Privacy Concerns with Digital Forensics

Digital forensics is a rapidly growing technology for examining the contents of computers and digital devices. It raises many challenges to conventional notions of privacy because it involves a considerably more detailed search of digital data than is possible with other techniques, and it can be done surreptitiously. However, there are analogies to homes and the rights of individuals to be free from unwarranted searches and seizures in their private spaces. Even though commercial software and data comprises most of digital space, there are clearly enclaves of data that deserves to be kept private. We discuss the techniques of digital forensics and investigative targets. We identify key challenges to privacy, and outline both the legal protections and the technical protections available. Unfortunately, privacy laws are ineffective in most countries, and users need to take their own measures to protect themselves.

Big Collusion

In the post-Snowden digital surveillance era, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of corporations and consumers in the onslaught on digital privacy by the largest surveillance state – the U.S. The distinction between corporations and the government is increasingly difficult to pinpoint, and there exists an exclusive arrangement of data sharing and financial benefits that tends towards the annihilation of individual privacy. Here the role of consumers in facilitating this alliance is examined, with consideration given to the “social” performances treated as free and exploitable data-creating labor. While consumers of the digital economy often assume that everything should be free, the widespread tendency to gratify desires online inevitably leads to hidden costs and consequences. The permanent data extracted from consumer behavior helps agencies sort and profile individuals for their own agendas. This trilateral relationship of ‘Big Collusion' seems to have gained an irreversibly anti-democratic momentum, producing new transgressions of privacy without proper consent.

Using Duality Theory to Reframe E-Government Challenges

The design of information and communication systems for e-government is burdened with a host of conflicting objectives. For example, systems should be standardized and stable, but at the same time they should also be flexible and responsive to the needs of various stakeholder groups. When systems are designed properly, ICT (information and communication technologies) features can help resolve some of the tensions created by conflicting objectives. This chapter uses duality theory as a basis for a new framework that demonstrates how many of the tensions found at various stages of e-government (development, implementation, and adoption) can be reframed as dualities. When e-government systems are designed for duality, ICT mitigates many of the barriers and obstacles and increases the system's effectiveness and acceptance by the citizenry.

E-Government, E-Surveillance, and Ethical Issues from Malaysian Perspective

E-government is a flagship application of the Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor project, with the aim to reinvent government and bring about changes to the society in order to push forward into the information era. In this context, government services are believed to be more efficient and effective. Furthermore, improved service levels should be the focus of this reinvention. At the same time, surveillance is used in homes, offices and public areas (i.e. the government over its citizens). E-surveillance with invisible, visible, semi-concealed cameras and sensors is embedded everywhere in all corners of society. This situation has destroyed people's privacy even though the main purpose of having electronic surveillance is for security and safety purposes. This chapter discusses e-government and surveillance adaptation, and the ethical issues such as privacy and confidentiality, and personal data protection. Then it proposes a conceptual framework for understanding ‘e-government-e-surveillance-ethical issues', and last with the conclusion.

Cyber Espionage

In today's world, information plays a vital role in determining the success of many endeavors. Hence, people try to gain access to information by employing many techniques that are not used under normal circumstances. Today Internet is an important resource in the lives of people and carries a vast amount of information. Hence gaining access to this information through some surreptitious means is known as cyber espionage. Cyber espionage has been a real threat to the users as it compromises the security of their precious information. Cyber espionage could be carried out by individuals, organizations or governments targeting individuals, organizations and states for obtaining information for personal, economic, political or military advantages over the other. In this chapter, the author takes an in depth look at the attacks carried out three main domains of the Internet, namely social networks, websites and email. The author not only discusses the attacks and the mechanisms used, but also proposes the precautionary methods that can be employed to protect these resources.

Who “Screens” Security?

Films represent our awareness of surveillance and often trigger a deep emotional response from audiences, and for whole genres of film—particularly the political thriller and science fiction/speculative dystopia, along with horror films and some forms of the mystery or crime film—have been built around an individual or group of individuals who are being kept under some form of surveillance, either by the authorities of the state and by other individuals or groups who may have criminal and/or even psychotic motives. For filmmakers and their intended audiences, the surveillance narrative doubles back onto to very art form itself, composed as it is of the camera's surveillance of the action, along with the viewers' attentive watching of the film. While such audience attention had also been fundamental to drama for thousands of years, it has only been more recently that audiences began observing the fourth wall conventions of silence and darkness that make their watching of a performance a kind of surveillance.

The Borders of Corruption

The U.S. has been in a state of exception now for many years, and there appears to be no end in sight. There exists an entire generation who has know life under only this form of government, one that, as Giorgio Agamben explains, takes “a position at the limit between politics and law…an ambiguous, uncertain, borderline fringe, at the intersection of the legal and the political.” In the name of security, the characteristic limiting of constitutional rights, the sanctioning of torture, and the proliferating of NSA surveillance are fast becoming the norm. Recently, much has been written concerning the bio-political consequences of an endless state of exception in which the executive power trumps the judiciary, and a new legal order emerges. This chapter will consider the relationship between corruption and the permanent state of exception.

The Right to Privacy Is Dying

This chapter explores privacy in American jurisprudence from its inception until the present day. This examination starts with the first challenge of defining privacy. The second section examines the body of research on the importance of privacy. The third section focuses on privacy in American jurisprudence from its inception to its current state. This examination will include analysis of specific cases where technology has advanced and privacy has retreated. The purpose of this examination is to elucidate how current privacy doctrine no longer represents either the original intent nor the wishes of the citizens. The final section examines different paths the U.S. can take at this important point in privacy jurisprudence.

Public Administrators, School Safety, and Forms of Surveillance

In 2012, three minority students with disabilities died under a school district's watch. These tragedies placed the education, care and safety of students with disabilities on the public agenda. It put a high profile and an award-winning school superintendent on defense. What occurred in Tampa, Florida raises questions about school safety and equity across the country because it is located in the nation's largest school district. The public discourse shifted from performance to surveillance of a school district's most vulnerable population. In special education, surveillance includes a federally mandated process outlined in the 1975 Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) where students with disabilities are identified, categorized and placed. Florida calls this Exceptional Student Education (ESE). Once eligible, school districts are required to monitor these students through an Individual Educational Program (IEP). This is a legal document that should reflect a school district's effort to provide a “free and appropriate education” (FAPE) in the “least restrictive environment” (LRE).

The E-Government Surveillance in the United States

Since the 2001 U.S. Patriot Act passed in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., government wiretapping powers have evolved in scope and practice. Although overall public opinion favors government protection from terrorism, public support for government surveillance has ebbed and flowed. Recently, public opinion polls suggest that there has been a shift from supporting government wiretapping activities toward protecting individual civil liberty. A number of competing explanations have developed from sources ranging from the literature on Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) to evolving beliefs about personal information privacy. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze factors predicting changing public support for government surveillance. Multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the 2012 American National Election Time Series Study are used to test rival explanations.