COMS BC 3420 Privacy in a Networked World

Waiting List - last update 1/11/2021

Update from 12/9/2020: There are 58 students on the waitlist as of 8pm ET on 12/9/2020. It is therefore extremely unlikely that I will admit any sophomores or first-years into the class, and probably at most a small number of juniors.

Update from 12/12/2020: I have made an initial set of assignments into the class. As per the plan mentioned above, priority was given to seniors. From this point forward, students will be considered for adding from the waiting list as other students already enrolled drop the class. Based on prior experience and the current numbers, I think seniors who are still on the waiting list have a decent chance of getting in, but probably not all of them will ultimately get in. It is unlikely, though not impossible, that all of the seniors currently on the waiting list plus a few juniors will be admitted. It is extremely unlikely that any other students will be admitted.

Update from 1/6/2021: Since registration opened up again earlier this week, no students admitted to the class have dropped, and so there has been no waitlist movement. I have found in the past that there were usually changes during the week before classes start as well as once classes start. It is, however, unusual that nobody has dropped the class so far this week, and therefore I'd say it is less likely that seniors still on the waiting list will get in than I had thought earlier, and very unlikely anyone other than seniors will get in.

Update from 1/11/2021: I have e-mailed the Zoom link for Thursday's class to the four students who are the top priority on the waitlist (which is otherwise only available to students in the class) so that they can participate in class during the add/drop period if desired. If you are not one of those students, but you are on the waiting list and submitted an assignment 0 and would still like to participate in this week's class in case you might later get in, please e-mail me. (The class recording will also be available in Courseworks for students who are later admitted, so participating in this week's class is not a requirement in order to later be admitted.)

Office Hours

Prof. Wright's open office hours: typically Tuesdays 3-5pm, but rescheduled many weeks. Complete schedule of office hours and Zoom links. If you are on campus and prefer to meet in person, please e-mail me.

Course Description

Specific topics to be discussed include:

• what is privacy?
• technology-specific issues (online social media, the Internet of Things, information consolidation, personalization, Internet commerce and payment technologies, ...)
• sector-specific issues (healthcare, finance, national security, Internet applications, Census data, ...)
• privacy legislation
• privacy in the attention economy
• fair information principles
• when cryptography can and cannot help
• anonymity vs. pseudonymity
• differential privacy
• deidentification and risks of reidentification
• tools for privacy management
• public information and privacy

We start each class with a discussion of a privacy-related case study. For each, we frame our discussion around a series of specific questions, which you can find in the Courseworks site for the class. Two of your assignments are to present your own case studies. Some student case studies may be used during class as examples.

Learning Outcomes

• demonstrate understanding of privacy issues associated with various technologies and their use.
• compare and contrast different approaches to privacy, and identify examples of when different approaches are relevant.
• develop, refine, and execute a privacy-related project based on feedback and iteration.
• evaluate the potential tradeoffs of privacy and other properties such as usability, transparency, profitability.

Additional Course Information

Copyright © 2020 Rebecca N. Wright