Surveillance or Privacy Story
Surveillance or Privacy have been transformed by digital tech in ways that can be compromising, and invasive.
There are many questions and issues raised by the extent of surveillance, and the breaches of privacy. So much so that websites are often required to have “Privacy Notices” if they use your data. Consider ways that surveillance has affected you or someone you know and tell a web story of 3-5 pages (with media and text) to explain the situation. Some possible topics include:
How has surveillance affected your life or the life of someone you know?
This could be helpful, like finding a missing person or item (AirTag) or checking on a traveling family member’s current location or using a Garmin device to find an avalanche victim; or harmful, like being denied medical insurance because of leaked medical information, or suffering identity theft because of a data breach.
What tips would you give a family member to protect their privacy and security?
These could be digital, like checking privacy and security settings on apps, eg using location service “never” or “only when using app”, or behavioral, like confusing search algorithms with a wide range of topics.
How can apps and platforms be designed to maximize user privacy and security?
What if users control who has access to their data (family & local authorities for a backcountry hiker or skier) and also when, or what if a network is only shared with a trusted group of people in an intranet, like the @maine.edu network?
Your task is to
- Search: Inquire among family, friends, classmates etc about any cases of helpful or unwanted surveillance or breaches of privacy.
- Research: use class articles and your own research to learn as much as you can about specific cases and benefits or dangers and/or remedies for the specific examples you discovered in your “search” You can raise questions that aren’t yet answered, use statistic, examples, quotes, cases etc to create your story. You might consider tips for future use or protection as part of your story, or if pursued in more depth, as the whole story.
- Web Story: Use text and images as well as video clips in a web document like Adobe Express Web Page or Google Sites, to tell the story of the main issues in your chosen examples. Consider these sections of a story which could each take up a page of text/image/charts/video.
- What is the case or example? describe it.
- What is the benefit or harm caused?
- How might the benefit be expanded or the harm be mitigated?
- What tips would you give your reader based on the case and your research?
- Sources: List 2-3 sources from class readings/videos and at least 1 of your own sources in a credits page at the end of your story (this page does not count as part of the 3-5 pages).
2024: Given the Cambridge Analytica story, and the current upcoming election, you might choose to focus on threats to healthy democracy because of surveillance of user data and subsequent manipulation of their vulnerabilities (eg fears) to sway decisions.
