Computer Ethics, Fall 2021

Thursdays 5:30-6:45, online

Class 6

Oct 7, 2021

Read Chapter 3 on free speech




Google keyword-search warrants

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/04/google-keyword-warrants-give-us-government-data-on-search-users/?sh=695b48a17c97

Should this be allowed?

Facebook was down

    dig @8.8.8.8 facebook.com

Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower

An interview. She is the Ed Snowden of Facebook. www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-misinformation-public-60-minutes-2021-10-03.

Wall Street Journal, Sept 14, 2021: Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show; Its own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that Facebook plays down in public (start of a series)

(No link because they are 100% paywalled, but Loyola does have a subscription.)

"Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse," the researchers said in a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook's internal message board, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves."

In May, Adam Mosseri [Instagram head] said he believes Facebook was late to realizing there were drawbacks to connecting people in such large numbers

Instead of referencing their own data showing the negative effects of Instagram, Facebook executives in public have often pointed to studies from the Oxford Internet Institute that have shown little correlation between social-media use and depression.

At a congressional hearing this March, Mr. Zuckerberg defended the company against criticism from lawmakers about plans to create a new Instagram product for children under 13. When asked if the company had studied the app's effects on children, he said, "I believe the answer is yes."


Facebook Thrives on Criticism of 'Disinformation'

A Cory Doctorow post! onezero.medium.com/facebook-thrives-on-criticism-of-disinformation-64b141d7b6c8.

So Facebook has said:

One of these is probably false. But which? Hint: advertisers would be very angry to learn the answer.

But the other side of all this is that maybe Facebook is sliding towards irrelevance faster than we think:

www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/technology/facebook-files.html.



Supreme Court cases

    Antoine Jones
    Melvin Skinner
    Riley/Wurie
    Carpenter

Geofence warrants

ECPA

    Councilman
    Warshak

Facebook

Social Credit

Facial Recognition

Tinder

Transactional Privacy

Online advertising

Location information

Pregnancy

Insurance