| Description | Required Texts | Schedule | Requirements | Optional Texts | Project | Research and Communication Skills | Poster Fair |
Fall 2004: Hamburg Hall 1003, 10:30 - 11:50 am
Class web site: http://lorrie.cranor.org/courses/fa04/
[Spring 2004 class web site]
Class mailing list: http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/mailman/listinfo/privacy-class
Professor: Lorrie Cranor
Teaching Assistant: Rob Reeder
Privacy issues have been getting increasing attention from law makers, regulators, and the media. As a result, businesses are under pressure to draft privacy policies and post them on their web sites, chief privacy officers are becoming essential members of many enterprises, and companies are taking pro-active steps to avoid the potential reputation damage of a privacy mistake. As new technologies are developed, they increasingly raise privacy concerns -- the World Wide Web, wireless location-based services, and RFID chips are just a few examples. In addition, the recent focus on national security and fighting terrorism has brought with it new concerns about governmental intrusions on personal privacy. This course provides an indepth look into privacy, privacy laws, and privacy-related technologies and self-regulatory efforts. Students will study privacy from philosophical, historical, legal, policy, and technical perspectives.
This course is intended primarily for advanced undergraduate students (juniors and seniors) studying computer science or computer engineering; however, it is appropriate for other undergraduate majors who have strong technical backgrounds. Graduate students may also enroll in this course at the graduate level (they will be expected to take on more substantial projects than the undergraduate students). This course will include a lot of reading, writing, and class discussion. Students will be able to tailor their assignments to their skills and interests, focusing more on programming or writing papers as they see fit. However, all students will be expected to do some writing and some technical work. A large emphasis will be placed on research and communication skills, which will be taught throughout the course.
Readings will be assigned from the following texts. Additional readings will be assigned from papers available online or handed out in class.
Note, this is subject to change. The class web site will have the most up-to-date version of this calendar.
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel - 1; Smith - Introduction,
Watchfulness, Serenity
Homework 1 due September 2
Guest speaker 9/7: Peter Madsen, CMU Department of Philosophy [slides, computer ethics, case study]
Reading Assignment: Smith - Mistrust, Space, Curiosity
Homework 2 due September 9
Reading Assignment: Cranor - 1, 2; Garfinkel - 2; Smith - Brandeis, Torts, The
Constitution
Project brainstorming due September 14
Homework 3 due September 16
Guest speaker 9/21: Alessandro Acquisti [slides]
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel - 8; Culnan; Gellman;
Varian 1996;
Moores; Beyond
Concern; Americans
and Online Privacy; Grain of Salt
Homework 4 due September 23
One-paragraph project description due September 23
Spam talk by Serge Egelman [slides]
September 30: Discussion with tcpulse.com
Reading Assignment: Cranor - 3; Smith - Cyberspace; web bugs paper; Bugnosis
paper;
FTC and Spam (Optional: Egelman)
Homework 5 due September 30
Reading Assignment: Cranor - 5, 6 (p. 104-109 optional), 7, 11; Millett
paper (Optional: Cranor 12)
Project proposal due October 5
Homework 6 due October 7
Reading Assignment: Cranor - Foreword, 4, 13 (p. 225-235
optional); Hochheiser
2002; Byers 2003 (Optional: Cranor 14)
Homework 7 due October 14
Guest speaker 10/19: Lisa Nelson, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel - 3; Smith - Numbers;
Givens 2000;
NAS Report, Chapters 1 and 2
(Optional: Garfinkel 10)
Homework 8 due October 21
Guest speaker 10/26: Brad Malin [slides]
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel - 4, 7; Smith Databanks; Sweeney 2001; Sweeney 2002
Homework 9 due October 28
Guest speaker 11/4: Ann Cavoukian
Reading Assignment: Chaum
1987; Waldman 2001; Reiter 1999;
Gillmor
2004
Intermediate project deliverables due November 2
Homework 10 due November 4
Guest speaker 11/11: Jerry Berman, Center for Democracy and Technology
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel 5, 9; Smith Wiretaps; Bigger
Monster, Weaker Chains;
The
Transparent Society (Optional: Big
Brother in the Wires)
Homework 11 due November 11
Guest speaker 11/18: Michael Shamos [slides]
Reading Assignment: Garfinkel 6; Smith Sex; Myths
and Facts about HIPAA; Workplace Privacy; (Optional: HPP Privacy
Guide, Presidential
Health)
Draft project due November 18
Homework 12 due November 18
Reading Assignment: I Didn't
Buy it for Myself; Tag
You're it;
Candy-Coated
Bits; Faustian Deal (Optional: Garfinkel 11; Smith Epilogue)
Homework 13 due November 30
Poster fair December 3, 3-5 pm; one of the regular class sessions this week will probably be cancelled
No required reading
No homework
Final project due December 7
This class will have no final exam. However, project presentations will be scheduled during our final exam slot, Monday, December 13, 1-4 pm. All students are expected to attend.
Your final grade in this course will be based on:
All homework assignments must be typed and submitted in hard copy form, printed in an easy-to-read font. Every homework submission must include a properly formatted bibliography that includes all works you referred to as you prepared your homework. These works should be cited as appropriate in the text of your answers.
All homework is due in class on the due date. If you will not be in class or are having printing difficulties, you may submit your homework by email prior to class. We will often discuss homework in class, so you should bring a copy of your homework with you to all classes. You will lose 5% for turning in homework after class on the day it is due. You will lose an additional 5% for each late day after that. I reserve the right to take off additional points or refuse to accept late homework submitted after the answers have been discussed extensively in class. Reasonable extensions will be granted to students with excused absences or extenuating circumstances. Please contact me as soon as possible to arrange for an extension.
A class mailing list will be setup for announcements, questions, and further discussion of topics discussed in class. Students will be expected to contribute to mailing list discussions. Students should post (non-personal) course-related questions to this mailing list rather than sending them to the instructor directly. Students are encouraged to post course-related items of interest to this mailing list.
You are not required to read all (or any) of these books. However, you may find some of them useful depending on what topics you choose for your project and other assignments.
In Pursuit of Privacy: Law, Ethics, and the Rise of Technology, DeCew, Cornell University Press, 1997.
The Right to Privacy, Alderman and Kennedy, Random House, 1995.
The Privacy Payoff: How Successful Businesses Build Customer Trust, Cavoukian and Hamilton, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2002.
The Transparent Society, Brin, Perseus Books, 1998.
Technology and Privacy: The New Landscape, Agre and Rotenberg, MIT Press, 1997.