Annotated Bib part D November 23, 2008

A) 2 Websites Annotated:

   I found the following websites by conducting an advanced search on Google and dogpile using the keywords Internet, privacy, and websites. I then searched through the results to find the most relevant web pages.

Citation:

Privacy.org; The Site for News, Information, and Action. 18 November 2008. The Electronic Privacy  Information Center and Privacy International. 23 November 2008 [http://privacy.org/].

Author:     The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research center in Washington D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. Privacy International is a human rights group formed in the 90’s to protect people from privacy invasions by governments and corporations. Privacy International is based in London, England, but also has an office in Washington D.C. Privacy international works worldwide to protect people from privacy violations. Both of the authors of this website are very credible which makes me feel that the information on this website is very trustworthy.

Audience:      This web page is aimed towards an educated tech savvy audience.  Many of the articles and cases on the website use technological jargon that the average Joe would not understand. The reader would also have to have some background using computers in order to understand many of the issues that are discussed on this page pertaining to privacy. 

Summary:     This web page contains posts of current privacy issues. Many of the issues are related to the Internet while some are not. This web page contains a vast amount of information about current privacy issues as well as past issues. Each of the posts contain links to the full text of the article as well as the source of the information. This page also contains an archive containing past privacy news stories and cases, which could be useful when searching for information from a certain time period. At the very top the page also contains a search box that allows visitors to search the entire collection of information on the web page.

Critical Comment and Relevance: I felt that this website would be very helpful in my research, it contained a lot of articles, rulings, and new stories about the Internet an privacy. It would give many a lot of real life privacy issues that the Internet has created. The only draw back of the website was that it is not very aesthetically pleasing. The website is very boring, it is not very eye catching, and for a tech related website it looks very low quality, almost like someone made it that did not know what they were doing. 

Citation:

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; Nonprofit Consumer Information and Advocacy Organization. February 2008. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. 23 November 2008 {http://www.privacyrights.org/Media/media.htm].

Author:     The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is the author of this website. The PRC is a non profit consumer organization from San Diego California. The PRC is grant supported and serves individuals through out the U.S. The PRC has received many awards for their work to protect individuals privacy rights. After reading the PRC’s credentials I feel that their web page is a very reputable source of information for my research.

Audience:      This website does a great job of breaking down the very difficult to understand legal descriptions of privacy rights into language that the everyday person can understand. Since the sight has broken things down into layman’s terms I feel that it is meant for the average person to use. Even though it is for the average person it would still be helpful for a person to have some knowledge about the Internet, since some of the information on the web page is pertaining to the Internet and privacy.

Summary:      This website contains a lot of information about individuals privacy rights in general, but it also has a lot of information that focuses on Internet privacy. As with the previous website it contains articles, news stories, and past legislation about Internet privacy issues. Unlike the previous web site this one has several different fact sheets that breaks down the privacy rights that certain groups have when using the Internet, for example it has a fact sheet on children’s Internet privacy rights, Workplace privacy, and Privacy in Cyberspace in general. This site also contains links to past speeches about events pertaining to Internet privacy.

Critical Comment and Relevance: After looking through this website I feel that it will be very helpful with my research on the effects of the Internet on privacy. This web site contains a lot of credible information on this topic. The only downside I found to this website was that it did not contain as much current information as the previous one. This site had a lot more information about past issues with privacy and the Internet, but not as much about what is going on currently with privacy issues and the Internet.

B)      Research Question – How has the Internet compromised users’ privacy?

      I originally came up with this resarch question after seeing many of the present issues with privacy and the internet.  I wanted to look into the problems that the internet has created for users privacy. I felt that this was a research topic that effects many peoples’ lives around the world and that it will only continue to become a bigger problem as technology continues to advance. After finding and looking throug various sources of information on this topic I can conclude that the internet compromises user privacy on a daily basis and will only contiue to do so as we become more an more dependant on it in the future, unless something is done to control it.

C) Webpage Link – http://student.uncw.edu/lcp7462/LindseyPopesAnnotatedBibliography.html

Lessig Response November 18, 2008

     The Lessig article discusses the conceptof “Fair Use” when it comes to copyright issues. The article was about Jon Else a film maker who ran into copyright issues regarding the Simpsons TV show while filming a documentary. He was trying to do the right thing and get permission to use a 4 second clip of the Simpsons TV show in his documentary. When he asked FOX for permission he was given permission to use it for a small fee of $10,000. Else obviously ended up editing out the 4 sec clip that had the Simpsons show in it even though he felt sure that is would fall under Fair use, which would mean that he did not have to pay the $10,000 fee in order to use the clip. Else did not want to face the up hill legal battle with FOX in order to use the Simpsons clip.

   I felt that this articel was relevant to the class since we were discussing copyright issues, but it did relate in a very round about way.  After reading this article I was very surprised that FOX would charge such a large fee for the use of a clip of their show in a educational documentary. I would think that they would charge less for the use of their product in educational documentaries. Even after reading this discussion on I am still unclear of exactly what it entails. I know that under certain circumstances it is ok to uses material that has a copyright with out the permission of the owner, but I am still unclear of what those certain circumstances are. It seemed as though the whole topic of fair use if very unclear after reading this article.

Favorite Class of November November 15, 2008

     My Favorite class from the month of November was on Wednesday November 12th. In this class we discussed media ownership, how to verify the information on websites, and how to better use google. My favorite part of the class was when we looked at the website that showed us the “Big 6″ owners of media outlets. This was a concept that I had never thought about before, the idea that only a couple companies control all of the information that we get via the web, radio, print, and tv. I was extremely surprised by how inaccurate this information has been found to be.

    I feel that the instructors purpose for this class was to make the point that you should not believe everything you read or hear, or at least verify it before you believe it. The website about the “big 6″ companies  proved this point very well. Also the website about Martin Luther King Jr. made by the white supremacist group  reiterated how important it is to verify the sources of any information that a person may encounter.

   I really liked how hands on this class was. I felt that being able to actually look up, or search for everything on the internet ourselves helped to keep my attention and keep me interested in the topic. The only critical comment I have about the class is about the article we had to search for in the UNCW catlog. I felt that the article was too long and that the charts could have been shown by them selves to make the point a little better and clearer. Overall this was one of my favorite classes of the semester!

Sherman and Price Response November 11, 2008

     This Sherman and Price article discussed many of the misunderstandingsgs about the Internet/web and helped to explain some of them.  One of the first myths was that the Internet and web are the same. This is not true the web is only part of the Internet. Another myth the article busted was the fact that all databases are current. This is also false, databases are not always current due to the fact of web pages being changed and updated and also the things on the web are changing so quickly the databases cannot keep up with everything. Another myth that was found false in the article was the myth that databases overlap. Databases overlapping was found to occur a lot less frequently that originally thought.

      I found this article to be very insightful. Several of the myths discussed in the article were things that I thought were true. One of the main things I found surprising was that databases did not overlap in coverage. I have always thought that databases would overlap on the information found during searches, but apparently this is not true. This is good to know for research purposes. I used to always think that the Internet and the web were the same thing, but after reading this article it makes more sense as to what each one is.

Annotated Bib Part C November 7, 2008

Annotated Bib Part C

            To find my popular articles I went to the web pages of several popular magazines (i.e. TIME and Newsweek) and searched their article databases for related articles. I found my scholarly articles by searching through the databases on the UNCW Randall Library webpage. I used EBSCO and SpringerLink databases to search for my academic articles since they contain articles on a vast array of topics. For all of my searches I used keyword searches first using (Internet and Privacy), then I would try and narrow down the results by relevance and date.

 

Popular Articles:

1) Citation:

Dell, Kristina. “Welcome to Wi-Fi-Ville.” TIME. 5 January 2007. 4 November 2008. <http://www.time.com>.

 

Author:            After doing some research on the author of this article Kristina Dell I found that she frequently writes for TIME magazine. Since she is a frequent writer for such a well known magazine I feel that this is a credible source of information written by a credible author.

 

Audience:        This article is aimed at any individual who is interested in technology or learning about new technological advances. The author does a good job of describing the technology in laymen’s terms so that almost anyone could read and understand the information discussed in this article.

 

Summary:        This article discusses how many cities are starting to create wireless internet systems for the use of entire cities. The plan is for wi-fi to replace the use of cable internet systems and or internet systems that use phone lines. This article discusses the many pros and cons associated with wi-fi systems. One of the cons against wi-fi systems is the loss of privacy that users must face.

 

Critical Comment and Relevance:    I felt that the author did not go into enough detail about the privacy issues that wi-fi could create. Seeing as privacy is one of the main issues with using wi-fi I would have thought that she would have discussed it in more detail. Seeing as the author did not go into much detail I do not see this as being a relevant source of information for my research.

 

2) Citation:

Barrett, Jennifer. “How Much Will New Technology, Legislation And Consumer Awareness Efforts Help Protect Your Privacy?” Newsweek. 29 March 2002. 4 November 2008. <http:// www.newsweek.com/id/75063>.

 

Author: After researching Jennifer Barrett I found very little information about her. I did find that she has written many articles for Newsweek magazine. I feel that since she is employed at Newsweek that she is more than likely qualified to report on the topic in an unbiased an informative manner.

 

Audience: This article is written for the general public. Some basic background and knowledge of technology may help the reader understand this article. Since this article is in a popular magazine the language is very easy to read and comprehend. She does a great job of explaining the topic.

 

Summary: For this article Jennifer Barrett interviewed Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington This article goes into great detail about one of the main privacy issues associated with using the internet; identity theft. The author and Marc Rotenberg discuss the laws/regulations that many states have created in order to stop/reduce identity theft from occurring.

 

Critical Comment and Relevance: Since Marc Rotenberg was the executive director of the Electronic Privacy center I felt that he should have touched on other privacy issues that are associated with the internet. I feel that this would have given the reader much more basic information about the privacy risks associated with using the internet. Even though this article only discussed identity theft I still think that it will be relevant for my research, since identity theft is one of the main privacy issues that stems from the internet.

 

Scholarly Articles:

1) Citation:    

 Docter, Sharon, and Miriam Metzger. “Public Opinion and Policy Initiatives for Online Privacy Protection”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. September 2003. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Randall Library, University North Carolina Wilmington. 4 November 2008. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hgh&AN=13713195&si>.  

 

Author: Miriam Metzger is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbra; she graduated from the University of Southern California with a PhD in communications. Sharon Docter is a professor at California Lutheran University and she also graduated from the University of Southern California with a PhD in communications. With these credentials both of these women seem to be qualified to perform these types of studies.

 

Audience: Since this was a study published in an academic journal it is not meant for leisurely reading. Typically an article of this type is meant for someone in the field to read. It is not written for the average Joe to read. The average person might not be able to follow of understand and article of this type.

 

Summary: This journal article is written about a study that was conduct to find out what the publics’ concerns at the time were over online privacy and what industries and governments were going to do about these growing concerns. The study ultimately found that the public was not happy with the amount of regulations that the government and industries had placed on internet technologies to protect privacy. The public did not feel that the government was doing enough to protect citizen’s privacy.

 

Critical Comment and Relevance: There are many statistics and facts from this journal publication that would be useful for my research. Parts of this article are very relevant to my research. For example this article discusses many of the privacy issues that have arisen from internet use, which is my research topic.

 

2) Citation:

Gotterbarn, Donald. “Privacy lost: The Net, autonomous agents, and ‘virtual information’”. Ethics and Information Technology. 28 October 2004: 147-154. SpringerLink. Randall Library, University of North Carolina Wilmington. 4 November 2008. http://0-www.springerlink.com.uncclc.coast.uncwil.edu/content/hl7j668m3813w373/fulltext.pdf>.

 

Author: Donald Gotterbarn is a professor at East Tennessee State University, where he teaches in the computer and information sciences department. He teaches classes that focus on technology and ethics. Don Gotterbarn seems to be a credible source of information.

 

Audience: Even though this article was a scholarly article I felt that it was written for the general public. It was easy to understand and follow. I feel that most people would be able to read this article and understand it with no major problems.

 

Summary: This academic article focuses on the privacy issues that the internet has created and looks into ways privacy can be protected. This article also looks into the effectiveness of the different methods that can be used to protect a person’s privacy while using the internet. This article discusses how the internet has changed privacy concerns since it has begun.

 

Critical Comment and Relevance: Since this article was written for a scholarly journal I was surprised at how easy it was to read. I did not feel that this was the type of article that would be published in an academic journal. I did find a lot of good information from this article and I do feel that it would be helpful in my research.