In Things We Trust? Towards trustability in the Internet of Things

This essay discusses the main privacy, security and trustability issues with the Internet of Things

Big data, method and the ethics of location : a case study of a hookup app for men who have sex with men

With the rise of geo-social media, location is emerging as a particularly sensitive data point for big data and digital media research. To explore this area, we reflect on our ethics for a study in which we analyze data generated via an app that facilitates public sex among men who have sex with men. The ethical sensitivities around location are further heightened in the context of research into such digital sexual cultures. Public sexual cultures involving men who have sex with men operate both in spaces “meant” for public sex (e.g., gay saunas and dark rooms) and spaces “not meant” for public sex (e.g., shopping centers and public toilets). The app in question facilitates this activity. We developed a web scraper that carefully collected selected data from the app and that data were then analyzed to help identify ethical issues. We used a mixture of content analysis using Python scripts, geovisualisation software and manual qualitative coding techniques. Our findings, which are methodological rather than theoretical in nature, center on the ethics associated with generating, processing, presenting, archiving and deleting big data in a context where harassment, imprisonment, physical harm and even death occur. We find a tension in normal standards of ethical conduct where humans are involved in research. We found that location came to the fore as a key - though not the only - actor requiring attention when considering ethics in a big data context

A qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment

Over two billion people are using the Internet at present, assisted by the mediating activities of software agents which deal with the diversity and complexity of information. There are, however, ethical issues due to the monitoring-and-surveillance, data mining and autonomous nature of software agents. Considering the context, this study aims to comprehend stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment in order to identify the main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services in the near future. Twenty-one stakeholders, belonging to three key stakeholder groups, were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy for unstandardised semi-structured e-mail interviews. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. It was possible to identify three main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services, which were classified into the following categories: comprehensive understanding of users' perception of privacy, user type recognition algorithms for software agent development and existing software agents enhancement

Market research & the ethics of big data

The term ‘big data’ has recently emerged to describe a range of technological and commercial trends enabling the storage and analysis of huge amounts of customer data, such as that generated by social networks and mobile devices. Much of the commercial promise of big data is in the ability to generate valuable insights from collecting new types and volumes of data in ways that were not previously economically viable. At the same time a number of questions have been raised about the implications for individual privacy. This paper explores key perspectives underlying the emergence of big data and considers both the opportunities and ethical challenges raised for market research

Recent advances in the application of stable isotope ratio analysis in forensic chemistry

This review paper updates the previous literature in relation to the continued and developing use of stable isotope ratio analysis in samples which are relevant to forensic science. Recent advances in the analysis of drug samples, explosive materials, and samples derived from human and animal samples are discussed. The paper also aims to put the use of isotope ratio mass spectrometry into a forensic context and discuss its evidential potential

Transepithelial Transport of Fc-Targeted Nanoparticles by the Neonatal Fc Receptor for Oral Delivery

Nanoparticles are poised to have a tremendous impact on the treatment of many diseases, but their broad application is limited because currently they can only be administered by parenteral methods. Oral administration of nanoparticles is preferred but remains a challenge because transport across the intestinal epithelium is limited. We show that nanoparticles targeted to the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn), which mediates the transport of immunoglobulin G antibodies across epithelial barriers, are efficiently transported across the intestinal epithelium using both in vitro and in vivo models. In mice, orally administered FcRn-targeted nanoparticles crossed the intestinal epithelium and reached systemic circulation with a mean absorption efficiency of 13.7%*hour compared with only 1.2%*hour for nontargeted nanoparticles. In addition, targeted nanoparticles containing insulin as a model nanoparticle-based therapy for diabetes were orally administered at a clinically relevant insulin dose of 1.1 U/kg and elicited a prolonged hypoglycemic response in wild-type mice. This effect was abolished in FcRn knockout mice, indicating that the enhanced nanoparticle transport was specifically due to FcRn. FcRn-targeted nanoparticles may have a major impact on the treatment of many diseases by enabling drugs currently limited by low bioavailability to be efficiently delivered though oral administration.Prostate Cancer Foundation (Award in Nanotherapeutics)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence U54-CA151884)National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology Award Contract HHSN268201000045C)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB000244)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01 Grant EB015419-01)American Society for Engineering Education. National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate FellowshipNational Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Graduate Research Fellowship 5 U54 CA151884-02

Electronic data safes as an infrastructure for transformational government? A case study

This article introduces and explores the potential of an active electronic data safe (AEDS) serving as an infrastructure to achieve transformational government. An AEDS connects individuals and organizations from the private and the public sector to exchange information items related to business processes following the user-managed access paradigm. To realize the transformational government’s vision of user-centricity, fundamental changes in the service provision and collaboration of public and private sector organizations are needed. Findings of a user study with a prototype of an AEDS are used to identify four barriers for the adoption of an AEDS in the light of transformational government: (1.) offering citizens unfamiliar services having the character of experience-goods; (2.) failing to fulfill common service expectations of the customers; (3.) failing to establish contextual integrity for data sharing, and, (4.) failing to establish and run an AEDS as a multi-sided platform providing an attractive business model

Applying Contextual integrity to Open Data Publishing

Open data publishing by both corporate and public bodies has increased significantly in recent years and this type of data could soon be developing into a real commodity. However, not all organisations pay sufficient heed to privacy as part of the decision-making process around open data publication, leaving both the organisation and the users whose data they handle vulnerable to privacy breaches. We present a case study in which we applied contextual integrity in practice, working with a UK local authority using real data. This illustrated how privacy can be incorporated into the decision-making process prior to publication taking place. Our results illustrate the application of Nissenbaum's Contextual Integrity Framework (CI) to the open data domain, and shows that CI is usable in practice

Understanding the care.data conundrum: new information flows for economic growth

The analysis of data from electronic health records aspires to facilitate healthcare efficiencies and biomedical innovation. There are also ethical, legal and social implications from the handling of sensitive patient information. The paper explores the concerns, expectations and implications of the National Health Service (NHS) England care.data programme: a national data sharing initiative of linked electronic health records for healthcare and other research purposes. Using Nissenbaum’s contextual integrity of privacy framework through a critical science and technology studies (STS) lens, it examines the way technologies and policies are developed to promote sustainability, governance and economic growth as the de facto social values, while reducing privacy to an individualistic preference. The state, acting as a new, central data broker reappropriates public ownership rights and establishes those information flows and transmission principles that facilitate the assetisation of NHS datasets for the knowledge economy. Various actors and processes from other contexts attempt to erode the public healthcare sector and privilege new information recipients. However, such data sharing initiatives in healthcare will be resisted if we continue to focus only on the monetary and scientific values of these datasets and keep ignoring their equally important social and ethical values

All Over the Map: Rethinking American Regions

Even as Americans keep moving all over the map in the late twentieth century, they cherish memories of the places they come from. But where do these places—these regions—come from? What makes them so real? In this groundbreaking book a distinguished group of historians explores the concept of region in America, traces changes the idea has undergone in our national experience, and examines its meaning for Americans today. Far from diminishing in importance, the authors conclude, regional differences continue to play a significant role in Americans\u27 self-image. Regional identity, in fact, has always been fed by the very forces that many people think threaten its existence today: a central government, an aggressive economy, and connections with places beyond regional boundaries. Calling into question widely held notions about how Americans came to differ from one another and explaining why those differences continue to flourish, this iconoclastic study—by scholars with differing regional ties—will refresh and redirect the centuries-old discussion over Americans\u27 conceptions of themselves.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1257/thumbnail.jp