Chapter 4: Privacy
George Reynolds
Privacy Issues
Internet privacy consists of privacy
over the medium of the Internet:
• the ability to control what
information one reveals about
oneself over the Internet, and
• to control who can access that
information.
On Information Technology “the right
of individuals to control the
collection and use of information
about themselves”.
Right to Privacy has FOUR Aspects:
Protection from unreasonable intrusion
upon one's isolation (such as the gathering
of details about an individual's Web surfing
habits)
Protection from appropriation of one's name
of likeness (stealing one's credit cards or
SSS No.)
Protection from unreasonable publicity
given to one's private life
Protection from publicity that unreasonably
places one in false light before the public
Privacy Issues
Example: You send a message through
Yahoo mail,and a third party takes a look
at it.
• Someone snooping on your network.
- The connection is not encrypted (no
SSL)!
• Someone (system administrator, customer
service representative, etc.) working at
Yahoo.
Encryption can help protect your privacy.
Recent History of Privacy Protection
Legislative Actions:
Communication Act of 1934
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970
Privacy Act of 1974
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) known as Fair Inf. Practices
Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of
1986
CALEA
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPA)
OPT-OUT
assumes that consumers approve of
companies collecting and storing their
personal information, and it requires
them to take action to opt-out by
specifically telling companies, one by
one, not to collect data about them
OPT-IN
requires the data collector to get specific
permission from consumer before
collecting any of his or her data.
Data collectors favor opt-out, and
consumer groups favor opt-in
Data Encryption
Cryptography
• science of encoding and decoding
messages
• only sender and intended receiver can
understand the messages
• Essential technology for ensuring
confidentiality, integrity,and authenticity
of electronic messages and online
business transactions
Encryption
• process of converting electronic messages
into a form understood only by the
intended recipients
Data Encryption (continued)
Encryption key
• a (large random) value applied using an
algorithm to encrypt or decrypt text
• length of key influences strength of
encryption algorithm
Private key (a.k.a. Shared key)
cryptosystem
• same key is used to encrypt and decrypt
messages
• sender and receiver must both know the
key.
- this is the key distribution problem.
Data Encryption (continued)
Public key cryptosystem
• Keys are generated in pairs:
- a public key readily available (e.g., posted on the
web) and used for encryption and signature
verification
- a private key kept secret and used for decryption
and signature generation
RSA [Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman, 1978]
• the first, and most famous, public-key
cryptosystem
• RSA keys are typically 1024–2048 bits long
RSA
Key generation:
Encryption for
Signature for
Secrecy
Authenticity
Privacy Issues
Example: You send a message through
Yahoo mail, and a third party takes a look
at it.
• Someone snooping on your wireless
network.
- The connection is not encrypted (no
SSL)!
• Someone (system administrator, customer
service representative, etc.) working at
Yahoo.
Privacy Issues
Privacy Issues
Identity Theft
Theft of key pieces of personal information to gain
access to a person’s financial accounts
• using this info, identity thief may apply for new credit
or financial accounts, register for college courses,
etc.—all in someone else’s name
Fastest growing form of fraud in the United States
• over 8 million victims in U.S. in 2007
-
[Link]
• victims spend >600 hours over several years
recovering from identity theft
Key personal information includes:
• name, address, date of birth
• Social Security number, driver’s license number
• mother’s maiden name
Identity Theft: How do they steal the
info?
Phishing
• trick users into entering information
on a counterfeit Web site
- link typically sent in a spoofed
email message
• spear-phishing - a variation in which
employees are sent phony e-mails
that look like they came from high-
level executives within their
organization
Typical E-mail Message for Phishing
Identity Theft: How do they steal the
info?
Spyware
• keystroke-logging software downloaded
touser’s computer without consent
• enables the capture of:
- account usernames
- passwords
- credit card numbers
- other sensitive information
• operates even if an infected computer is not
connected to the Internet
• records keystrokes until users reconnects;
data collected then emailed to spy or
posted to a web site
Identity Theft: How do they steal the
info?
Sometimes it is handed to them. Example:
What happened?
On April 24, 2007, Stony Brook University
became aware that files containing personal
information were potentially visible on a
Health Sciences Center library web site.
What kind of information was visible?
Names, Social Security numbers and
University ID numbers of faculty, staff,
students, alumni, and other members of
the University community. The University is
notifying all of the 89,853 people in the
database of the incident.
• [Link]
Identity Theft (continued)
Identity Theft and Assumption
Deterrence Act of 1998
• aims to help fight identity fraud by
making it a Federal felony,
punishable by 3 to 25 years in
prison
Consumer Profiling
Companies can collect info about consumers
without their explicit permission!
Companies openly collect personal information
about Internet users
• when they register at web sites, complete
surveys, fill out forms or enter contests online
Cookies
• text files a web site places on user’s hard
drive so that it can remember info (including
user’s identity)
• examples: site preferences, contents of
electronic shopping cart
• cookie are sent back to server unchanged by
browsereach time it accesses that server
Consumer Profiling (continued)
Tracking software
• identify visitors to your web site from e.g.
pay-per-click accounts
Similar methods used outside the Web
environment
• marketing firms warehouse consumer data
• examples: “loyalty” cards at grocery stores,
credit card purchases, frequent flier accounts,
mail-order catalogue purchases, phone surveys
Databases contain a huge amount of
consumerbehavioral data
• valuable to marketers, product designers, etc.
Consumer Profiling (continued)
Types of data collected while surfing the Web
• GET data: affiliated web sites visited and info
requested
• POST data: form data
• Click-stream data: monitoring of consumer
surfing activity
Ways to limit or stop storage of cookies on hard drive
• set the browser to limit or stop cookies
- e.g., Private Browsing Mode in Mozilla Firefox
• manually delete the files
• download and install a cookie-management program
• use anonymous browsing services, e.g.,
[Link]
- redirects traffic through proxy to hide your IP
address
- doesn’t accept cookies
What Can You Learn From an IP
Address?
Treating Consumer Data
Responsibly
Code of Fair Information Practices and 1980 OECD
privacy guidelines: Companies should
• collect only personal info necessary for
products/services
• protect this information
• inform customers if it intends to use this info for
research or marketing
• provide a means for customers to opt out, correct
errors
Typical uses of personal data
• optimize number, frequency, and mixture of ads
• analyze user behavior and improve services
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)
• P3P software in browser downloads privacy policy
for each site visited, and notifies user if site’s policy
does not match their preferences.
Workplace Monitoring
Employers
Employers monitor workers
• record email, web browsing, files, even
videotaping employees
• goals: evaluate and improve worker productivity;
ensure that corporate IT usage policy is followed
Fourth Amendment cannot be used to limit how a
private employer treats its employees
Public-sector employees have greater privacy rights
• “reasonable expectation of privacy”, Katz v. U.S.,
1998 Supreme Court ruling
Privacy advocates want federal legislation
• Requiring employers to inform employees of
electronic monitoring devices, and restrict type of
info collected
Advanced Surveillance Technology
Camera surveillance
• U.S. cities plan to expand surveillance
systems
• London has one of world’s largest public
surveillance systems
• “Smart surveillance system” identifies people
actingsuspiciously
Facial recognition software
• identifies criminal suspects and other
undesirable characters
• mixed results with current technology
- Example: in a test at Boston’s Logan
airport in 2002, two systems made 153 correct
identifications, and failed to identify people
correctly 96 times.
Advanced Surveillance Technology
(continued)
Global Positioning System (GPS) chips
• Placed in many devices to precisely
locate users
- cars, cellphones, etc.
• Pros: accurately respond to 911 callers;
real-time location-aware marketing
• Cons: wireless spamming from local
restaurants etc.; your whereabouts
always known
Advanced Surveillance Technology
Trade-off between exciting new capabilities
and privacy concerns
• advocates: people have no legitimate
expectation of privacy in public places
• critics: creates potential for abuse –
intimidation of political dissenters,
blackmail of people caught with“wrong”
person or in “wrong” place