Privacy issues related to the Internet-Paper

Topic area Privacy and Spam
Target audience Undergraduate and graduate IS/CS/CE/EE majors in general
Activity type Writing assignment / position paper
Time required Plan on 10 minutes to explain the assignment, then 5 minutes during the next several classes to answer questions. After the assignment has been graded, approximately 30 minutes should be devoted to classroom discussion.
Attachments Position Paper
Additional materials ACM Code of Ethics or IEEE Code of Ethics.
Lawton, G. The Internet's Challenge to Privacy. IEEE Computer. June 1998. IEEE Computer Society Press. Los Alamitos, CA. Pages 16-18.
Quick, R. On-Line Groups are Offering Up Privacy Plans.
The Wall Street Journal. Monday, June 22, 1998.
Background needed to complete the assignment Students need to be given copies of the articles, or need to be able to locate copies. They need access to the particular Code of Ethics appropriate for your discipline. This will be a difficult assignment for some students. All students will benefit from a sample position paper from a previous assignment.
References Most books written for ethics and engineering or computer science will have a section on privacy issues. The following books have sections on privacy:
Ethics and Computing: Living Responsibly in a Computerized World. K. Bowyer. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 1996.
Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age. J. Kizza. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, 1998.
Related articles found using Lexis-Nexis Universe:
Lawton, V. How to Protect your Privacy on the Net. The Toronto Star Newspaper. October 23, 1997.
Dobbin, M. Bills Aim to Shield Privacy in Electronic Age. Sacramento Bee Newspaper, December 29, 1997.
Markoff, J. Differences over Privacy on the Internet. The New York Times, July 1, 1998.
Last modified August 1998
Abstract:
The assignment is to read 2 articles about privacy and the Internet, in order to encourage students to think about the loss of privacy that all of us face due to computer technology and the Internet. The articles mention several ways that our privacy is being eroded from cookie files to on-line databases. The on-line industry is trying to keep government from regulating it by coming up with their own standards.

Goals for the activity:
The goals are as follows:

  1. To understand the extent of our loss of privacy and why so many people have concerns about privacy on the Internet,
  2. to learn that businesses or professional organizations want to be self-regulating so that the Government won't regulate them,
  3. to improve critical thinking and logical reasoning skills,
  4. to reinforce deontologism, utilitarianism, and the values in the ACM Code of Ethics or the IEEE Code of Ethics, and
  5. to improve writing skills.

Knowledge / skills / attitudes to be developed (behavioral objectives):
Students will develop an understanding of privacy concerns related to computer technology such as on-line databases, cookie files, data collected by companies over the Internet, and data available in on-line databases. Students will learn that industry is attempting to become self-regulating instead of government-regulated. To familiarize the students with the ACM Code of Ethics or IEEE Code of Ethics it will be used by the students to support their positions. Writing and critical thinking skills should be improved.

Procedure:
The readings and assignment should be passed out and explained. Allow the students two weeks to write their papers. Be sure to ask if they have any questions about the assignment during the intervening class periods. Collect the assignments and grade them. Return the graded assignments when there is time to discuss them with the class. It is useful to have students who took differing points of view explain the reasons behind their answers.

Assessing outcomes:
Grading this assignment can be challenging for the professor. That is why the assignment is structured and why each part has a point value.

Additional remarks:
A worksheet / discussion assignment was devised around the same articles.

Author contact information:
Professor Nancy Wahl
Computer Science Department
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN 37027
E-mail: wahl@mtsu.edu

Page maintained by: kwb@csee.usf.edu