Alexa, Affect, and the Algorithmic Imaginary

Screen Bodies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Linda Kopitz
Keyword(s):  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Narrative Strategy ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
The Voice

As millions of customers across the world invite digital voice assistants into their homes, the public debate has increasingly centered on security and privacy concerns connected to the use of the device. Drawing on Tania Bucher’s work at the intersection between technology and everyday experience, this article proposes an understanding of an algorithmic imaginary of Alexa-enabled devices as explicitly nonthreatening in its ordinariness, positive potential, and gendered presence. As a case study, this article uses commercials for Alexa-enabled devices as a starting point: Instead of foregrounding the functionality and thereby the algorithmic intelligence underlying the voice assistant, these commercials focus on an affective potential as a narrative strategy to address privacy and security concerns. By connecting everyday interactions with emotional and empowering narratives, the way Alexa is portrayed as an embodied object functions as a balance to the equally public and publicized understanding of digital voice assistants as threats.

scholarly journals Assessing Users’ Privacy and Security Concerns of Smart Home Technologies

i-com ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verena Zimmermann ◽  
Paul Gerber ◽  
Karola Marky ◽  
Leon Böck ◽  
Florian Kirchbuchner
Keyword(s):  
Smart Home ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Home Users

AbstractSmart Home technologies have the potential to increase the quality of life, home security and facilitate elderly care. Therefore, they require access to a plethora of data about the users’ homes and private lives. Resulting security and privacy concerns form a relevant barrier to adopting this promising technology. Aiming to support end users’ informed decision-making through addressing the concerns we first conducted semi-structured interviews with 42 potential and little-experienced Smart Home users. Their diverse concerns were clustered into four themes that center around attacks on Smart Home data and devices, the perceived loss of control, the trade-off between functionality and security, and user-centric concerns as compared to concerns on a societal level. Second, we discuss measures to address the four themes from an interdisciplinary perspective. The paper concludes with recommendations for addressing user concerns and for supporting developers in designing user-centered Smart Home technologies.

scholarly journals Sukcesy fińskiego systemu edukacji, czyli dlaczego Finlandia szczyci się jednym z najlepszych systemów szkolnictwa na świecie – porównawcze studium przypadku

2018 ◽  
pp. 349-365
Author(s):  
Ewelina Czujko-Moszyk
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Educational Reforms ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Education Major ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
High Social Status

This paper seeks to answer the question why Finland is considered to have one of the best education systems in the world. The author aims at providing a descriptive case study of Finland in comparison to the Polish educational system with some reference to other Western countries. The world first noticed Finland following the release of PISA results in 2001. Yet, PISA overview is just a starting point for this case study. The paper analyses different social, economic and political factors which, in the author’s opinion, contributed the most to the Finnish success in education. Major arguments for the Finnish success are preceded by an overview of educational reforms from the 1950s until the present. The author argues that the remarkably high social status of teachers, their autonomy and great qualifications,consistency in educational reforms which offer high quality, equity and decentralization are the primary reasons for Finland’s global success. All of the above achievements are compared to Poland’s current situation in education.

scholarly journals Cybersecurity Threat Modelling: A Case Study of An Ecommerce Platform Migration to the Public Cloud

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bamidele Ola ◽  
Iyobor Egho-Promise
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Public Cloud ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
It Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Modelling Techniques ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
Threat Modelling

The emergence of ecommerce almost three decades ago has completely transformed the approach to purchasing goods and services across various countries in the world. Almost every country in the globe, now have some form of ecommerce operations, this has further been enhanced by the stay at home COVID-19 induced lockdowns. The value and volume of transactions has also increased in transactions. However, there has been security concerns impacting ecommerce operations, which has in part, led to increasing adoption of hosting ecommerce systems in the public cloud. Threat modelling offer mechanisms to enhance the security of information technology (IT) systems. In this paper, we apply different threat modelling techniques to decompose the migration of an on-premise hosted ecommerce system to the public cloud and also evaluate these threat modelling techniques.

Netta Barzilai as an Israeli Symbolic Goods

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-92
Author(s):  
Galia Katz
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Stereotypes ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Acceptance

"This paper discusses Pierre Bourdieu’s term symbolic goods (1930-2002) through an Israeli case study, Netta Barzilai. An Israeli performer and songwriter, winner of the Eurovision 2018 with the song “TOY” which became the anthem of the Me-Too movement. Netta as a symbolic good was packaged, marketed and distributed to the public, and the Netta phenomenon has spread throughout the world. Based on interviews with Netta, through listening to the songs and watching the clips that came after “TOY”, “Bassa Sababa” (2019), “Nana Banana” (2019) and “Ricki Lake” (2020), I examine how and if Netta continues to maintain her status as a symbolic good, as an example and role model for many, and whether she continues to convey her message - self-love and self-acceptance - through shattering cultural and social stereotypes. It seems that Netta’s next three songs introduced a powerful big size Netta but also a vengeful, vicious, narcissistic and lazy Netta. The fresh message she carried at the beginning was swallowed up in an ocean of shallow commercial images. A trend that led Netta’s fans to lose interest and Netta to reinvent herself in her latest song, “Cuckoo” (2020). Through sincerity, directness and cleanliness of her message, Netta like a bird in a cage seeks to break free from the evil loop in which she was imprisoned and not only love herself but also love others and let others love her. Keywords: symbolic goods; Netta Barzilai; Me-too movement; Pierre Bourdieu; Women empowerment "

E-Government's Role in Shifting the Paradigm of Performance in the Public Sector

2020 ◽  
pp. 497-514
Author(s):  
Lidia Noto
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Simulation ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Public ◽  
Government Services ◽  
The World ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Government Project ◽  
Feedback Structure

The emergence of e-government changed the world of the Public Administration (PA) and the discipline of Public Management dramatically. Through the presentation of a case- study of the municipality of Palermo, this article attempts to discuss the renewed need for assessing performance of e-government services in a local government and to disclose the main critical issues in accomplishing this evaluation. Palermo is experiencing the implementation of a second- generation e-government project that is embodied in the realization of a web portal. The conceptualization of a framework to assess the performance of the digital services appears to be crucial in order to improve the system and to avoid the errors of the first project. This work relies on a survey to the citizens and semi-structured interviews to managers in charge of the development of the project. System Dynamics, a particular kind of dynamic simulation, is used to provide the necessary feedback structure for identifying the determinants of the success of the portal.

Protected Health Information (PHI) in a Small Business

2013 ◽  
pp. 1208-1218
Author(s):  
James Suleiman ◽  
Terry Huston
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Information Security ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Protected Health Information ◽  
Medical Practices ◽  
Regulatory Guidelines ◽  
The World

Compliance with regulatory guidelines and mandates surrounding information security and the protection of privacy has been under close scrutiny for some time throughout the world. Smaller organizations have remained “out of the spotlight” and generally do not hire staff with the expertise to fully address issues of compliance. This case study examines a project partnership between an information-technology (IT) consultant who specializes in small business and a diminutive medical practice that sought support with compliance issues surrounding a research study it was conducting. Other small medical practices were contributing to the research; consequently, information sharing while concurrently adhering to the regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was a significant aspect of the project. It was also critical that numerous other security and privacy legislative requirements were met. The issue of data security is often neglected in IT instruction. This case study provides a foundation for examining aspects of information security from the perspective of the small-business IT consultant.

Case Study E-Tailing Health Services in India

2016 ◽  
pp. 292-308
Author(s):  
Bobby Kurian
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The World

This case study has been developed to promote understanding the e-tailing of health services. E-health web portal provides a new medium for information dissemination, interaction and collaboration among institutions, health professionals, health providers and the public. This case study provides a founders perspective in setting up and running a medical website that offers online health care services to customers across the world. The case study discusses the challenges and issues faced by the founders and also the promoter's perspective on the lucrativeness of offering e-tailing services. Using this case study an attempt is made to stress the importance of a flexible e-tailing business model specific to the services offered and need of periodic assessments to ensure that the business runs profitable.

IoT in Healthcare

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
V. Jeevika Tharini ◽  
S. Vijayarani
Keyword(s):  
Health Sector ◽  
Information Privacy ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Security Attacks ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Individual Information

One of the best-known features of IoT is automation. Because of this, IoT is a much-needed field for many applications, namely emergency and healthcare domains. IoT has made many revolutionary changes in the healthcare industry. IoT paves the way to numerous advancements for healthcare. The possibilities of IoT have reached their peak in the commercial industry and health sector. In recent years, serious concerns have been raised over the control and access of one's individual information. Privacy and security of the IoT devices can be compromised by intruders. Apart from the numerous benefits of IoTs, there are several security and privacy concerns to consider. A brief overview of different kinds of security attacks, solution for the attacks, privacy and security issues are discussed in this chapter.

scholarly journals Application Level Security in a Public Library: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Richard Thomchick ◽  
Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca
Keyword(s):  
Secure Communication ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Transport Protocol ◽  
Sensitive Information ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
The Public ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Personally Identifiable Information ◽  
Active Attacks

Libraries have historically made great efforts to ensure the confidentiality of patron personally identifiable information (PII), but the rapid, widespread adoption of information technology and the internet have given rise to new privacy and security challenges. Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a form of Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) that enables secure communication over the public internet and provides a deterministic way to guarantee data confidentiality so that attackers cannot eavesdrop on communications. HTTPS has been used to protect sensitive information exchanges, but security exploits such as passive and active attacks have exposed the need to implement HTTPS in a more rigorous and pervasive manner. This report is intended to shed light on the state of HTTPS implementation in libraries, and to suggest ways in which libraries can evaluate and improve application security so that they can better protect the confidentiality of PII about library patrons.

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