[Air-l] How is the Internet bad for us?

[Julie Cohen]

On the slow death of the "private face," see the following:
Daniel Solove, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in the 
Information Age (NYU 2004)
Anything by Helen Nissenbaum, http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/

Also, I think you need to add another major category, 
unauthorized/unmediated access to information (e.g., P2P file-sharing, 
etc.).  This is sort of a subcategory of the "undesirable content" 
category, but not quite, as it isn't the *content* that's undesirable, 
and sort of a subcategory of the "surveillance" category, but not quite, 
as the goal seems to be a more comprehensive use of technology to 
regulate conduct in ways that need not involve surveillance.  See my 
paper, "Normal Discipline in the Age of Crisis," 
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=572486.  It's 
undergoing a major rewrite at present, but you can get the general idea. 

Best, Julie

-- 
Julie E. Cohen
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
V 202-662-9871
F 202-662-9410
jec at law.georgetown.edu
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/jec/


David Brake wrote:

> Sorry - yet another collective picking of brains... As part of a  
> literature review for a report I mentioned earlier (led by Sonia  
> Livingstone and Andrea Millwood Hargrave) I am trying to pull  
> together an overview of academic literature on the harms associated  
> with Internet use. I am looking primarily for effects-centred  
> literature and individual-level effects - things regulators might be  
> reasonably expected to tackle - so macro-level theories are not what  
> I am after.
>
> Here is a list of concerns I have come across in the literature so  
> far. Can anyone suggest further areas where there has been research?  
> Can anyone suggest concerns that haven't been researched but which  
> need researching so we can recommend it? I would also be interested  
> to receive further citations for any of the categories where I have  
> indicated I haven't found much so far. I am aware this is a huge  
> topic so I feel bound to have missed something...
>
> Note: this review will be freely downloadable online when it is  
> finished and we hope will be a useful aid to both academics and  
> regulators so please help if you can!
>
> Here are the categories of harm and offense I have found so far:
>
> Reinforcement of undesirable attitudes:
> * Anorexia
> * Hate group membership
> * suicide clubs
>
> Enabler of undesirable behavior:
> * Bullying (would like more lit)
> * Sexual harassment (would like more lit)
> * stalking (would like more lit)
> * Grooming of children by paedophiles (would like lit that provides  
> quantitative evidence)
>
> Providing access to unsuitable/undesirable content
> * Porn
> * gambling (would like more lit)
> * alcohol/smoking and other anti-social advertising (would like more  
> lit)
>
> To this I would add my personal favourite potential problem with the  
> Information society:
>
> * The surveillance society'for your convenience and  safety' 
> (increased government and commercial surveillance and data  mining 
> related to your "public face")
> * The slow death of the privacy of your "private face" through  
> increased public self-documentation and the self-documentation of  
> others you interact with. What happens when significant numbers of us  
> are cyborgs like Steve Mann http://wearcam.org/ and we're under  
> continuous 'sousveillance'?
>
> My favourite book on the former issue is Garfinkel, S. (2000)  
> Database Nation, O'Reilly, Cambridge but it is not an academic text.  
> I would love to be able to say something in my lit review about  
> either of these privacy issues but it is hard to measure the extent  
> or the effects of such intrusion. Has anyone found any effects-based  
> papers on either of these points?
>
> Or failing that could you recommend what you consider the key  
> academic texts about the online privacy issue in general so I can  
> cite them and add, "clearly more research is needed"?
>
> ---
> David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
> School of Economics & Political Science
> <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ 
> mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/  
> (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
> Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ 
> dealingwithemail/>
> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
>
>
>
> ---
> David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
> School of Economics & Political Science
> <http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/study/ 
> mPhilPhDMediaAndCommunications.htm>
> Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page), http://blog.org/  
> (personal weblog) and http://get.to/lseblog (academic groupblog)
> Author of Dealing With E-Mail - <http://davidbrake.org/ 
> dealingwithemail/>
> callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)
>
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