Over the next three classes, we'll
be discussing the problem of privacy and eCommerce. Our inquiry
will have two basic phases:
1. Framing the Problem. We'll begin by
framing the problem, noting the scope of the issues raised and
some of the ways that online privacy is differen from (and the
same as) privacy in realspace.
2. Modeling the Solution(s). Next, we'll
take a look at the various models that have been suggested (and,
in some case, enacted) to deal with privacy in eCommerce. We'll
discuss the pros and cons of the various models, and consider
what might be the most sensible (and the most likely) response
to the growing awareness of the need for privacy online.
We start today by framing the problem.
Framing the Problem: The Nature of
Online Privacy
Our primary readings are excerpted
from a draft eCommerce casebook:
Margaret
Jane Radin, John Rothchild and Gregory M. Silverman, Internet
Commerce: Doing Business in a Networked World (2001).
[excerpts from Chapter 10] [pdf, 100 kb]
Next, read this recent series of articles
about the technology of "cookies" -- perhaps the most
widely debated single technology on the 'net -- to get a sense of
the history and context of the privacy issue.
John Schwartz,
Tracks in Cyberspace (series), N.Y. Times, Sept. 4-7, 2001.
[pdf, 92 kb]
Consider the history of cookies: why
were they originally developed? Was this a useful purpose? What
do you think the development of cookies tells us about the nature
of eCommerce more generally?
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