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Lecture 06

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22 views20 pages

Lecture 06

Uploaded by

mynameisayeshasiddiqa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 3:

Networking

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Chapter Overview

• Spam
• Internet interactions
• Text messaging
• Censorship
• Freedom of expression
• Children and inappropriate content
• Breaking trust
• Internet addiction

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Far More People Have Access to Cell
Phones than Electricity or Clean Water

Charles Sturge/Alamy

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3.2 Spam

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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

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The Spam Epidemic (2/3)

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The Spam Epidemic (3/3)

• How firms get email addresses


– Web sites, chat-room conversations, newsgroups
– Computer viruses harvest addresses from PC address
books
– Dictionary attacks
– Contests
• Most spam sent out by bot herders who control
huge networks of computers
• Spam filters block most spam before it reaches
users’ inboxes
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Need for Socio-Technical Solutions

• New technologies sometimes cause new social


situations to emerge
– Calculators  feminization of bookkeeping
– Telephones  blurred work/home boundaries
• Spam an example of this phenomenon
– Email messages practically free
– Profits increase with number of messages sent
– Strong motivation to send more messages
• Internet design allows unfair, one-way
communications
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Case Study: Ann the Acme Accountant

• Ann: Accountant at Acme Corporation


• She distributes paychecks to all 50 employees
• Ann sends email advertising Girl Scout cookie
sale
• 9 recipients order cookies; average 4 boxes each
• Other 40 recipients unhappy to get email; half
complain to a co-worker
• Did Ann do anything wrong?

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Kantian Analysis

• We should always respect autonomy of others, treating


them as ends in themselves and never only as the
means to an end (2nd formulation of Categorical
Imperative)
• Ann didn’t misrepresent what she was doing
• She didn’t force anyone to read the entire email
• Some who read her email chose to order cookies
• Therefore, she didn’t “use” others, and her action was not
strictly wrong
• However, an “opt in” approach would have been better
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Act Utilitarian Analysis

• Benefit to Girls Scouts = $108


– $3 profit per box of cookies
– 36 boxes sold
• Harm to company: time wasted
– Orders taken during breaks
– Lost productivity from complaining: $70
• 20 employees ×2 ×5 minutes/employee = 200 minutes
• 3.5 hours ×$20/hour = $70
• Benefits exceed harms, so action good
• Company may create policy against future fundraisers
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Rule Utilitarian Analysis

• Q: What would be consequences of everyone in


company used email to solicit donations?
• A: Plenty of employee grumbling and lower
morale
• If all doing it, unlikely any one cause would do
well
• Harms greater than benefits, so Ann’s action was
wrong

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Social Contract Theory Analysis

• Acme Corporation has no prohibition against


using its email system this way
• Ann was exercising her right to express herself
• Some people didn’t appreciate message, but she
didn’t act like a spammer
– She didn’t conceal her identity
– She wasn’t selling a fraudulent product
• Ann did nothing wrong

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Virtue Ethics Analysis

• As employee, relevant virtues: honesty, fairness, respect


• Ann was honest: her email didn’t mislead anyone
• She wasn’t fair or respectful, and she exercised poor
judgment (as evidenced by larger amount of complaining
by co-workers)
• In her role as parent, she did all work herself and didn’t
find a role for her daughter to play
• Ann should have found a way for her daughter to help,
and she should have found another way to advertise that
respected co-workers

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Summary

• Analyses reached different conclusions, but Ann


could have taken a less controversial course
• She could have posted a sign-up sheet to
identify those interested in cookie sale
• That way, she would have sent email only to
those interested, avoiding the problems of
grumbling and lost productivity
• She could have found a way to get her daughter
more engaged
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3.3 Internet Interactions

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The World Wide Web

• WWW : networked hypertext system


• Stimulated tremendous growth in
popularity of Internet
• Two important attributes
– It is decentralized
– Every Web object has a unique address

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Rise of the App

• People spending more time on


smartphones and tablets
• Using Web browsers awkward on mobile
devices
• Mobile apps replace Web browsers as way
to access Internet on mobile devices

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How We Use the Internet
• Shopping
• Socializing (e.g., Facebook)
• Contributing content (e.g., wikis)
• Blogging
• Crowdsourcing
• Learning
• Exploring our roots
• Entering virtual worlds
• Controlling the Internet of Things
• Paying taxes
• Gambling
• Taking humanitarian action
• Lots more!
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Online Source of Genealogical Information

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