Portal:Digital Opportunities

Digital Opportunities

Every day, the Internet becomes more important for society. The Internet revolution is fundamentally and significantly changing politics, education, and the nature of human interactions. This section explores the challenges and potential in areas.

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Civic Engagement To what extent have political issues and movements been shifted online, and how are they organized on the Internet? Online Politicking Over the past several years, the number of people seeking information about politics via the Internet has gone up significantly. Almost all politicians now accept donations via their websites, which have become increasingly central and vital to politicians' public images, in a similar way to how MySpace artist profiles have become the official fan websites of many bands. Politicians provide crucial information about their platforms and updates for their campaigns online, which is widely accessible by many. Especially for the 2008 presidential elections, candidates are developing Web 2.0 websites with highly interactive features and allow individuals to interact with others as well as the campaign. Read More... Digital Society What are the societal, social, and personal ramifications in a world of increasingly digital interactions and communications? Read More... United States and EU Privacy Laws In March 2006, the European Commission passed the European Data Retention Directive. This directive legally requires all Internet and telephone service providers in the EU to retain records of communication data for up to 2 years. While communication service providers are _not_ allowed to retain records of the _content_ of communications, virtually all other data about the communications is required to be collected and stored, to be turned over to the authorities upon request. Americans are skeptical of having the government have their information but OK having business handle it [1]. That is, in the US privacy protection is essentially liberty protection, i.e. protection from government [2]. Moreover, American privacy law has never fully embraced privacy within relationships; it typically views information exposed to others as no longer private.[3] This is not that surprising since U.S. Privacy law historically focused on protecting the liberty of each individual citizen from the government. Read More...

Problems of Digital Privacy Choosing between providing one’s personal information and giving up the information and services that an individual wants from the network is particularly difficult in the current technological environment because, in many cases, it is not known what will happen to the personal information once it is out on the network. [4] Read More... Solutions for Digital Privacy Americans are skeptical of having the government have their information but OK having business handle it [5]. That is, in the US privacy protection is essentially liberty protection, i.e. protection from government [6]. Moreover, American privacy law has never fully embraced privacy within relationships; it typically views information exposed to others as no longer private.[7] This is not that surprising since U.S. Privacy law historically focused on protecting the liberty of each individual citizen from the government. Read More... Relevant Research and Articles Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing (Mayer-Schoenberger, 2007) How Many Ways You're Being Watched, USA Today (2007) Enjoying Technologies Conveniences But Not Escaping Its Watchful Eyes, Washington Post (2007) Mediating the public/private boundary at home : children’s use of the internet for privacy and participation (S. Livingstone, 2005) Your Identity, Open to All (Wired News, 2005) Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy (Bit Tech, 2006) Strong privacy laws may explain data security in Europe (Intl. Herald Tribune, 2005) Read More...