CIS 451:
Internet Societal Issues
Dr. Ralph D. Westfall
June, 2012
Internet is "New Territory"
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universal communications never existed
before the Internet
old rules may not fit new technologies
how make new/revised rules?
who makes the rules? two options:
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self regulation by Internet community
governmental: Federal and state laws
Social Networking Security
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people post all kinds of information
about themseleves on Facebook, etc.
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some of it could be used to harm them
PleaseRobMe.com gets your travel
plans and puts them on the Internet so
thieves can know you're not home
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Source: KTLA News
Job Search Internet Effects
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Potential employers Google your name
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"Would I want my mom … to see this?"
Use privacy settings on social sites
Untag your name from problem images
Consider an alias for some things you do
Post positive stuff with your real name
e.g., helpful answers in forums
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Source: Undo … Damage Your Facebook Profile
The Dialectical Internet
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"For every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction."
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Newton's Third Law of Motion
the Internet often works the same way
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if some person or group uses the Internet
to promote an agenda, others may use it
to work against that agenda or promote a
conflicting agenda
in other words, self regulation
The Internet and Juries
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Internet use by jurors for research may
cause convictions to be overturned
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Social networking among jurors is trying
judges' patience
Social Networking Threatens Another Jury
Verdict
Courts finally catching up to texting
jurors (“Twitter instructions” by judges)
Phony Degrees
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get any degree—bachelors, masters or
doctorate—for a few $1000
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email ad for a phony degree
wife's former boss bought BA, MA & EdD
based on "life experience," not classes
Wired News article
Degree Mills book
Novelty Degrees at bogusphd.com
Phony Degrees - 2
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high ranking Federal government
employees with phony degrees (CBS)
use of phony degrees is illegal in only
four states
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Oregon, North Dakota, New Jersey and
Illinois
Oregon list of invalid degrees (scroll)
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California warning (scroll down on right)
"Phishing"
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spam that looks like it's from a bank
some people deal with
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has an image with text on it, rather than
text that can be evaluated by spam filters
clicking on link leads to a web site that
looks like a bank website (but IP address
doesn't contain bank name)
example (click on link too)
Bob, You've Been Phished
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video by Cal Poly students
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won $1000 prize in a national contest
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but had to pay the source of the background
music around $200 for unauthorized use
transcript
Phishing Gets Cleverer
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recent eBay Phishing email
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mouseovering the learn more link on right
shows a valid eBay URL
mouseover Respond Now button (image)
to see URL of a non-eBay web site
Social Network Hacking
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Facebook hack service smells fishy
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$100 charge may be a ripoff
“Fusking” PhotoBucket and Other
Pictures Sharing Sites
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viewing private pictures with common
filenames
Miss Bimbo.com (archived)
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virtual fashion game/community about
a female character
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"Become the most famous and beautiful
bimbo in the world."
Controversies
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option to buy breast implants for Miss B
over-emphasis on attractiveness
negative impacts on players self esteem?
Denial of Service Attacks
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"attempt to make a computer resource
unavailable to its intended users"
(Wikipedia)
"saturating the target (victim) machine
with external communications requests"
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Cal Poly attacked January 2009
against the law in many countries
Spam
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unsolicited e-mail
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not SPAM lunchmeat > Home
millions of e-mail addresses on CDs
anti-spam websites
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Spam domain blacklist
Fight Spam on the Internet
Spam Cop
spam2congress.com
Technological Spam Solutions
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filters
blacklists and whitelists
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challenge/response
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block banned vs. block all except friends
non-whitelist senders must solve a captcha
eStamps
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increase the resource requirements for
sending each email
send eStamp charges to charities
Spam and DOS Attacks
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DOS against spammers
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Spammers targeted with DDoS attack
Spam Slayer: Bringing Spammers to Their
Knees
SpamItBack
criticism of DOS attack approach
Spammers launch denial of service
attacks against antispam sites
Anonymity
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products to prevent invasions of your
privacy when surfing website
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Anonymous Surfing
used to have a SCAN YOUR PC NOW
button on left side of page that printed a
lot of information from your machine as a
demonstration
Anonymity - 2
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web sites for sending anonymous e-mail
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Advicebox (out of business now)
Where to Send Anonymous Email (sites)
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note warning on top left of page
anonymity helps people who want to
engage in "sanctioned behavior"
not all anonymous use is antisocial
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e.g., people seeking suicide counseling
Location Privacy
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"Cell phone companies know where you
are every time you make a call. GPS
devices keep a record of the routes you
take around town. Social networking
services alert friends when you’re
nearby. "
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Source: Will your cell phone give you
away?
Location Privacy - 2
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"no clear standard for how law
enforcement agencies should get access
to these records"
"combined with … tools like Google
Maps, it’s not some vast technical feat
to … follow you around on the map.”
Source: Will your cell phone give you ...
Gambling
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offshore gambling not subject to US
laws
implications for:
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compulsive gamblers?
"point shaving" by college athletes?
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Cal State Fullerton
Pay-Pal & credit card companies
stopped working with online casinos
Pornography
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laws vary by country, and by US
community
hard to prosecute offshore vendors
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make it illegal to receive it?
freedom of speech? censorship?
market for child and violent
pornography leads to exploitation
believed to cause harmful behavior
Pornography Statistics
spending/second = $3,075.64
 25% of total search engine requests
 20% of men, 13% of women admit
accessing pornography at work
 28% of porn site visitors are women
Source: TopTenREVIEWS
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Spyware, Adware, Etc. (Malware)
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in software installed on the computer
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usually with consent of user (disclosure
often hidden in EULA)
adware runs ads in exchange for free
services
spyware tracks surfing to target ads
adware and spyware definitions
Spybot Search and Destroy freeware
More Malware
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Google searches web's dark side
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Google found that 10% of sample of 4.5
MM pages could do "drive by downloads"
Another 700,000 had other security risks
Malware often based on ads on owner's
pages rather than owner-created content
Bad Bunny! Energizer USB battery charger
blamed for "backdoor" Trojan virus
Malware "Social Engineering"
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Phone calls to (elderly?) Internet users
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initially based on behavior, not technology
claim they're from "Microsoft Support"
say your computer is "infected"
tell you to run built-in Microsoft diagnostics
that generate harmless error messages
then tell you to go to a web site to
download software to fix problems
Porn Sites and "Malware"
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98% of porn sites downloaded spyware
or adware [dead link]
15% installed software that dialed
"premium rate" porn phone numbers
5% installed browser hijackers e.g.,
click CWS link
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can change home page, add porn links to
Favorites
Porn Sites and "Malware"
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98% of porn sites downloaded spyware
or adware [dead link]
15% installed software that dialed
"premium rate" porn phone numbers
5% installed browser hijackers e.g.,
click CWS link
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can change home page, add porn links to
Favorites
StopBadware Coalition
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Operated by Harvard Law School and
Oxford University
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Consumer Reports is an advisor
Sponsors include Google, Verisign, Sun
Microsystems, AOL
Identified RealPlayer as badware
because of "inadequate disclosure of
advertising behavior"
Bounties on Malware Authors
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Microsoft offers $250,000 for the head
of Conficker's author
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counterattack on people who exploit
security flaws in Microsoft software
Microsoft has offered rewards before and
paid off on one
another software company also offered a
reward
Bomb Making Sites
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freedom of speech?
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courts have upheld right to sell bomb
books such as "Anarchist's Cookbook"
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or yelling "Fire!" in crowded theater?
author changed his mind later
do sites lead to more Unabombers,
more violence like bombing of
Oklahoma City Federal Building?
Hate Groups
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Internet makes it easier for people at
extreme fringes to find like-minded
people
Internet is a convenient tool for
spreading lies and propaganda
other sites created to counter lies
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problem: harder to stop a lie than to
spread it
Spoofing Email Addresses
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sending email as from someone else's
email address
extremely easy for anyone who has a
server
most spam has spoofed addresses
students from class taught by author
elsewhere spoofed an email from an
attractive woman in the class to him
Spoofing Caller ID
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calling cards and devices make this
easy e.g., calls from:
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traditional fake phone # 555-555-5555
mathematical pi 314-159-2653
"mark of the beast" 666-666-6666
Rumors, Half-Truths, Etc.
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urban legends
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About.com Urban Legends
computer virus hoaxes
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Vmyths.com
"Truth" Sites
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Investigate and evaluate things on the
Internet and in other media
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Snopes.com: "Internet reference source for
urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors,
and misinformation"
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25 Hottest Urban Legends
TruthOrFiction.com
FactCheck.org (political issues)
Commercial Product Slander
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"Aspartame causes multiple sclerosis"
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Nancy Markle letter, another letter, victim?
response from Multiple Sclerosis
Foundation doctor
Harvard Law school paper
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Internet Hoaxes: Public Regulation and
Private Remedies
Fraud
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possible with on-line auction sites (E-Bay)
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know anybody who has lost money? how
much?
very low capital requirements to start an ebusiness, legitimate or otherwise
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out-of-area fraud hard to deal with
not much different from mail order?
Internet ScamBusters
Bad Business Bureau Sites
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different from the Better Business
Bureaus
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publicly report complaints and horror
stories to force action
sample sites
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Rip-off Report.com
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concerns about its founder
Google search on "bad business bureau"
Financial Fraud
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Internet Fraud (web page from the
Securities and Exchange Commission)
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stock tips publicized by spam, bulletin
boards/chat rooms, online newsletters
scroll down on above link to see "pump
and dump," pyramid, "risk free," off-shore
frauds
Religious Proselytizing
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person searching for "religion A," gets
an ad about how great "religion B" is
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actual case
search engine stopped selling ads to
"religion B"
issues:
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freedom of speech and religion?
right of a business to determine its own
marketing policies?
Domestic Political Issues
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Yahoo cancelled labor union
"cyberpicketing" ads
Google refused
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anti-war ads (subsequently reinstated)
guns and ammunition ads
other "anti" ads opposing people,
organizations or issues
More Domestic Political
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"Google bombing" uses drives traffic to
other pages by links and keywords
US president examples
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previous Google search on failure
more recent at Google and Yahoo
after media attention, search algorithms
get changed
Election Campaigns
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A New Campaign Tactic: Manipulating
Google Data
International Political Issues
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Yahoo helped Chinese government
prosecute a journalist?
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Shi Tao sentenced to 10 years in prison
information claimed to be a "state secret,"
but others say it was widely known
Yahoo's role in this has not been revealed
Chinese government blocked Wikipedia
three times
International Political - 2
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MSN helps censors
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Google censors itself for China
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human rights, democracy, and freedom of
speech considered to be profanity?
news service doesn't display results from
Web sites blocked by Chinese authorities
Cisco wanted to help 'Great Firewall' of
China
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also sells Policenet to track dissidents
"Google Fraud"
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How The Google AdWords Scam Was
Done
Fake Sites on Search Engines
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Security researcher Jim Stickley created
a phony site for a real credit union
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redirected visitors to real site
phony site got #2 ranking on Yahoo
and #1 on Bing
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ahead of even the credit union's real site
Commercial Advertising
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pharmacists want to ban ads for
unlicensed pharmaceutical dealers
Intellectual Property
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material can be copyrighted, but so
very easy to steal (1 mouse click)
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images, text, software
Software and Information Industry
Association prosecutes owners of servers
or BBSs that distribute pirated software
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also has a CORPORATE ANTI-PIRACY
REWARD PROGRAM (up to $50,000)
Personal Computer Security
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DSL and cable connections make
personal computers vulnerable
Zone Alarm is a free personal computer
firewall
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I used to have it installed at home
numerous hits from unrelated addresses
unfortunately Zone Alarm itself can cause
problems on some computers
Web Site or Viewer Hijacking
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copy site with high search engine rank
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use it as a front end to a completely
different kind of site
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email from business that hijacked my page
often pornographic
recycling abandoned domain names for
"stealth porn sites"
Web Site Vandalism
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hack in to a commercial website and
add different content
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frequently politically motivated
Greatest Hacks of All Time
Domain Name Abuses
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register www.somebigcompany.com
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demand that somebigcompany pay you for
its own name
courts usually rule for the companies
unofficial websites for politicians (put
up by opponents), movie stars, etc.
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e.g., www.bobdole.com (candidate in '96)
pro or con?
Internet Sales Taxes?
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web vendors claim need to be exempt
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"don't kill goose that is laying golden egg"
states are losing revenues
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national politicians have endorsed
temporary tax free status for e-commerce
but revenue loss projected at $45 billion
by 2006 (another study says $3.2 billion)
[dead links]
Workaholism
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with the Internet, can continue working
at home, after work and on weekends
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handling e-mail, writing reports, financial
analysis, etc.
impacts on family life?
Telecommuting
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Internet makes it possible to work at
home instead of driving to work
benefits
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child care? elder care?
commuting cost savings
disadvantages
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isolation, reduced chances for promotion
The "Digital Divide"
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Internet offers many benefits, but what
about people who:
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can't afford a computer
don't have the skills to use a computer
will these people be left behind in the
"new economy?"
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should the government take a more active
role in helping these people?
Internet Impacts on Users
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Internet addiction
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test yourself
loneliness increases with Internet use?
Internet helps social ties?
free greeting cards (increase social
activity?)
Other Issues?
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can you think of any other societal
issues recently created by the Internet?
Exercise
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outline a debate position on one of the
following propositions (pro or con):
"The Internet is making this a better
world."
"Self-regulation is not enough: the
government needs to take a more active
role in regulating spam.“
1.
2.
•
or some other kind of abuse
Exercise - 2
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find a web site spreading rumors, lies,
half truths, propaganda, or etc.
find another site designed to counter
the content of this type of site
evaluate the effectiveness of the 2nd
site in countering sites such as the 1st
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write a one page outline summarizing
findings
Exercise 3
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whois sometimes shows domain name
owners for politicians, celebrities, etc.
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privacy services now hold most of them
check information that is available for
barackobama.com
write a one page outline summarizing the
ethical questions raised by people using
other person's names in a domain
THE END
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