Information Access Seminar

Two Presentations: PrivSec-F1: Compliance Focused Toolkit and Using CAPTCHAs to Measure Internet Fragmentation

Friday, April 13, 2018
3:10 pm to 5:00 pm
Ankeet Shankar & Anushah Hossain

PrivSec-F1: Compliance Focused Toolkit
Ankeet Shankar

Based on the review and feedback provided during the last progress report presented on March 2, a subset of the report and key findings will be presented. This progress report will be focused on the legal aspects of PrivSec-F1 pertaining to soft requirements and guidance provided by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for businesses. This will focus on the key lessons learnt from over 50 FTC cases and complaints and a subsequent trend analysis and key learning which companies/start-ups may utilize for keeping their data safe.

Using CAPTCHAs to Measure Internet Fragmentation
Anushah Hossain

In 2015, the World Economic Forum (WEF) convened a session on “Keeping ‘Worldwide’ in the Web” following increasing concern of internet fragmentation. Commercial, political, and technical interests have manifest as unequal quality and distribution of infrastructure, content censorship, data localization policies, and other forms of closure. The subsequent WEF report published in 2016 emphasized the difficulty and the need to summarize the scope and nature of internet fragmentation. What are the lines of fissure (geographic, cultural, or otherwise), and what are the consequences of fragmentation?

This early stage project outlines one entry point to tracking internet fragmentation. I propose studying a single page element — the CAPTCHA challenge — as a way of understanding the tensions in designing both a secure and usable web. Based on a literature review and document analysis, I summarize recent trends in CAPTCHA delivery, profiles of systematically disadvantaged users, and next steps for data gathering and framing.

Ankeet Shankar is a second year MIMS student focusing on cybersecurity and privacy. He has extensive prior experience in the field of information technology as a management consultant, with a specialized focus on IT risk management and mitigation, IT Strategy, outsourcing vendor audits, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing.

Anushah Hossain is an MA-Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. She previously worked as a survey researcher for non-profit and government organizations such as the Gates Foundation, USAID, and EPA, studying the usage and impacts of technologies in developing regions. Her current research focuses on differential access to information and communication technologies.

Last updated:

April 10, 2018