Course Syllabus

IGA 538: Technology, Privacy, and the Trans-National Nature of the Internet

 

Instructional Staff

Prof. Jim Waldo (waldo at g dot harvard dot edu)
Ira Guha (irg978 at student dot hks dot harvard dot edu)
Amy Robinson (amy_robinson dot student dot hks dot harvard dot edu)

 

Office hours

Prof. Waldo: 3-5pm Tuesdays & Thursdays, Maxwell Dworkin, Room 127

Ira Guha: Mondays 3-4pm, HKS Cafeteria
Amy Robinson: 3-4pm, Digital HKS, 1 Brattle, 4th floor, Suite 470

Overview:

Advances in technology have led to worries about “the reasonable expectation of privacy” since Warren and Brandeis wrote their seminal article on the subject at the end of the 19th century. These worries have continued and evolved as the technology of communication has been seen as a technology of surveillance. The modern world of computers, cell phones, CCTV-camera, and the emerging Internet of Things offer unprecedented opportunities for tracking everything everyone does. 

At the same time, policy around the right to privacy and indeed the definition of what privacy means have evolved in different ways in different countries. European laws attempt to protect the privacy of the individual from corporations, while U.S. law tries to protect the privacy of the individual from the government. Corporations doing business in multiple jurisdictions find themselves subject to conflicting and sometimes contradictory rules and regulations, while users find it difficult to know what rights they have with respect to their interactions.

This course will look at the state of both policy and technology surrounding privacy. Is the technology capable of the kinds of panopticon-style surveillance that critics worry about? What laws cover the use and abuse of such technology, both in the United States and abroad? What is meant by privacy, and how can it be preserved in the face of ongoing technology? And how can nation-states regulate the gathering, access, and use of the information we generate with our technology to preserve some sense of privacy and autonomy? 

The overall goal of the course is to allow students to understand how policy is made in these areas of technology, both within the U.S. and elsewhere, and to understand how to approach the capabilities of the technologies that policies are trying to govern. We will also look at different models of governance, some of which are very different from those that are traditionally thought of, including the role of code in the governing of technology. 

Each unit in the course will examine an aspect of the interaction of technology and policy around the topic of privacy. The classroom sessions will be a combination of lecture and discussion; much of the grade will depend on class participation. On occasion, speakers from industry or government will be brought in to share their experience. There may also be lab sessions as part of the regular classroom meetings in which we will look at and manipulate the technology under discussion.

In support of each unit, each student will be asked to read a number of papers on the topic of the unit, prepare for and participate in the discussion during the class, and post a question about the reading to a discussion forum open to all members of the class. Students will keep a blog in which they will weekly write their reflections about the content of the course. Students will also be asked to write three short, individual papers on topics related to the course.

The course will also require a final project. This will allow students, working alone or in small groups, to explore an aspect of the topic of this course in greater detail. Every project should require research into an idea or issue beyond that directly discussed during the semester, clearly implementing skills learned from the class. The primary output of your research may be a position paper, experimental analysis, or engineering prototype, as well as a presentation to the class.

Late assignments will not be accepted; attendance at all course meetings will be expected.

Rules of digital etiquette will be expected; if you are using a laptop or other device to take notes, it is expected that you will not also be reading or composing email, chatting with friends, checking Facebook, or shopping. Cell phones that ring during class will be answered by the instructors.

There will not be any examinations given in this course.

Cooperation

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the course topic, students will be expected to work with each other and learn from each others' perspectives and backgrounds. Individual papers should be written by and worked on individually, but everything else in the class is designed to encourage group discussion, interaction, and participation.

Grading 

 10% Questions on the Reading Assignments
 10% Class participation
  25% Personal blog
  25% Short papers
  30% Final project/paper

Textbooks and Other Readings

There is no required text for this course. All reading material will be distributed on this site or will be available on the Internet. This material will be supplemented with technical, academic, and popular-press readings from the Internet.  Outside speakers will also be invited to shed light (or generate heat) on some of the topics.

Planned Course Sequence 

(Note that the following is subject to change without notice in response to what happens in the world. Privacy concepts and the technology around them change quickly and in unpredictable ways.)

Unit 1: Privacy Concepts

What is meant by privacy, and what is the history of the policy around this concept? How is privacy dealt with in various countries, and how does technology interact with both what we think of as private and how we worry about privacy?

Readings:

See Assignments Privacy Concepts

Unit 2: Surveillance

What are the consequences of being observed, and where is such observation appropriate rather than being privacy invasive? How is technology advancing in a way that might make this kind of surveillance more invasive? How does surveillance happen on line? How does the technology around drones interact with our notions of privacy and the law?

Readings: 

See Assignments Why Surveillance Matters, Surveillance in the Network World, Drones, and Surveillance elsewhere

Unit 3: Authentication

How do we know someone is who they claim to be? How do you prove you are you? How does this work in the physical world, and how does this work in the digital world? What are the technologies around biometrics, and how are these used to authenticate and to identify? How might governments use or abuse these technologies?

Readings:

See assignments Authentication and Biometrics, Facial Recognition, Digital Signatures, and Government Authentication

Unit 4: Algorithms, Big Data, and Privacy

How do we balance the rights of the individual against the investigations of science? Can an algorithm be biased, and if so how would we know? As the social sciences come to rely on “big data”, what does it mean to respect the rights of the individual? How can data sets be safely shared, and what does that do to the data? Do we have to choose between data-intensive science and privacy? Does it matter if this is done by governments or corporations? How does this change our elections?

 Readings:

See assignments Algorithmic Bias, De-identification and re-identification, Data Science, and Corporate Data Science

Interlude 1: Elections

What does the combination of widely available personal data, big-data analysis, and social media do to our democratic institutions, especially elections? Is this really something new, or just a repeat of things that have been seen in the past? Is there anything we should do about it? Is there anything we can do about it?

Readings:

See assignment Elections

Unit 5: Encryption, Security, and Dissent

From the time of Julius Caesar through the 1950s, encryption was something so difficult and costly that only governments could afford it. But breakthroughs in both the mathematics of encryption and computing has made strong encryption available to almost anyone, indeed, it is now deployed as part of everyday consumer products. What does this mean for law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and authorities in general? How can we balance the use of encryption for privacy with the need for intelligence and law enforcement to gather information?

Readings:

See assignments What is Cryptography?, Crypto Wars, Golden Keys and Back Doors, The Right to Search

Interlude 2: Blockchain

What is blockchain? Can we use it to change our economy? Revolutionize government? Fundamentally change the economy? Cure cancer? Reach enlightenment? Or is it just a mechanism to separate excess funds from venture capitalists?

Readings:

See assignment Blockchain

Unit 6: Wiretaps and Networks

What expectation do we have about the privacy of our conversations, and how has technology changed those expectations? In particular, how has the move from circuit-based networking to packet-based networking changed the nature of wire taps, pin traces, and the relationship between data and meta-data? How do hacks happen?

Readings:

See assignments Kinds of Networks, Who wiretaps?, Back doors, and A case study