Privacy in the Net

In this task we are going through privacy policies. Usually all web sites have them, but no one bothers to read them and then people wonder how do they receive spam and unwanted advertisements. We got down and ugly in this issue!

We selected to inspect Google (not including Postini, which offers e-mail security services) and Evernote. Their privacy policies can be found here and here, respectively. Although the services the companies provide differ quite a lot, they both handle a lot of private information.

Google very likely needs no clarification.

Evernote is a service that provides note taking in a cloud. Users are able to sync their notebooks across various devices including desktops, mobile phones and different mobile gadgets. It is used by millions of users across the planet. This company is operating in an highly competitive market, for example Google itself had a similar service called “Notebook” but then its development was shut down due to management of the company thinking that it was not promising for Google. Other services do exist as well, but Evernote is known to be a ‘de facto’ leader in note management.

There is a possibility to open company-wide accounts called “Sponsored” where all members of a certain institution can be participating in updating one single database of knowledge/valuable information. Various companies use it for conducting research and sharing crucial for their business information, which possessed in wrong hands can cause serious damage to the enterprise. In this case the privacy of information stored in Evernote is very important.

Privacy policies typically contain information on how the business gathers, handles stores and distributes data they may receive from their users. In general, companies usually reserve the right to distribute the data to their partners (variations on the amount of given data), declare that they are taking measures against not giving the data out unintentionally to third parties (both through network or physical) and which laws they apply in their operations (for example the legislation of USA). Privacy policies can differ quite a bit depending on the operating range of the business, since usually smaller companies do not focus that much on those issues due the smaller customer base. When the business grows, it is more likely that the company draws unwanted attention from hackers or that they start to expand their operations and distribute the gathered data to their associates, which might then lead to problems with the customers.

Evernote mentions one interesting detail in their privacy policy:

“Evernote may allow third party business partners that display advertisements on some of our web pages to maintain their own cookies on your computer. These business partners do not have access to Evernote's cookies and their use is subject to their own privacy policies.”

In our opinion it might be a threat to user’s policy since cookies are known to be a possible gateway for attacks.

Another point which drew our attention was the following:

“Evernote complies with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires us to inform parents and legal guardians about how we collect, use and disclose personal information from children under 13 years of age.

   

Evernote is not currently directed to children and we currently require users to verify that they are at least 13 years of age upon registration. We will not knowingly collect personal information relating to children under 13 years of age, and if we learn that we have inadvertently done so, we will promptly delete it.”

Although Google very likely operates with minors below this age, they had no mention of this matter in their privacy policy. It could be, that one below the age limit is not able to register him/herself with Google services, but it still seems quite odd that they do not state it openly. Some of the services Google provides (e-mail, search engine) are bound to relate to minors, so it remains  unclear how Google handles those situations.

More or less, the privacy policies of these two companies share same points and provide comprehensible information for those who may be interested in reading them. Google provides strictly structured points of their view of privacy that users of their services have. Also, Google mentions service-specific sets of policies. Evernote, on the other hand, has a more detailed policy published on their site, but it is also clear and mostly easy to understand. Both of these companies probably spend a reasonable amount of money on lawyers who carefully think about every word in the policies that they have. In general, it seems that Google is more strict with the distribution of the collected data, but as Google has more partners as Evernote, the result is still the same: a third party might always know something that you wish not.

Ideagoras

The task we’ve been given this week is related to ideagoras. The term means modern day agoras usually hosted in the Internet and we’re speculating now the pros and cons of them and also try to find out some possible uses for them in matters near to us (more info about agora and ideagora).

There is a large number of challenges and competitions that utilize the ideagora approach. One example is Google’s challenge for creating a project of going to Mars with a camera and receiving the first video of a planetary flyby. It’s more like a challenge but I’ve heard that there were teams of people who were cooperating using ideagoras as an approach.

Some ideagoras in the web utilize quite high prizes for the people trying to solve the problem given (eg. www.innocentive.com). It’s a good stimulus for private individuals who can benefit from for example privately conducted research done previously. At the same time people can create their small companies and use challenges presented at the sites like the one mentioned before for their start-up, though it might be quite risky. Big companies that possess large numbers of competent people in their staff can assemble groups of specialists, who are familiar with the topic and who won’t need much time for background research: it can be a source of easy money.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk uses a different approach, where people who have tasks to solve post small challenges, valued in cents, not thousands of dollars. In this site the biggest reward when this article was being written was $46.50 (when at Innocentive it was $100000). Individuals are more likely to benefit from it financially. Although, it is likely that competition is much higher in this case and one’s started work might be declined and a solution presented by someone else is taken into consideration instead.

Ideagoras can also be used for false purposes: bit by bit one could for example get a complete thesis work done with barely working him/herself at all. That would count as plagiarism, but it would be nearly impossible to check for, since the material is produced by multiple persons and compiled from that.

In developing countries, for example Ukraine, one can find advertisements in metro cars about offers to do Bachelor’s thesis for money or tasks like that. In Kiev there are hundreds of sources of getting your thesis done with minimum effort. There it is legal and laws don’t prohibit that. Those companies/individuals that offer that sort of services can consider going to the site like we mentioned in this article and offer their services/ find tasks that they can complete received from all over the world. This is a business idea, although it goes in the gray area of ethics in science.

Another drawback is that whenever a person gives a result to the given problem in an ideagora, the result has to be checked thoroughly, since there is always the possibility, that someone is just trying to use the system to gain rewards with false results. There is also the possibility that someone could use some ideas that they’ve worked out for someone else to their own gain, possibly negating any benefit to original person posting the ideagora even if it was answered in a manner suitable for payment.

In overall, the idea of ideagoras is quite good and it has a lot of power, when it is utilized for the “right” purposes. It can benefit all the parties related to it, both the doer and the employer. It has it’s own drawbacks (answers might take some time, they might be inaccurate etc.) but it’s still worthwhile to keep the systems running.

In Ville’s opinion, ideagoras are used in some sense already in the IT field. For example programmers can search up answers to a specific problem they are encountering from the Internet. Although no money is related to these answers and questions, the systems usually work two-way: you have to post good answers in order to see some answers to your questions.

Our university could utilize the idea by offering the possibility for solving bigger problems to companies as a part of the students studies: thesis, project studies etc. This is already done in some degree, but involving more companies on a larger scale in Finland, or even Europe, might benefit the university, the student and the companies (more graduating students, easier to find thesis topics, problems getting solutions).

Digital divide

In this task we are speculating around the issue of digital divide: traditionally it has meant the gap between people who have access to the Internet and those who don’t. These days it can also mean the gap between broadband users and slower connections, since networks services are developed towards heavier bandwidth usage.

The problem is more obvious in a developing part of our world. In places like Ukraine, Russia, African countries Internet access is still considered to be a privilege rather than a basic need. Especially in rural areas getting stable connection to Internet is practically impossible. Also, corrupted governments benefit to the fact that companies have no regulations on providing Internet connection. Pavlo has experience in dealing with ISPs which offer very little for big prices. In Ukraine getting 3G connection will lower your budget by €20-30 a month and in some cases Internet works practically 1-2 hours a day, and during night, because of high load of users compared to the network capability. When the users complain to their provider they get replies like: “We do not know anything. It must a problem on your side”. Getting a wired connection can be even more expensive since usually they are offered by monopolies in that sector that regulate prices on their own.

Aforementioned problems that people face in the developing part of our world also mean that companies operating in eBusiness face tough challenges in their operations and their services are often limited to people living in one or two cities in the whole country.

Fortunately, world organizations such as UNICEF realize a problem of digital divide and they offer their help to especially such unprotected groups of people like children in Africa. In 2006 a program  “One Laptop Per Child”, which goal was providing laptops for schools for free, took place. MIT developed a laptop which was capable of running powered by solar energy, which is in plenty in Africa. Its cost was only $100. Also, another program from is being thought over in Canada. AHumanRight.org, organization that is doing research on means of providing free basic Internet access to developing countries like those in Africa, is thinking about buying TerreStar-1 satellite (satellite of TerreStar company making satellite telecommunications) and reconfiguring it to establish that service for poor countries. It can virtually remove digital divide in the part of the world where this issue (building the backbone network for the users) is at its strongest. Of course, other problems will still take place, like the prices of computers.

When considering it from the current digital divide in the Western world (broadband vs <256kBps), the problem is very clear. If the customer is living inside city limits, it is usually very easy to get a broadband connection with decent costs in installation and upkeep. But when one is located some ways outside of city limits, the available connection speeds drop and prices rise. For example in the US, getting a wired broadband connection might be completely impossible, and the user has to rely on 3/4G networks. Then problems like connection throughput and stability start to rise.

In our opinion, Internet access should be a right for every person living in the Western world. Whether the consumers should have broadband or narrowband connections is not that big issue. The key point should be that there is a stable connection working when it is needed and the pricing is not ridiculous when compared to average salaries and costs of life. Third world would greatly benefit from having the same situation, but the problems there are far greater than merely the lack of broadband (no electricity, possible ongoing warfare, language barriers etc), but as the situation improves, they should try to focus on getting this possibility to their inhabitants. Internet does remove or reduce the need for regular mail, old phone line connections, and help in educating and civilizing people.