determine what issues they deal with and whether they are a tool for the theoretical development of the field. In addition to their content we have looked at the structure, usability and interactivity of the blogs.     

The City Park as a Public Good Reference for Internet Policy Making

Extensive literature has provided evidence of the organic nature of the Internet as a domain for different sorts of activities. Most policy making regarding the Internet, however, has focused on its economic dimensions (e.g. e-commerce, copyrights, privacy) while taking timid steps when it comes to its cultural and social dimensions. We propose a more comprehensive approach for global policy making on the Internet by looking retrospectively at processes that led to the creation of urban parks, and examining those processes in light of public goods theory. We conducted historical and theoretical analyses to show that, in the same way urban parks define spaces that mediate between different functions of the city, it is possible to define buffer spaces within the Internet that mediate between competing spheres of activity. As a complex phenomenon involving infrastructure, applications, and content, the Internet possesses features that can be located at different points between purely private and purely public goods. This fact parallels the growing attention that public goods theorists are paying to non-economic factors to explain the provisions of goods under circumstances that do not easily fit supply/demand laws. We argue that urban parks, as hybrid public goods, offer a reference for the design of policies that harmonize competing interests because they are spaces justified by manifold rationales (economic, political, social and cultural). As parks offer possibilities for spontaneous re-appropriations of the city as a cohesive entity (i.e. something beyond a disconnected collection of populations), defining similar multi-purpose spaces on the Internet would facilitate coexistence of competing and complementary behaviours by allowing users to re-appropriate this technology as a comprehensive entity beyond a mere aggregation of transactions and interests.     

Internet use for health information among college students

Use of the Internet to retrieve health information is increasingly common. The authors surveyed 743 undergraduate students at 2 academic institutions to examine their Internet use, health-seeking behaviors, and attitudes related to the use of the Internet to obtain health information. Fifty-three percent of the respondents indicated that they would like to get health information online, and 28% reported that they would like to attend a health program online. Overall, 74% of the students reported having ever received health information online, and more than 40% reported that they frequently searched the Internet for information. They used various search engines and multiple Web sites to find health information. Issues related to the credibility of the information on health Web sites were crucial considerations for students. The study found differences in Internet use for health information by gender and by level of Internet experience.     

Liability and the Internet: Risks and Recommendations for Social Work Practice

SUMMARY

Use of the Internet for counseling and information services has increased dramatically in the last five years. Although the Internet may benefit consumers by helping them secure needed services and resources, social workers and social service agencies who provide counseling over the Internet need to be aware of the legal risks associated with its use. Among the most salient concerns that need to be addressed are client confidentiality and privacy of records, appropriateness of treatment services, and the duty to warn others of harm that a client might pose to them. This paper looks at these legal concerns in light of appropriate Social Work practice and recommends methods to abate the risks that might occur when Internet counseling and service is provided.     

Situating Privacy Online

Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behaviour and experience. Yet it is well recognized within privacy-advocacy circles that 'privacy' is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this article we view privacy as mediating between individuals and their online activities, not standing above them, and as being constantly redefined in actual practice. It is necessary to examine, therefore, what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. This article is based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, a neighbourhood- based, ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada, that investigates how people integrate online services in their daily lives. We propose that there are three organizing 'moments' of online privacy: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of interaction with it, and the moment after the data has been released.     

From “bringing-in” to “going-out”: transnationalizing China’s Internet capital through state policies

The exponential growth in China’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector has attracted increasing academic interest. Mainstream accounts have focused on issues of access and control, and critical scholars have examined the dynamic shaping forces. Building on the framework of political economy, this study adopts a historical approach to the Internet as a complex site of power interactions. The study examines the historical process by which China has opened its ICT industry to transnational capital. In tracing the policy changes related to this move, this study examines the historical stages that have been critical in the transnationalization of China’s Internet: the initial opening of China’s ICT sector; the introduction of financial capital; and the recent “going-out” initiatives. In doing so, the study addresses a gap in the current scholarship regarding the history of bridging China’s Internet to transnational capital, particularly the regulatory context. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the dialectical role of the Chinese state, which has been more constituting than containing in transnationalizing China’s Internet.