Anonymity

The era of big data introduces new considerations into the traditional context of research ethics. Ethical questions may be considered in terms of accuracy, humane treatment, informed participants, and the necessity and applicability of the work, but big data complicates these issues. Since social media participants reflect certain demographic
features, data drawn from those sources should not be taken to represent the general
population. Big data collection may be more invasive than necessary due to easy access,
and consent may be nonexistent. Data that was once anonymous may become identifiable, last indefinitely and conflict with goals for publication. Ways to respect ethics in big data research include involving participants throughout the process, avoiding collecting information that should remain private, notifying participants of their inclusion and providing them options to correct or delete personal information, and using public
channels to disseminate research

Online interviews are deemed an effective and appropriate approach for accessing discourse about the online experiences of people with disabilities. Some of the central arguments in support of conducting discursive research online, a type of qualitative approach, are delineated. Various practical benefits are considered for researchers, as well as participants—especially those with disabilities. Ethical issues surrounding access to, and the analysis of, readily available data in online communities are brought to the fore. In light of ethical dilemmas surrounding naturalistic data collection online, an alternative approach is offered, which utilizes online interviews with people with disabilities about their online experiences. A description of the data-collection process is given, including participants and recruitment, materials and procedures, rapport building, and security and ethics. Reflections on the process highlight how methodological pitfalls were managed and, in some cases...

Since anonymous agents can spread misinformation with impunity, many people advocate for greater accountability for internet speech. This paper provides a veritistic argument that accountability mechanisms can cause significant epistemic problems for internet encyclopedias and social media communities. I show that accountability mechanisms can undermine both the dissemination of true beliefs and the detection of error. Drawing on social psychology and behavioral economics, I suggest alternative mechanisms for increasing the trustworthiness of internet communication.

Summary form only given. It is well known that despite all of its advantages the digital revolution also leads to large variety of new risks. One principal issue in this context is the growing dependence of our modern information society from the availability and correct (proved) function of modern communication services. First, I'll give a short overview on threats in communication networks (grids, clouds, etc), protocols and secure personal devices. Then I'll discuss current network security approaches based on anonymous message exchanges within communicating systems. Cryptography was first used to ensure data confidentiality, it has been “democratized” by ensuring the safety of telecommunications services, thereby extending its scope to authentication of a person or device, or a message, non-repudiation, integrity but also the anonymity of transactions. The anonymity is sometimes quite important in the new telecommunication and mobile networks services, much more than just message confidentiality. The talk will focus on some examples and new approaches developed in our research laboratory to deal with anonymity in routing protocols for mobile communicating systems.

Internet of Things (IoT) has a huge attention recently due to its new emergence, benefits, and contribution to improving the quality of human lives. Securing IoT poses an open area of research, as it is the base of allowing people to use the technology and embrace this development in their daily activities. Authentication is one of the influencing security element of Information Assurance (IA), which includes confidentiality, integrity, and availability, non repudiation, and authentication. Therefore, there is a need to enhance security in the current authentication mechanisms. In this report, some of the authentication mechanisms proposed in recent years have been presented and reviewed. Specifically, the study focuses on enhancement of security in CoAP protocol due to its relevance to the characteristics of IoT devices and its need to enhance its security by using the symmetric key with biometric features in the authentication. This study will help in providing secure authentication technology for IoT data, device, and users.

A  utilização  de  microdados  institucionais  para  fins de  pesquisa  tem  sido  crescente,  com aplicações cada vez mais diversificadas e complexas. O uso deste tipo de dados tem auxiliado na  fundamentação  e  explicação  de  alguns  dos  processos  sociais  mais  relevantes  da contemporaneidade. Neste âmbito, e decorridos mais de 10 anos desde que foi celebrado um Protocolo, em Portugal, que facultou essa possibilidade, analisam-se agora as oportunidades analíticas,  os  procedimentos  e  os  códigos  de  conduta  que  enquadram  o  acesso  dos pesquisadores  a  estes  recursos  de  informação  empírica.  Estão  aqui  em  causa  as possibilidades de aprofundamento e ampliação deste tipo de acordo a outros contextos, bem como o desenvolvimento de dispositivos vantajosos para a comparação internacional.

The  relationship  between  technological  innovations  job
market and labor process in several areas have been subject of
intense debate.
From a sociological view, technology incorporates machin-
ery, the physical arrangements of hardware, division of labor
and organization of work built into or required for efficient
operation .
The health sector has been influenced by new technologies.
New machines and equipment, new materials and medicines,
advances in genetics and informatics, and the new information
and communication technologies (ICT) have influenced diag-
nostic and multiple therapeutic procedures. The health
care sector has also been influenced by changes in the orga-
nization of work, in the structure and management of institu-
tions, sometimes accompanied by growth in outsourcing
and precarious employment

The author examined the relation between anonymity and aggression in violent interpersonal assaults that occurred in Northern Ireland. Of the 500 violent attacks that the author studied, 206 were carried out by offenders who wore disguises to mask their identities. The findings revealed that significant positive relationships existed between the use of disguises and several measures of aggression. Disguised offenders inflicted more serious physical injuries, attacked more people at the scene, engaged in more acts of vandalism, and were more likely to threaten victims after the attacks. The author discussed these results within the framework of deindividuation theory.

Tanulmányomban a szerzői névhasználatnak az írói karrierépítésre gyakorolt hatását vizsgálom a Toldy Ferenc és Bajza József közötti Júliusz-vita kapcsán. 1824-ben Toldy Bajza jóváhagyása nélkül és álnéven jelentette meg barátja zsengéit, ami kiváltotta a költőtárs haragját. Az eset rámutat arra, hogy a szerzők hogyan tudják úgy közölni műveiket, hogy az esetleges negatív fogadtatás ne befolyásolja költői karrierjüket, de megismerjék a közönség és a kritika véleményét.

Despite the historical importance of dominant group solidarity with movements for social justice, little empirical work has examined how the social identity of movement supporters influences the persuasiveness of their social movement messages. Across two experiments, we manipulated the group identity (White, Black, or anonymous) of a speaker in a message supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement to examine its effects on White Americans' perceptions of the speaker and their ultimate support for the movement. Results indicated that identity cues affected evaluations of the speaker (Study 1), and that these evaluations, in turn, mediated the effects of identity cues on attitudes toward the social movement (Study 2). Among White participants, White speakers were evaluated (a) more favorably in general than anonymous speakers, and (b) as less racist than both Black and anonymous speakers. Such evaluations were ultimately associated with increased support for #BlackLivesMatter. Implications of solidarity effects in social movement messaging are discussed.

Centered on The Andrew Project (2010–13) by artist Shaan Syed, this article is a theoretical meditation on the politics and ethics of the name, drawing, the portrait, anonymity, and the signature, as these bear on a shared sense of loss and its impossible commemoration. I invoke the figure of the urban stranger and passerby to argue for an aesthetics and ethics of social anonymity that does not rely on or demand identification and that thereby remains open to the risk, surprise, and pleasure of shared existence. In doing so, I theorize intimacy as that which remains unnameable in the “commerce” of our everyday lives.

In this paper, the authors undertake a study of cyber warfare reviewing theories, law, policies, actual incidents - and the dilemma of anonymity. Starting with the United Kingdom perspective on cyber warfare, the authors then consider United States' views including the perspective of its military on the law of war and its general inapplicability to cyber conflict. Consideration is then given to the work of the United Nations' group of cyber security specialists and diplomats who as of July 2010 have agreed upon a set of recommendations to the United Nations Secretary General for negotiations on an international computer security treaty. An examination of the use of a nation's cybercrime law to prosecute violations that occur over the Internet indicates the inherent limits caused by the jurisdictional limits of domestic law to address cross-border cybercrime scenarios. Actual incidents from Estonia (2007), Georgia (2008), Republic of Korea (2009), Japan (2010), ongoing at...

TOR is the most popular anonymity network that is used for privacy concerns. This popularity and purpose of uses attract many organizations and adversaries. Thus, researchers present attack methods and defenses to improve its anonymity and reliability. In this research review, traffic analysis attack methods and defenses are reviewed. It aims to uncover the network by observing the traffic between routers and clients. It is a severe threat against the anonymity because as stated below an attacker with high resources can deanonymize the significant part of the network. Further, improving the attack by routing makes the threat more critical.

Whenever we navigate the Web, we leave a trace through our IP address, which can in turn be used to establish our identity-for instance, by cross-checking it with a user's Internet subscription. By using software such as VPN and Tor, however, it might be possible to avoid leaving such traces. A lively debate among policymakers, security professionals, hacker communities, and human rights associations has recently ensued regarding the question if such anonymity is acceptable and in which form. This article introduces the Crosscurrent special section dedicated to this topic by providing a brief overview of this debate and by pointing to the necessity of considering online anonymity from multiple, interrelated perspectives. By taking into account both technical and social dimensions, we argue that online anonymity should not be conceptualized in absolute terms but as an inherently fluid and transitional condition that characterizes any kind of social interaction online.

Anonymity affords whistleblowers the best protection against retaliation. Yet, prior theory has suggested that anonymous whistleblowers are perceived by investigators to be less credible than identified sources. To address this issue, we propose and assess the use of self-sovereign identity (SSI) in whistleblowing reporting systems. SSI would allow whistleblowers to include a verifiable claim regarding employment without revealing any additional identifying information. Therefore, investigators could receive anonymous reports submitted through publicly accessible reporting systems without sacrificing the ability to verify that the whistleblower was employed by the organization. First, we review relevant whistleblowing research, paying particular attention to anonymity and credibility issues. Second, we introduce SSI and discuss how it can be used to enhance credibility for anonymous whistleblowers. Third, we outline our formal hypotheses. Fourth, we explain our planned methodology. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our study.

There are many challenges for a forensic investigator when it comes to digital evidence. These include the constantly changing technology that may store evidence, the vast amounts of data that is stored, and the increasing use of cryptography. This last problem can prevent any useful information being retrieved and is encountered in the use of communication protocols, whole-disk encryption, and individual applications. Cryptography is a field of great depth and breadth, encompassing both complex mathematics and cutting-edge technology. A forensics investigator does not need to be aware of all aspects of this field, but there are certain areas that are vital. The knowledge described in this chapter can assist an investigator in obtaining information that may otherwise be obscured, and also prepare them to defend the integrity of any evidence obtained.

La plateforme Cyberini est basée sur un constat inquiétant : de plus en plus de cyberattaques nous visent tous les jours, avec des piratages de plus en plus nombreux et des pertes de données de plus en plus couteuses pour les victimes (en temps, en réputation, en démarches et en argent). Les analyses prospectives portant sur l’informatique nous font penser que la cybercriminalité continuera d’évoluer et de s’adapter aux nouvelles technologies. Cela touchera de plus en plus de personnes, et de façon de plus en plus frappante dans nos vies (maisons connectées, bio informatique, passage au “tout-numérique”, etc…).

Emile Durkheim recognized many years ago that all groups—even a “society of saints”—produce deviants. Group members must then come to terms with how to respond to and control those who violate the group's moral order. The Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting offers an interesting context to explore this process. AA members, by their own admission, are far from being “saints,” some admitting to adultery, theft, and assault during their active alcoholism. In this article, the author describes the moral order of AA that functions to prevent and create deviant behavior, focusing on AA members’ use of criticism as both a method of social control and a violation of AA's normative system. This seeming contradiction is explained by showing that criticism is a social control strategy available primarily to high-status members, used primarily against lower-status members.

New question and answer websites Ask.fm and Formspring have brought highly specific and personal abuse to a new level amongst young people by providing easy anonymity to users within a circle of offline friendship groups culled from Facebook. Relatively unknown due to their unattractiveness to adults, these sites are growing rapidly and have already been associated with at least eight suicides amongst teenagers.
Media educators at school level encouraging self-awareness of social media use need to be aware of this new trend. At higher levels, these sites provide a fascinating current case-study of online disinhibition, and fit into ethical and legal debates on the responsibilities of platform providers, and of individuals as media producers.
This paper is based on an anonymous online survey of 302 13- to 16-year-olds at a British state girls’ school. Results showed abuse levels were significantly higher than on Facebook or Twitter. The girls felt using the Q&A sites with their real names felt more real than when asking questions anonymously, but receiving anonymous abuse felt significantly more real than either. Opinions as to the acceptability of “sending hate” were mixed, with some users feeling victims had no right to complain if they had entered the forum.

Critiquing is an essential teaching and learning tool in design education. Different types of critiques create various outcomes. Many design educators have examined a wide range of critique types for their learning advantages. In particular, peer critique is more effective for removing students’ emotional pressure than more formal critiques. However, peer critique is still considered to create emotional burdens or unfair evaluations among peers. To overcome this drawback of peer critiques, educators in language disciplines often use anonymous feedback. Yet, anonymous critique's learning outcomes have not been extensively discussed in design education. Therefore, this study aims to qualitatively investigate how graphic design students perceive the learning benefits and drawbacks of anonymous critiques with peers as critique providers and receivers.
  We implemented two anonymous critiques using rubrics in a senior graphic design class for the spring semester of 2015 at K university. After each critique session, students completed self-assessment reports based on the critique comments they received. For outcome measurement, we conducted three focus group interviews with thirteen students. The questionnaires focus on how these students as critique providers and receivers perceive the learning benefits and drawbacks of anonymous and face-to-face critiques.
  Our findings align with the previous literature reviews; students, as a critique provider, perceive anonymous critiques as useful for removing an emotional burden and conveying their objective ideas. However, they criticized this type of critique as it consumes excessive amounts of time and also produces another type of emotional burden due to the obligation of writing it. On the other hand, as a critique receiver, they shared positive experiences of being able to keep the critique records and repeat learning as well as receive constructive and comprehensive opinions. The learning drawbacks of receiving this type of critique include receiving insincere critiques or not being able to interact with critiquers. Lastly, we provided teaching guidelines for an effective anonymous design critique.
  By understanding these anonymous critique outcomes, design educators would be able to have a more systematic approach when conducting  anonymous critique sessions.

This paper argues that anonymity in networked digital communications is indispensable as an enabler of other inalienable rights including informational privacy and freedom of expression. Yet, an alignment of industry norms, practices, ethics, and techno-social design asserts a persistent identity ecosystem, making online anonymity more difficult to achieve. This paper reappraises the democratic uses, affordances, and human rights dimensions of online anonymity in order to advance an ethical justification for its protection.

Cyberbullying incidents often occur in the presence of other bystanders. The inaction of bystanders can augment the deleterious effects of bullying on a victim. However, bystanders can intervene to stop a cyberbullying incident or offer support to the victim. Two studies were conducted to examine variables that were expected to influence the propensity of a bystander to take action in cyberbullying incidents: the number of bystanders, the anonymity of the bystander, and the closeness between the bystander and the victim. Results supported the diffusion of responsibility effect. A higher number of bystanders was negatively associated with bystander intervention. Moreover, the perceived anonymity of bystanders was negatively related to the propensity to intervene, and closeness with the victim was associated with a greater tendency to intervene and support the victim. Altogether, the results shed light on the interplay of context, relationships, and technology in the behavior of bystanders to a cyberbullying episode.

The following paper explores the way transparency is used and applied, on a performative and symbolic level, as (1) a device for managing the establishment of sociocultural norms and values and (2) an expedient for understanding the boundaries between oneself and the other. A focus is given to the digital online and offline spaces, seen as places of visibility, circulation of information flows and open-data exchange. Drawing on cultural studies, semiotics and information studies, this interdisciplinary project aims to uncover values, rationales and theories behind the use and non-use of authenticity, truth and personality, in social decision-making and public participation. It will be taken account of the possible responsibilities connected to being transparent and visible, and it will be considered the social expectation for a perfect state, which a term like transparency is charged with, while trying to understand if a politics of total transparency is in opposition with democracy.

Internet provides social networking sites, ecommerce, email and instant messaging services, and search engines, among others, turning everyday tasks easier (Van Dijck, 2013), but also allowing these services collecting data about user’s online behaviour “for the purposes of care or control” (Lyon, 2009, p. 3). Nowadays, gathering data is the centre of surveillance practices encouraged by states and corporations (Dinev, Hart & Mullen, 2008), making this powerful network of information the main risk to privacy (Gray, 2003). In this scenario, anonymous communication is essential for resistance against censorship (Dingledine, Mathewson & Syverson, 2004), also an opportunity for online freedom (Bergman, 2001), and a way of counterbalance the technology impact in the right to privacy (Floridi, 2014). When looking for an alternative to this surveillance, the user can find Deep Web (Bergman, 2001) and Tor Network (Bartlett, 2014; Loesing, 2009) as options for private browsing (Sui, Caverlee & Rudesill, 2015). However, these systems based on anonymity can have opposing reasons for appropriation (Bartlett, 2014; Jaeger, 2015): political resistance and criminality, for instance. Besides, technology is responsible for important myths about our time (Mosco, 2004), once different interpretations and uses of a product reflect in the technology social and cultural construction (Natale & Balbi, 2014). The aim of this research, therefore, is to discuss Deep Web and Tor Network perceptions – considering (1) Tor Network users and (2) non-specialized users – and media representations – seeing (3) UK higher circulation daily newspapers. For that, this work selected a set of methods including: content analysis; conceptual history; discourse-historical approach; and ethnography, with a combination of participant and non-participant observation, and semi-structured interviews.

This paper defines current data-collection practices known as data mining, examining several positive and negative ramifications. A Rawlsian approach is used to analyze the ethical implications of data mining within three major codes of ethics used by American marketing firms (AMA, BMA, and DMA). From this theoretical standpoint, the author argues that marketers should re-conceptualize their business conduct, as defined in their individual codes of ethics, to incorporate a Rawlsian concern for society’s least advantaged members. Rawls’ concept of primary goods provides the framework for the author's argument that anonymity, a component of privacy, is vital for consumers whose autonomy is affected by data mining. To ensure both privacy and protection of consumer information, specifically for the least advantaged, a combination of practical measures, ethical guidelines, and legislative protections are recommended for minimizing concerns about data mining, while still allowing for commercial advantages provided by the practice. Finally, the paper outlines the implications of proposed changes for marketers and advertisers.

Biometrics have risen to the forefront of the intelligence community. Biometrics historically have been used in criminal justice and border protection, but recently have been converted to intelligence functions. This represents unique opportunities for counterintelligence and equally unique threats for traditional intelligence operations. The challenges to human intelligence efforts are ambient in nature, and add an additional layer of defense to already existing systems. These threats include an emphasis on biometric identifications (passports, drivers’ licenses, etc.) biometric entry and exit points at classified locations, and biometric systems at borders. However, the weaknesses in biometric defenses derive from the preexisting framework they have been incorporated into. Information sharing between biometric databases is not effective, biometric systems are subject to policymaker supervision, and biometric systems lack a primary focus on intelligence, giving agents several distinct advantages. Biometric systems, being connected to the cyber world, are vulnerable to cyber attack; similarly, databases are only now being built, giving unknown agents an edge over counterintelligence specialists. Also, as biometrics are patched into existing frameworks as an additional layer of defense, they are vulnerable to traditional weaknesses in security systems. Personnel operating systems can be turned, disguises can be used, and further technological advances have the potential to render biometrics ineffective. Biometrics have risen to the forefront of the intelligence community, and will maintain an increasingly important role in the intelligence community.

Focusing primarily on Eugene, Oregon, I have created an overview via participant observation of how people use the communal space within a coffeehouse and I use the historic position of coffeehouses in London, England as a basis for comparison.  How did people use the space of a coffeehouse in the 17th and 18th centuries in London, and how does that compare to how people use this “third place” (neither home nor work) in Eugene, Oregon today?  This project also explores the evolution of coffee culture in the United States, particularly Starbucks, and how coffee has become both gourmet and a cultural commodity in the present-day..  Extensive research was done on coffeehouses in London spanning three centuries (from the mid-1500s onward).  Research in Eugene was completed via participant observation, where I went to several local cafés and spent hours observing how people interacted within them.  The outcome of this research shows that people make an effort to privatize space while they are in public, communal areas.  With the backdrop of historic London’s coffeehouses, I compare the two environments and have found differences in the social function of cafés.  This body of work has value because coffeehouses are a dominant “third space” in the world today, and how we use them and interact within them is an important facet of our cultural environment.