CS499: Computers, Ethics, and
Society
Syllabus
 BBVista (check for course updates regularly – at least once per
day!)
 Course website:
https://www.cis.uab.edu/cs499/spring2012/1D
 Book
 Computers, Ethics, and Society: Ermann and Shauf, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-514302-7, 2003.
 Recommended Book
 Structure of Scientific Revolutions,T. Kuhn, Chicago, 3/e.
 Wiki Page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions
 Google Book Review:
 http://books.google.com/books?id=xnjS401VuFMC&sitesec=reviews&rf=st:us

Syllabus (cont.)
 Course Schedule:
 Faculty and guest lecturers will hold class each week.
 The Major Field Test Examination is taken as a required part of the
course.
 Course Objectives:
 A review of key concepts in the undergraduate level study of
computer science. All professors in the department participate in
giving at least one lecture each (under normal circumstances). Some
may lecture more than once.
 A discussion of various aspects of Computer Ethics.
 Discussion of “Scientific Thought” and philosophy.
 Oral and written communication/presentation about Ethics in
Computer Science Required.
Syllabus (cont.)
 Grading:
 The Major Field Test is a requirement, but undergraduates don’t have to
get a specific grade on it to pass CS 499. It is a learning outcomes
measurement.
 Presentation Summaries (10*25 = 250 points)You must turn in ten
or more one-page (200-250 word) summaries of CS499 lectures you have
attended (or departmental lectures, with instructor’s permission to
substitute). These are lectures by the faculty. Faculty lecturing twice (e.g.,
two days lecture) on same subject, you can only use for a single summary.
 Term Paper (225 points total)You must write a five-to-seven page
(approximately 1500-1800 word) essay about computer ethics based on
readings at the end of the term (see below). Additional assignment rules
and intermediate assignments (title abstract, etc.) plus instructions to be
provided. Correct citation, use of sources, strategy, for written and verbal
presentation all count towards the grade.
Syllabus (cont.)
 Grading (cont.)
 Second paper (200 points) A five-page write-up (1250-
1500 words) on “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” or other
pre-approved will be required. Grading will include emphasis
on grammar, style, quality of writing and relevance of
presentation. Due before the Spring Break.
 Presentation of one of your papers (175 points)You
must make a 15-minute presentation on one of your papers.
PowerPoint slides are required. Detailed instructions to be
provided. This is either the ethics paper, or the “other preapproved topic paper.”
 Class Participation (100 points). Attendance and active
participation.
Syllabus (cont.)
 Late Submission:
 All assignments are due as indicated on BBVista. Any assignment
turned in after this deadline is considered late. Late assignments
will lose 10% for every 24-hour period, up to a maximum of
50% (weekends and holidays count as one 24-hour period). Any
assignment submitted after expiration of time supported on
BBVista will receive a score of zero.
 See BBVista for due dates of the reviews of presentations and
the presentation summaries.
 All required assignments must be turned in even if
they are late to pass this course. Failure to submit any
assignments will result in a grade of ‘F’ for the course.
Syllabus (cont.)
 Class Attendance:
 Attendance is mandatory for this course. If you know you will
be absent for a legitimate reason, let the instructor know. If you
are sick bring a doctor's excuse or a written university excuse
to resolve the absence(s). An absence has to be resolved as soon
as possible - otherwise it will not be treated as an excused
absence.
 The Major Field Test information is documented on BBVista.
You must register for the test.
Syllabus (cont.)
 Academic Honesty:
 Any student who violates the university's academic honesty
policy will be reported for academic discipline. All university
and department policies related to students are included here
by implication.
 IMPORTANT: All papers and summaries will be submitted to
Turnitin for comparison against the most comprehensive digital
repository of potentially plagiarizable material in the world!
Cheating will not be tolerated
 You must do your own homework
 It is acceptable to discuss the reading assignments and general
approaches to solving homework problems with your
classmates
 It is not acceptable to discuss detailed homework answers or
to copy homework answers from other students
 Hopefully you already knew this….
Plagiarism includes, but is not
limited to
Failure to indicate the source with quotation
marks or footnotes where appropriate if any of
the following are reproduced in the work
submitted by a student:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
A written phrase.
A graphic element.
A proof.
Specific language.
An idea derived from the work, published or
unpublished, of another person.
Avoiding plagiarism
 If you use someone’s specific words, put them in quotes and
cite the source.
 If you use someone’s ideas expressed in your own words, cite
the source.
 If you paraphrase, summarize in your own words, but still
cite source
 Don’t use the same sentence structure with a few word substitutions
 If you use some of the source’s words, put them in quotes.
 When in doubt, put it in quotes and cite the source!
 Good resource on avoiding plagiarism
 http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/QPA_plagiarism.html
 Includes nice examples of good and bad paraphrasing
11
Syllabus (cont.)
 E-mail:
 Every student will be required to use his/her official email
address that is blazerid@uab.edu. New students must login and
configure their email addresses. For more details on obtaining
blazerid and configuring email please see:
http://www.uab.edu/blazerid.
 Key email communications will be made using this address. You
must regularly log in to BBVista, since emails will also be sent
there and they do not forward. Assignments and information
will appear only there.
Assignment schedule
 Term paper topic due: Mar. 16th
 Term paper due: Apr. 16th
 Second paper due: Mar. 16th
 Second paper topic due: Feb. 17th
 Presentation summary due:
 Feb. 20th: three summaries due
 Mar. 26th: four summaries due
 Apr. 30th: three summaries due
 Term presentations:
 Apr. 23, 25, 27, and 30 (3 presentations in each session)
Why study ethics?
 Ethical analysis can provide a structured way to evaluate an
issue and choose a course of action
 Ethical analysis can help illuminate multiple sides of an issue
 Ethical analysis can help produce persuasive arguments
 In your personal and professional life you will confront
difficult decisions
14
What is computer ethics
 Problems:
 Internet Privacy
 Spyware
 Browser cookies
 Wikileaks …
 Core issues:
 Professional responsibility, intellectual property rights, privacy,
censorship, and the impact of technology in society
 Social responsibility
 No lecture on 13th but you need to do the required readings
 Reading list will be uploaded to BBVista by tonight.
 Lecture schedule for next two weeks:
 Jan. 16: MLK day (no class)
 Jan. 18: Gary Warner (Computer Forensics)
 Jan. 20th: Wei-Bang Chen (Spam Image Mining)
 Jan. 23rd: ACM distinguished lecture – Software Economics
 2:30 – 3:30pm, HUC Auditorium
 Meeting with students (4pm – 4:40pm)
A Sample Scenario
 You are the senior software engineer at start-up





developing software for handheld computers to help
nurses keep track of patients
Sales force has promised product by next week
Product still contains many minor bugs
No major bugs have been found, but QA recommends
another month of testing
A competitor plans to release a similar product in a few
weeks
If your product is not the first to market your start-up
will probably go out of business
 Should you recommend release of the product next week?
 Who will benefit if the company follows your
recommendation?
 Who will be harmed if the company follows your
recommendation?
 Do you have an obligation to any group of people that may be
affected by your decision?
Subjective Relativism
 Relativism
 No universal norms of right and wrong
 One person can say “X is right,” another can say “X is wrong,”
and both can be right
 Subjective relativism
 Each person decides right and wrong for himself or herself
 “What’s right for you may not be right for me”
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.20
Subjective relativism evaluation of spam
 Spammers say spam is good
 Spam brings advertisements to the attention of some people
who want to buy their products
 Spammers make money
 Purchasers are happy to buy their products (true?)
 Most spam recipients and ISPs say spam is bad
 Spam wastes time and computer resources, congests networks,
slows processing of non-spam email
21
Case for Subjective Relativism
 Well-meaning and intelligent people often disagree on moral
issues
 One example is self-plagiarism – a non ending battle
 Ethical debates are often disagreeable and pointless
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.22
Case Against Subjective Relativism
 Blurs distinction between doing what you think is right and




doing what you want to do
Makes no moral distinction between the actions of different
people
SR and tolerance are two different things
Decisions may not be based on reason
Not a workable ethical theory
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.23
Case for Kantianism
 Rational
 Produces universal moral guidelines
 Treats all persons as moral equals
 Workable ethical theory
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.24
Case Against Kantianism
 Sometimes no rule adequately characterizes an action.
 There is no way to resolve a conflict between rules.
 Monogamy vs Polygamy
 Kantianism allows no exceptions to moral laws.
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.25
Utilitarianism
 Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
 An action is good if it benefits someone
 An action is bad if it harms someone
 Utility: tendency of an object to produce happiness or
prevent unhappiness for an individual or a community
 Happiness = advantage = benefit = good = pleasure
 Unhappiness = disadvantage = cost = evil = pain
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.26
Principle of Utility
(Greatest Happiness Principle)
An action is right (or wrong) to the extent
that it increases (or decreases) the
total happiness of the affected parties.
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.27
Act Utilitarianism
 Utilitarianism
 Morality of an action has nothing to do with intent
 Focuses on the consequences
 A consequentialist theory
 Act utilitarianism
 Add up change in happiness of all affected beings
 Sum > 0, action is good
 Sum < 0, action is bad
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.28
Bentham: Weighing Pleasure/Pain
 Intensity
 Duration
 Certainty
 Propinquity
 Fecundity
 Purity
 Extent
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.29
Highway Routing Scenario
 State may replace a curvy stretch of highway
 New highway segment 1 mile shorter (benefit)
 150 houses would have to be removed (cost)
 Some wildlife habitat would be destroyed (cost)
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.30
Evaluation
 Costs
 $20 million to compensate homeowners
 $10 million to construct new highway
 Lost wildlife habitat worth $1 million
 Benefits
 $39 million savings in automobile driving costs
 Conclusion
 Benefits exceed costs
 Building highway a good action
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.31
Act utilitarian evaluation of spam
 A spammer sent a spam email to 100 million people
 1 in 10,000 buy product
 90% of people who buy product are happy with it, other




10% feel ripped off
People who don’t buy product waste time and money,
get annoyed, etc. - unhappy
Spammer makes lots of money and is VERY happy
9001 happy people, 99,990,000 unhappy people
Conclusion: 99.991% of people are unhappy, so spam is
wrong
32
Case for Act Utilitarianism
 Focuses on happiness
 Down-to-earth (practical)
 Comprehensive (??)
 Workable ethical theory
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.34
Case Against Act Utilitarianism
 Unclear whom to include in calculations
 Too much work
 Ignores our innate sense of duty
 Susceptible to the problem of moral luck
An example:
China's Three Gorges Dam: An
Environmental Catastrophe?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/a
rticle.cfm?id=chinas-three-gorgesdam-disaster
Sometimes actions do not have
intended consequences - Moral
worth of action is dependent on
consequences that may not be under
control of moral agent
35
Rule Utilitarianism
 We ought to adopt moral rules which, if followed by
everyone, will lead to the greatest increase in total happiness
 Act utilitarianism applies Principle of Utility to individual
actions
 Rule utilitarianism applies Principle of Utility to moral rules
36
Anti-Worm Scenario
 August 2003: Blaster worm infected thousands of Windows
computers
 Soon after, Nachi worm appeared
 Took control of vulnerable computers
 Located and destroyed copies of Blaster
 Downloaded software patch to fix security problem
 Used computers as launching pad to try to “infect” other
vulnerable PCs
37
Evaluation using Rule Utilitarianism
 Proposed rule: If I can write a helpful worm that removes a
harmful worm from infected computers and shields them from
future attacks, I should do so ???
 Who would benefit
 People who do not keep their systems updated
 Who would be harmed
 People who use networks
 People who’s computers are invaded by buggy anti-worms
 System administrators
 Conclusion: Harm outweighs benefits. Releasing anti-worm is
wrong.
38
Case for Rule Utilitarianism
 Compared to act utilitarianism, it is easier to perform the




utilitarian calculus.
Not every moral decision requires performing utilitarian
calculus.
Moral rules survive exceptional situations
Avoids the problem of moral luck
Workable ethical theory
39
Case Against Utilitarianism in General
 All consequences must be measured on a single scale.
 Intangible benefits/costs (must be expressed in dollars?)
 Utilitarianism ignores the problem of an unjust distribution
of good consequences.
 Utilitarianism does not mean “the greatest good of the greatest
number”
 That requires a principle of justice
 What happens when a conflict arises between the Principle of
Utility and a principle of justice?
 Greatest amount of good VS distribute the good as widely as possible ?
40
James Rachels’ Definition (Social
Contract Theory)
“Morality consists in the set of rules,
governing how people are to
treat one another, that rational
people will agree to accept, for their
mutual benefit, on the condition that
others follow those rules as well.”
42
People act out of self-interest w/out agreement
 Morality is the result of an implicit agreement among
rational beings who understand that there is a tension
between self-interest and the common good
 The common good is best realized when everyone cooperates
 Cooperation occurs when those acting selfishly suffer
negative consequences
 Examples: Recycling, energy conservation
43
Kinds of Rights
 Negative right: A right that another can guarantee by leaving
you alone
 Positive right: A right obligating others to do something on
your behalf
 Absolute right: A right guaranteed without exception
 Limited right: A right that may be restricted based on the
circumstances
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.44
John Rawls’s Principles of Justice
 Each person may claim a “fully adequate” number of basic
rights and liberties, so long as these claims are consistent
with everyone else having a claim to the same rights and
liberties
 Any social and economic inequalities must
 Be associated with positions that everyone has a fair and equal
opportunity to achieve
 Be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of
society (the difference principle)
Source: Slides for Chapter 2 of Ethics for the Information Age by Michael J. Quinn. Copyright © 2005 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.45
Social contract theory evaluation of spam
 Everyone has right to free speech
 You can send email to anyone you want
 No requirement that people listen to your speech
 People can send you angry replies if they don’t like your email
 If 99,990,000 people are unhappy with a spam message,
they should be able to send an angry reply to the
spammer, which should have cost to spammer
 But spammers forge headers so they do not get angry
replies
 This violates social contract, thus spamming is wrong
46
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=tsagrkfab&et=1109194333284&s=1637&e=001cBGW9zAdR_6
M8XJB2Ov-UnxI0gL3WO3HDXrBZdyfNEIWqb63OgG6_8XtK0I3Jkk72K5ya1gXaowwLtTtOSiZ62ARQOBWkA821Lb852LvxI=
Case for Social Contract Theory
 Framed in language of rights
 Principle of Justice
 Explains why people act in self-interest without common
agreement
 Provides clear analysis of certain citizen/government
problems
 E.g., it provides a logical explanation of why it is morally
acceptable to punish someone for a crime.
 Workable ethical theory
48
Case Against Social Contract Theory
 No one signed contract
 Some actions have multiple characterizations
 Conflicting rights problem
 May unjustly treat people who cannot uphold contract
 What about people who, though no fault of their own, are
unable to follow the moral rules?
49
Mail Abuse Prevention System
 MAPS is a not-for-profit organization
 Contacts marketers who violate MAPS standards for
bulk email
 Puts marketers who violate standards on a Realtime
Blackhole List (RBL)
 Some mail relays refer to RBL list
 Looks up email host name on RBL list
 If name on list, the email gets bounced back
 All email from blacklisted hosts gets bounced, even
email from non-spammers
51
Was the creation of the RBL ethical?
 Utilitarian evaluation:
 ISP using RBL benefits by getting better network performance, fewer angry
users
 But their users are unable to receive email from innocent users of blacklisted
ISPs, reducing their utility
 Innocent users of blacklisted ISPs unable to communicate with ISPs that user
RBL
 Conclusion depends on magnitude of benefit and ratio of blacklisted
innocent users to total email users
 Kantian evaluation:
 MAPS puts ISPs on RBL with goal of getting innocent users to complain and
pressure ISP to drop spammers
 Innocent users are treated as means to an end
 This violates Categorical imperative -> RBL is unethical
52
Research and Communication Skills
Creating a bibliography and citing sources
 Do you know how to create a properly formatted
bibliography?
 Why is a list of URLs not a proper bibliography?
57
Research and Communication Skills
Citing sources
 Whenever you take words, images, or ideas from another source you need to
cite that source
 Direct quotes and paraphrases
 Images,photographs, tables, graphs
 Ideas, measurements, computations
 Also use citations as evidence to back up assertions
 If you use somebody else’s words, you must quote them
 Short excerpts appear in quotes
 Long excerpts (3 or more lines) are introduced and then appear as indented text,




often in a smaller font, single spaced
If you leave out words in the middle use …
If you leave out words at the end use ….
If you substitute or add words, put them in square brackets []
If you add italics say [emphasis added]
 Failure to cite sources = plagiarism
58
Research and Communication Skills
Paraphrasing
 Usually paraphrasing ideas is preferable to quoting unless
 Exact wording is important
 You are quoting famous words
 You are critiquing or comparing specific words rather than ideas
 The original words say what you want to say very well and succinctly
 Usually paraphrasing lets you convey an idea more succinctly
because you can focus on the part of the idea most relevant to
your paper
 If you end up using some of the original words in your paraphrase,
use quotes around those words
59
Research and Communication Skills
Forms of citation
 Full bibliographic citation inline
 Typically used on a slide
 Footnote or endnote
 Used in legal writing, many books, some conferences and
journals
 Inline short citation with bibliography, references cited
section, or reference list
 Used by most technical conferences and journals, some books,
most dissertations
60
Research and Communication Skills
Citations in text
 Format depends on style you are using
 Usually a number or author and date, sometimes a page number reference
too
 Citation usually goes at the end of the sentence
 Privacy is not “absolute,” (Westin 1967).
 Privacy is not “absolute,” [3].
 If Author is mentioned, in sentence, name does not appear in
citation
 Westin (1967, p. 7) claims that individuals must balance a desire for privacy
with a desire to participate in society.
 Multiple citations can appear together
 [3, 4, 5]
 (Westin 1967; Cranor 2002)
61
Research and Communication Skills
Footnotes
 Used heavily in legal writing
 Usually used sparingly in technical writing
 Each footnote appears only once
 If you reference the same source multiple times you must
repeat the reference information, however you can abbreviate
it on second and subsequent references and use ibid to
indicate same as previous reference
62
Research and Communication Skills
Creating a bibliography
 Similar rules apply to other forms of citation (footnotes,
etc.)
 Pick an appropriate style and use it consistently
throughout your paper
 Most conferences and journals have style requirements
 Popular styles: Chicago/Turabian, MLA, APA, APSA
 APA: http://www.apastyle.org/
 Complete bibliographic entry includes author, title, date,
publisher, place of publication, pages, volume number,
etc.
 Bibliographic entries should be ordered - usually either
alphabetically or in order referenced in the text
63
Research and Communication Skills
Word processing tools
 Microsoft Word
 Word has built in support for footnotes and endnotes
 Use cross reference feature for numbered reference lists
 Third party bibliographic add-ons may be useful
 LaTeX
 Built in support for footnotes and endnotes
 Use Bibtex!
64
Spam / Regulating Online Speech
66
Bill of Rights
 First Amendment
 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.
67
The Internet can’t be censored
“The Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it.”
- John Gillmore
68
Cartoon dogs are anonymous on the Internet
69
Real dogs are anonymous on the Internet too!
70
Actually, none of this is true
 It is easy to adopt a pseudonym or a persona on the Internet,
but it is difficult to be truly anonymous
 Identities can usually be revealed with cooperation of ISP, local
sys-admins, web logs, phone records, etc.
 The Internet can put up a good fight against censorship, but
in the end there is still a lot of Internet censorship
 Repressive governments and intellectual property lawyers have
been pretty successful at getting Internet content removed
Google and Wikipedia Protest Anti-Piracy Bill
http://news.discovery.com/tech/sopa-googlewikipedia-blackout-120118.html
71
Communications Decency Act
 Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
 Prohibited Internet distribution of indecent or patently
offensive material to minors
 Created restrictions for the Internet similar to broadcast
media
 Introduced by Sen. James Exon (D-Nebraska)
 Cited Marty Rimm study
 Immediately challenged in court
 Supreme Court struck down CDA in 1997 (Reno v.
American Civil Liberties Union)
72
Opposition to the CDA
 Over-broad, vague, unenforceable
 CDA includes “indecency standard”
 Obscenity and child pornography are already illegal to distribute (child pornography
is also illegal to possess)
 But indecency is defined in CDA as “any comment, request, suggestion, proposal,
image, or other communications, that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms
patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or
excretory activities or organs.”
 What community do we look at when regulating the Internet?
 Internet should not be regulated like broadcast
 Law would chill free speech
 Internet filters are a better solution
73
Support for the CDA
 Senator James Exon (D-Nebraska), sponsor of Bill: Need to
protect children from online pornography
 Laws that restrict selling porn to children in other media
should apply to the Internet
 Filters are not sufficient
 Parents may not be able to figure out how to use them
 Children may access computers away from home
74
Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
 Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium
 Specification for associating metadata with Internet content
 Supports self-labels and third-party labels
 Supports the development of many rating systems
 Implemented in MS Internet Explorer and other products
76
How technology tools work
Internet
content
Web
Usenet
Email
Chat
Gopher
FTP
Person or
tool classifies
content
For what age
group is it
appropriate?
Is it educational?
Tool takes
an action
Suggest
Search
Inform
Monitor
Warn
Block
Is it fun?
77
Who does the classification?
 Third-party experts
 Automated tools
 Evaluation of safety tools
 SafeFamilies.org
GetNetWise.org
FilterReview.com
 Local administrators
 Content providers
 Survey or vote
78
Classification scheme
Good for kids
Characteristics of
content
Bad for kids
Age suitability
Who created content
79
Rating systems and vocabularies
Math
Science
English
Spelling
History
French
Spanish
Gym
Art
Music
Drama
A
B
B+
DC
AF
A+
BC
B
80
Descriptive versus subjective
Many
variables
Few
variables
complex
simple
Subjective
Descriptive
81
Can’t derive descriptive from subjective
Characters not well developed
Gratuitous sex and violence
?
Bad acting?
Boring plot?
Bad script?
Dull characters?
Unbelievable premise?
Unoriginal?
Too much violence?
Not enough violence?
82
Scope
 Web sites
 FTP, gopher, etc.
 Chat
 Instant messaging
 Newsgroups
 Email
 Telnet
83
Actions
Suggest
Search
Inform
Monitor
Warn
Block
84
Suggest
 Recommend appropriate content for children
Search
 Select content that is appropriate for children and matches a
query
 Google,Yahoo: SafeSearch
86
Inform
 Provide information about the content
87
Warn
 Provide information about content and recommend against
accessing that content before it is displayed
88
Block
 Prevent children from accessing content
 Guiding Children through Information Searches on
the Internet
 http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/214/InternetSearchEngines.html
 Awesome Library - K-12 Education Directory
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/
 "Over 14,000 sites have been classified into a directory, specifically
organized for teachers, students and parents. Information can be found by
browsing or searching." --Search EngineWatch
89
Monitor
 Record for later inspection a list of the content accessed or
attempted to be accessed by a user
 E.g., PC Tattletale offers a Internet Monitoring and
Parental Control Software solution.
90
CDA Sequels
 Child Online Protection Act (COPA) - passed in 1998
 Banned commercial distribution of material harmful to minors
 Struck down by Supreme Court in 2004
 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) passed in
1999
 Requires schools and libraries that receive federal funds for
Internet access to filter out child pornography, obscene
materials, and materials harmful to minors
 Upheld by Supreme Court in 2003
 Many state laws
 Most have been declared unconstitutional
94
Suing Spammers
Partly based on Serge Egelman’s slides
The Spam Epidemic (1/3)
 Spam: Unsolicited, bulk email
 Spam is profitable
 More than 100 times cheaper than “junk mail”
 Profitable even if only 1 in 100,000 buys product
 Amount of email that is spam has ballooned
 8% in 2001
 90% in 2009
1-96
Statistics
http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/spammers.lasso
Background
 It’s cheap!
$400,000
 Wider audience
$350,000
 Profit guaranteed
$300,000
 Little work involved
$250,000
$370,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
$0
$250
Email
USPS
Background
 Address harvesting
 Web pages
 Forums
 USENET
 Dictionary attacks
 Purchased lists
 No way out
Profile of a Spammer
 Alan Ralsky
 20 Computers
 190 Servers
 650,000 messages/hour
 250 millions addresses
 $500 for every million
messages
 Convicted Felon
 1992 Securities fraud
 1994 Insurance fraud
Technical Means
 Text recognition
 Black hole lists
 Statistical modeling
 Neural networks, SVM, etc.
 Cryptography
 Digital signatures
 Payment schemes
 Image spam analysis
Graylisting
 Whitelist maintained
 Other mail temporarily rejected
 Spammers might give up
 Mail delivery delayed
 Spammers will adapt
The Hunt
 Contact Info
 URLs
 Email Addresses
 WHOIS/DNS
 USENET
 news.admin.net-abuse.email
 Databases:
 Spews.org
 Spamhaus.org
 OpenRBL.org
Virginia Laws
 Virginia’s anti-spam criminal section, it states that if “Volume
of SPAM transmitted exceeds 10,000 in any 24 hour time period,
100,000 in any 30-day time period, or 1 million in any 1 year
period, or revenue generated from specific SPAM exceeds $1,000, or
total revenue generated from all SPAM transmitted to any ISP exceeds
$50,000,” the crime will be published as a Felony.
Pennsylvania Laws
 The Unsolicited Telecommunications Advertisement Act (73
§2250)
 Illegal activities:
 Forged addresses
 Misleading information
 Lack of opt-out
 Only enforced by AG and ISPs
 $10/unsolicited message for ISPs
 10% from AG
Small Claims Court
 Court summons: $30-80
 Maximum claim: $8000
 Winning by default because the spammer didn’t bother to
show up: Priceless
Small Claims Court
 Court summons: $30-80
 Maximum claim: $8000
 Winning by default because the spammer didn’t bother to
show up: Priceless