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Syllabus

EN IT

Prerequisites

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Program

Topic 1 Privacy, Security, Anonymity
Topic 2 Privacy Intrusive Technologies
Topic 3 The Internet of Things
Topic 4 Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Topic 5 Non-Government Surveillance, Targeted Advertising
Topic 6 Government Surveillance
Topic 7 Hacktivism
Topic 8 Research Ethics
Topic 9 Personalization and the Filter Bubble
Topic 10 Ethics of Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence
Topic 11 Ethics of Information Dissemination
Topic 12 Net Neutrality
Topic 13 Privacy Regulation
Topic 14 Privacy and Online Social Networks

Books

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Bibliography

Power and Prediction, by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb
Book of Anonymity, by Anon Collective
Privacy is Hard and Seven Other Myths, by Jaap-Henk Hoepman
The Voice Catchers, by Joseph Turow
Living in Data, by Jer Thorp
Atlas of AI, by Kate Cawford
The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots, by K. Darling
The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr
New Laws of Robotics, by Frank Pasquale
The Black Box Society, by Frank Pasquale
The Smarter Screen, by Shlomo Benartzi
Machine, Platform, Crowd, by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
Click Here to Kill Everybody, by Bruce Schneier
Irresistible, By Adam Alter
The Sharing Economy, By Arun Sundararajan
Uberland, by Alex Rosenblat
Automating Inequality, by Virginia Eubanks
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, by Shoshana Zuboff
Permanent Record, by Edward Snowden
Everything is Obvious, by Duncan Watts
Superintelligence, by Nick Bostrom
Dark Data: Why What You Don’t Know Matters, by David J. Hand
The Ethical Algorithm, by Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth
Artificial Unintelligence, by Meredith Broussard
Algorithms of Oppression, by Safiya Umoja Noble
Weapons of Math Destruction, by Cathy O’Neil

Teaching methods

The course is based on lectures introducing students to a variety of topics related to the impact of technologies on society. Lectures will be either in person or online. Students actively collaborate and cooperate in their learning through group discussions, presentations, forums. Much of the content to be discussed is drawn from current or recent news, as ethical issues (both ordinary and extra-ordinary) of newer and older technologies abound in everyday life.

Exam Rules

*One-off activities:**
• **Presentations:** Each week, one or two groups of students, either assigned or volunteering, will work on a presentation (not exceeding 10 minutes) based on one of the recommended (i.e., not required) readings.
• **Assignment:** There will be one assignment in the form of a lengthy essay. It's an Information Diary due on Sunday, November 19th, at 11:59 PM.
• **Written exam:** During the regular January exam session, there will be short essay questions.
• **Final project:** The final project is a creative endeavor based on a book you will be assigned to read. Being creative requires commitment and effort. Final projects can take the form of research papers, stories, poems, cartoons, comics, videos, movies, paintings, board games, online games, websites, apps, hacking tools... essentially, anything creative that you can think of. The topic of your final project needs to be based on the book you are assigned, and in your final paper, you will explain how the book you read inspired your idea. You may work in groups, but each member must read the entire book, or it would be impossible to follow along and understand the message the book conveys.
At the end of the semester, you will have 10 to 15 minutes to present your final project during class, and we will adjust our schedule to accommodate all groups.

**Recurring activities:**
• **Attendance:** Students are expected to inform the instructor if they miss or expect to miss a class session for a valid reason. As in other GG courses, 80% attendance is required. Active participation is required by all in discussions during class meetings; infrequent or low-quality participation will lower the final grade.
• **Key questions about readings:** Be prepared to pose a question about the current reading or topic and to discuss it at each class meeting. Put thought into a question that would enrich our face-to-face inquiry into the week's theme.
• **Weekly quizzes:** For each topic, be ready to answer a few multiple-choice questions about the mandatory readings.