University of Toronto Scarborough CSC D03 Social Impact of Information Technology, Winter 2014 Jaime Hikaru Mishima 1001088832

2 Assignment 1: Privacy 1. Will you let your insurance company monitor your driving? The usage-based automobile insurance (UBI) is, in my opinion, a type of insurance that provides future gains to the economy from where it is applied. Of course there are many factors that influence this gains. Thus, a way to explore this topic is through the analysis of the alternatives offered by Scarberia Auto Insurance (SAI). The first opportunity discount (based on the data logger records only by the distance driven) is very convenient for the vehicle-owners viewpoint. It can ensure the driver more privacy because he does not need to share their personal information or more accurate records it is not a sensitive type of information (PAEFGEN, 2012). In other words, the proposal takes the opposite direction of the US president Barack Obama said on NSA surveillance: You cant have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience (EXAMINER, 2013). Analyzing the proposal is easy to see that it have a weakness: the system do not distinguish the type of roads that the car traveled during the monthly, so it can be, for example, unfair with a safe driver that drive a lot but using a safe manner against a driver that drives at high speeds regardless of the distance driven, like inside biggest cities. At least the method cans incentive the driver to use less the car and to learn to be a better driver at all (BBC, 2013). Analyzing the second opportunity, it can provide better social benefits, such as security. The driver will take somewhat more caution in where he park his vehicle once he knows that the SAI is monitoring the locations where the car is parked and consequently areas more prone to vehicles thefts. However, I believe that when SAI share personal information with various marketing companies the consumer loses control of his information once the word various is extremely vague. Under this perspective, the third opportunity appears to be a great option. It probably explores the use of GPS to records the moment-by-moment location and also records the speed of the vehicle. From the drivers viewpoint this can probably offer him a facility to use this resource for other types of services. Some possible examples are: traffic monitoring, satellite navigation, weather reports, vehicle tracking (IQBAL, 2006). And from the UBI stakeholders viewpoint (such as insurers, hardware supplies, service providers) this represents an easier approach to potential customers and consequently increased adoption of the service offered (PAEFGEN, 2012). Moreover it is easy to realize that the option brings an important social benefit: is not necessary to have more prejudices. For example, an under-25 driver can be a very responsible driver but because of his age he need to pay high auto insurance costs. So, adopting the third opportunity is fairer and benefits through meritocracy. The last opportunity for discount has the same problems of the second option. It also offers a personal information sharing. This can bring a lot of unwanted services: unsolicited marketing, contact with people with malicious intentions, creating personal profiles by behavior (IQBAL, 2006). Based on the arguments so far, I would choose the third offer because it incentives the driver to adopt a safer driving and is not so aggressive as the second and third options in terms of privacy. But of course moment-by-moment location can track the drivers and consequently can infringes on their privacy. One of the ways to deal with any privacy problems is analyzing the privacy respecting insurance model and verify if the contract with the SAI do not violate laws of the country where it is applied.

2. Is metadata more revealing than content? Explain the arguments for saying that metadata can be more revealing than content. Do you agree with it? Nowadays an important topic is in evidence: metadata and the consequences in our lives and in our privacy. Under this context, recently surveillance programs were revealed. The National Security Agency (NSA) is now currently collecting the phone records of millions of US costumers under a top-secret court (GUARDIAN, 2013). Nevertheless, the US president Barack Obama tried to explain the reasons about the program. Nobody is listening to your telephone calls, Mr. Obama said. Thats not what this programs about. (NYTIMES, 2013). However apparently there are various arguments that go against this argument and say that metadata can be, in fact, much more revealing than content. The first argument is that the people think that metadata is not a menace to privacy because doesnt access the content (CAVOUKIAN, 2013). For content, this means, for example, the conversation between two people using their cell phones. Analyzing this, is easy to realize that it is still possible to use the calling information such as who is communicating with whom, when, how often and how long, and discover information like the circle of friends, locations and routes, schedules and routines. So with the technological advance it is relatively easy to monitoring the citizens and see if happens any deviations. This advance can provide almost unlimited computer storage space and computer power, allowing the construction of a famous data structure in computer science: graphs. Allied to this, it is possible to use heuristics that can easily predict our movements and habits. This computer area is becoming even more important because it enables predictive data mining and the construction of algorithms leverage knowledge and dynamics to predict future events, an example is the work done by Dr. Kira Radinsky (KIRA, 2013) Furthermore, unlike our words, metadata doesnt lie (WIRED, 2013). Another argument that can be overthrown is `if I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to fear about` (CAVOUKIAN, 2013) and that our privacy needs to be sacrificed, as the US president Obama said on NSA surveillance: You cant have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience (EXAMINER, 2013). Under this perspective, an important component of liberty is that we do not need to worry about what we do and elucidate this for the government. Therewith, it is easy to see that our freedom is not respected. The third argument is related with the antagonistic relationship between privacy and security. This relationship is mainly motivated by the fact that for the NSA collects valuable information, it is necessary to accumulate a large database collecting communication records indiscriminately and in bulk (GUARDIAN, 2013). And, as mentioned before, the metadata gets more powerful as it is collect it in bulk (ARSTECHNICA, 2013). This can unfortunately reveal our secrets and cant permit the individuals to ensure their privacy and consequently freedom. Thus, it is clear that metadata can, in fact, be more revealing than the content. In my opinion, I do agree with this because it exposes our daily actions, infringing on our privacy. In addiction, it can generate diplomatic and political mistrust since this probably can be used for monitoring, for example, important financial or economical arrangements.

References AMIDSTHENOISE Johnson, Billy. Meta My Data: NSA Part 2 AmidsTheNoise (Youtube channel), 11 June 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o2djiZOxyA&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 12 January 2014. ARSTECHNICA Mullin, Joe. In ACLU lawsuit scientist demolishes NSAs Its just metadata excuse Arstechnica. 27 August 2013. http://arstechnica.com/techpolicy/2013/08/in-aclu-lawsuit-scientist-demolishes-nsa-its-just-metadata-excuse/ Accessed 12 January 2014. BBC Gittleson, Kim. How big data is changing the cost of insurance BBC News (on-line edition), 14 November 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24941415. Accessed 10 January 2014. CAVOUKIAN Cavoukian, Ann. A primer on metadata: Separating fact from fiction Privacybydesign, July 2013. http://www.privacybydesign.ca/content/uploads/2013/07/Metadata.pdf. Accessed 10 January 2014. EXAMINER Dupre, Deborah. Obama threatens: If you can't trust us, we're going to have problems Examiner.com, 8 June 2014. http://www.examiner.com/article/obama-threatens-if-you-can-t-trust-us-we-re-goingto-have-problems. Accessed 10 January 2014. GUARDIAN Greenwald, Glenn. NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily The Guardian (on-line edition), 6 June 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-courtorder. Accessed 12 January 2014. IQBAL Iqbal, Muhammad. Lim, Samsung. A privacy preserving GPS-based payas-you-drive insurance scheme International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Society IGNSS Symposium, 2006. http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/snap/publications/usman&lim2006a.pdf. Accessed 11 January 2014. KIRA Wasik, Emily. Kira Radinsky is an internet oracle Vice, 21 October 2013. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/kira-radinsky-is-an-internet-prophet. Accessed 12 January 2014 NYTIMES Baker, Peter. Sanger E., David. Obama Calls Surveillance Programs Legal and Limited Nytimes (on-line edition), 7 June 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/us/national-security-agencysurveillance.html?_r=0. Accessed 12 January 2014. PAEFGER Paefgen, Johannes. Staake, Thorsten. Thiesse, Frdric. Resolving the misalignment between consumer privacy concerns and concerns and ubiquitous IS design: The case of usage-based insurance Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems, Orlando 2012 WIRED Blaze, Matt. Phew, NSA Is Just Collecting Metadata. (You Should Still Worry) Wired, 19 June 2014. http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/phew-it-wasjust-metadata-not-think-again/. Accessed 12 January 2014.