Transcript An Ethical Framework: Mechanisms For User-Enabled Choice and Normative Claims Marshall Conley, Christina Patterson, Carolyn Watters & Michael Shepherd InfoEthics 2000 Paris November 13-15

An Ethical Framework:
Mechanisms For User-Enabled Choice and
Normative Claims
Marshall Conley, Christina Patterson,
Carolyn Watters & Michael Shepherd
InfoEthics 2000
Paris November 13-15
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 UNESCO has human rights competence in a number
of areas, including:
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights stresses the right to information, including
freedom of opinion and expression
This right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
Article 12 refers to arbitrary interference with
privacy …
UNESCO and the Information Highway:
The Balance Between Control and Access
 The Web is increasingly important for the exchange of
knowledge, information & experience
 UNESCO's INFO-ethics Programme stresses the
importance of universal access to information in the
public domain
UNESCO’S INFO-ethics Programme
Encourages international co-operation in promotion of:
 the principles of equality, justice and mutual respect in the
emerging Information Society
 the identification of major ethical issues in the production,
access, dissemination, preservation and use of information
in the electronic environment
 the provision of assistance to Member States in the
formulation of strategies and policies on these issues
Ethical Frameworks and User-Enabled
choice
There are no unified authorities, only multiple
stakeholders with complex and contradictory agendas
 This decentralized participation results in the individual user
adding new content and tools to the system as a whole
 The unified operating authority is replaced by a
contradictory, and even chaotic form of control
 Structural and systemic elements, such as web-filtering
systems, represent ‘acknowledged conditions’ to uphold
freedom of expression through ‘choice mechanisms’
The Good, the Bad and the Illegal
Like other communication technologies, the Internet
carries a potentially harmful or illegal content and can
be misused as a vehicle for criminal activities
 However, there exist a number of different legal regimes at
the national and international level to deal with this:
 National security – instructions for bomb making, illegal drug
production, etc
 Protection of minors – violence, pornography, abusive forms of
marketing
 Protection of human dignity – incitement to racial hatred or racial
discrimination
Ethical Considerations } normative
orientation and public dialogue
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have the
option to provide users with the choice to
control the content delivered to users over
the Internet
Rather than retrieving items from the Web,
filtering systems are used to selectively restrict
access to materials on the Web
Control?
 The deployment of content control should be a
reflection of individual, community and social
policies and preferences
We can use systems which ‘filter out’ Web sites
or Web pages that contain material that is
objectionable to a community of users
 Two principles must be considered:
Communication Principle: The right of
communications as a fundamental human right
Free Expression Principle
Codes of Conduct?
 The important questions:
Whose strategy?
Whose choice?
During this time of process innovation, codes
of conduct, the realities, significance, and
consequences of barriers to access, whether
publicly or privately created, must be
explored
Mechanisms for Realization of
these Policies
 We feel that a combination of mechanisms is
required:
 Normative Codes of Conduct developed by UNESCO
 Industry self-regulation
 Facilitation of end-user choice through technology
Technology by itself is not the solution
A Caveat
By early July 2000 a new Internet model
began to evolve – ‘peer-to-peer’
Peer-to-peer communications takes away the
ISP as the middleman. This means that you
and I can communicate directly as long as
we both have IP addresses and know each
other’s address
The importance is that government will not be
able to impose filtering at the ISP level
The Problem: the Web
1 billion documents (April 2000)
Average query is 2 words (e.g., sara name)
Continual explosive growth
Balance global indexing and access and
unintentional access to inappropriate
material
What were we doing pre-Web?
Channel access
Deny access
Check for age
Internet opens new Channels
 E-mail
 ftp
 telnet
 List servers
 Bulletin boards
 Discussion groups
 Chat rooms
 Instant messaging
 Web pages
Filtering
Web
doc
label
base
ratings
keywords
URL
lists
URLs
What have we got to work with?
Page Filtering Application Types
 Client-side: Special purpose browser applications
 e.g., SurfMonkey
 Server-side: Child friendly portals
 e.g.,Yahoo, Lycos
 Proxies
 Black and white lists
 Keyword profiles
 Labels
Browser Application: www.surfmonkey.com
Server-Side: Public Portals
Sneaky!!
Proxy level (hidden)
What works well?
What’s the problem?
Site Labels
Trust
Who does the labels?
Are the labels authentic?
Has the source document changed?
Scale - A billion docs?
Black and White lists
Ditto
Text analysis of page contents
Poor results
Other Filtering Application Types
Authorized Access to Adult material
e.g., Australian plan  credit card proof of age
Anonymity protection
ZeroKnowledge
Non-Http Filters
Email, etc.
Activity Monitors
privacy
On-going Issues to be addressed
Freedom of Expression
Protection of Minors
Summary
A combination of mechanisms is required:
Normative Codes of Conduct developed by
UNESCO
Industry self-regulation
Facilitation of end-user choice through
technology
End-user must know what is being filtered, when it is
being filtered, and why it is being filtered
Technology by itself is not the solution
More Info on Filtering
 Industry Canada report
 Content Filtering Technologies and Internet Service Providers:
Enabling User Choice
 http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/internet
 European Commission – Info. Society Website
 http://www.ispo.cec.be/iap
 Web information filtering lab: http://www.cs.dal.ca/wifl
 {shepherd | watters}@cs.dal.ca
 [email protected]