Googlization of Us
The mathematical code that determines how Google and other sites function and return results is the…
Algorithm
Which US Law protects the privacy of student educational records?
FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
Details who can request student education records. This includes giving parents, eligible students, and other schools the right to inspect education records maintained by a school.
The primary agency enforcing privacy policy in the U.S. marketplace is the...
Federal Trade Commission
Free speech is guaranteed by the [ ??] amendment of the constitution.
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
What is derivative vs. transformative
derivative is a work based on one or more preexisting works - a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, abridgement, etc.
transformative work is new and copyrightable and does not infringe upon the copyright of the original. To transform the original work into new work, new creative expression must be added.
The “filter bubble” refers to when…
… the search results provided are based on your preferences and the data collected about you & the elimination of alternative views
Open Access symbol - Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers.
HIPPA - what does it stand for? And does it cover data collected by my fit-bit?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has little to do with privacy and covers only communication between you and “covered entities,” which include doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, insurers, and other similar businesses. People tend to think HIPAA covers all health data, but it doesn’t. Your Fitbit data isn’t protected, for example, nor does the law restrict who can ask for your COVID-19 vaccination status.
Can Professor Shannon be fired for making a comment insulting the intelligence of his female co-workers on social media? Part 2: Can he be legally punished for making the comment?
Yes. He can be fired by his employer. He can be shunned socially.
But No. He cannot be punished legally because the first amendment protects him. He has a right to say it, but the government can not do anything about it unless the comment crosses into specific unlawful categories such as:
True threats, or Harassment that meets a legal standard (severe or pervasive enough to constitute actionable workplace harassment).
Most insulting or sexist comments—however offensive—are protected speech under the First Amendment in terms of government prosecution.
How long is a creators work protected by copyright for? (hint: person vs. corporation)
Works created after 1978 are protected for life of the author plus 70 years. Corporate author is 95 years from date of publication or 120 from date of creation.
What is confirmation bias?
actively seek out information that confirms or reinforces what we already believe
Hate speech is protected by the 1st Amendment unless is into one of a few (think of 2) narrow, unprotected categories of speech — primarily:
1. Incitement to imminent lawless action — speech intended and likely to produce immediate illegal activity
2. True threats — serious expressions of intent to commit violence against a specific person or group
Hate speech can only be criminalized when it directly incites imminent criminal activity or consists of specific threats of violence targeted against a person or group.
COPPA what is it? ways to comply?
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act - 1998, enacted 2000 -
Applies to online collection of personal information about children under age 13 - includes collection of data through cookies, tags, pixels, and other tracking technologies also triggers the rule e.g. third party tracking
Details what must be included in privacy policy, when and how parental consent is sought
If content is directed at children 12 years and younger, then the FTC assumes that it is a child is consuming the information.
Must seek “verifiable parental consent” from parents/guardians before collecting data from their kids. The FTC doesn’t stipulate required verifiable consent, but gives suggestions for example:
Challenge questions only a parent/guardian could answer
Require credit card at account set up
Require a call-into a verification center with trained staff
A student writes an article in the school newspaper and falsely claims that Prof. Dolinger swore at students in a fit of rage. Is what the student wrote in the article protected by the first amendment?
Part 2: Can Prof. Dolinger sue the student?
No. The student's speech is not protected because it is defamation of character, because it is a false statement of fact and damages reputation.
Yes. Prof. Dolinger could sue the student potentially for defamation (libel).
4 types of intellectual property...
trade secrets
patents
copyrights
trademarks
The “curly fry conundrum” is an example of…
Homophiliy- How the aggregation of the data that people share online can be used to predict and profile falls along traits of similarity - people I know tend to like what I like.
Its a predictive algorithm
The DMCA: what it stands for?
What it does/how you might use it?
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Copyright law - Establishes protection for online service providers (safe harbor law) if users/content creators engage in copyright infringement, platforms are not liable
provides creators protections against unauthorized use of their works
platforms must provide the means to TAKE DOWN material someone reports as infringing.
Why is the word “prevent” so crucial in the Terms and Agreements documents?
the word "prevent" is crucial in the Terms and Agreements because this is what allows for the companies to give the government your information without warrant from a judge - in the case of "preventing" something from occurring.
The court case or "test" that courts use to determine if material is "obscene"
The Miller Test - Miller v. California
1) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
(2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and
(3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
Four factors of fair use...
Purpose - is it for commercial use? How TRANSFORMATIVE is it?
Nature - is it factual, nonfiction or creative? Is it published or unpublished?
Amount - are you using the whole, or just a portion?
Effect - does your use impair the market value?
What are some of the tactics used by Google, Facebook, and others that inhibit users from understanding the privacy settings they are agreeing to?
small font, long texts
bury the privacy settings
change policies frequently
every service has a different policy
they are too long and written often using complicated language
True or False: The Fourth Amendment always protects individuals from government access to their digital data stored by third-party companies.
False: The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government — but traditionally, that protection does not extend to information voluntarily shared with third parties. This is known as the Third-Party Doctrine, established in Supreme Court cases:
United States v. Miller (1976) – No Fourth Amendment protection for bank records.
Smith v. Maryland (1979) – No protection for phone numbers dialed and shared with the phone company.
Under this doctrine, the government can often obtain that data without a warrant. However, the Supreme Court limited this rule in Carpenter v. United States (2018), holding that historical cell-site location data is protected and requires a warrant because it reveals deeply personal information.
True or False: Accessing historical cell-phone ping data does not require a warrant because of the third-party doctrine. (Bonus points if you can name the case that determined this)
False: In 2018 Carpenter v. United States the Supreme court ruled that accessing cell-phone ping records does require a warrant because it creates enough of a picture of one's movements that it qualifies as a "search" which is protected under the fourth amendment.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is considered one of the most important laws regarding the internet because...
It protects platforms from legal liability relating to harmful content posted on their sites by third parties (users).
"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider" (47 U.S.C. § 230).
Section 230(c)(2), allows platforms to police their sites for harmful content, but it doesn’t require that they remove anything, and it protects them from liability if they choose not to.
NOTE: section 230 is the ONLY section of this act that is in place - the rest was deemed unconstitutional on 1st amendment grounds.
The owner of copyright has 6 exclusive rights...how many can you name?
The reproduce the work
To distribute the work
To create derivative works
To publicly perform the work
To publicly display the work
To publicly perform sound recordings by means of a digital audio transmission