NYUClassAssignment

Hi Helen,

That’s very helpful. How about this then:

Dear Class,

The objective of this assignment is to provide you with an overview of the way privacy tools are promoted online and also encourage you to gather some hands on experience with some of these tools. We will come back to your findgins during class and critically assess what these websites and the tools they promote do to address some of the privacy issues you have been discussing in class.

The assignment is as follows:

1) Please pick two sites from the list below (you may also compare one of the sites below with another website for introducing online privacy tools)
2) Compare the two sites:
- a) what is the targeted audience of each website?
- b) What is the implicit or explicit definition of privacy that they are using?
- c) From who should the members of the audience be protecting themselves?
- d) How much of this protection is about information flows? If so, what is the justification of the creators of the website for focusing on these information flows?
- e) What kind of tools and tips are included? How do the websites justify or explain their selection of tools?
- f) How do the tools effect the flows information?
- g) Install two of the promoted tools and use them for a week. Highligh three things that you noticed after you installed the tool, e.g., how it changed your behavior and your online experience, what happened to your computer etc.?

https://ssd.eff.org
https://www.staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/privacy-tips/
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tips-to-protect-your-online-privacy
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/prevent.aspx
https://myshadow.org
https://securityinabox.org/en
https://gendersec.tacticaltech.org/wiki/index.php/Complete_manual
http://juliaangwin.com/privacy-tools/
https://guardianproject.info
https://www.privacytools.io
https://www.resetthenet.org
https://encryptallthethings.net

On Oct 22, 2015, at 10:55 AM, HELEN Nissenbaum <hfn1@nyu.edu> wrote:

Looks fantastic!

One amendment: Since this course is using CI as an analytic framework, can we add to the enumerated comparison points under #2, something relating to information flows. Since I don’t know the site, perhaps you can help framing it. Something to the effect of: Trace the information flows and consider which ones are disruptive of expectations.

Our emails crossed, but I believe, what you’re asking them to do here is quite consistent with what I suggested, namely, to highlight information flows and how different models can mean different privacy prospects with similar desired functionality.

Thanks,
Helen

Helen Nissenbaum, Professor
Media, Culture, & Communication, NYU
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum

On Oct 22, 2015, at 10:27 AM, Seda Gurses <seda@nyu.edu> wrote:

Hi Helen,

Here is my assignment for the students. Please let me know if you would like me to change anything to better fit with the concept of the class.
Best,
Seda

Dear Class,

The objective of this assignment is to provide you with an overview of the way privacy tools are promoted online and also encourage you to gather some hands on experience with some of these tools. We will come back to your findgins during class and critically assess what these websites and the tools they promote do to address some of the privacy issues you have been discussing in class.

The assignment is as follows:

1) Please pick two sites from the list below (you may also compare one of the sites below with another website for introducing online privacy tools)
2) Compare the two sites:
- a) what is the targeted audience of each website?
- b) Do they provide a definition of privacy? What is it?
- c) From who should the members of the audience be protecting themselves and what should they be protecting?
- d) What tools and tips are included? What do the websites say about their selection of tools?
- e) Install two of the promoted tools and use them for a week. Highligh three things that you noticed after you installed the tool, e.g., how it changed your behavior and your online experience, what happened to your computer etc.?