Unit 3 - Discussion 3 Surveillance (How People Manage Privacy-Related Issues)
Discussion Overview
This discussion allows students to critically reflect on their computing practices, how they are represented online, and the surveillance practiced by corporations and law enforcement.
Driving Questions:
- How is social media used as a way to represent people? Which of these examples from the readings do you feel are relevant to you? Which do you feel are irrelevant or don't affect you?
- What are the different levels of surveillance and ways to protect against each of the following:
- Friends, Parents
- Schools & Employers
- Hackers
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Police/Law Enforcement
- Of the above groups, who are you most worried about? Are you worried at all?
- What practices do you currently use to protect yourself and your data from surveillance?
Discussion Instructions
- Either assign students homework to watch the following videos prior to the workshop, or designate time prior to the discussions to collectively watch them together:
- First 3 sections of Social Media Surveillance and Law Enforcement
- All 4 episodes on Propublica: Breaking the Black Box
- Cybertwee artists are overriding the patriarchy with cuteness
- Please note that these are just example media and any related articles/videos may be identified to spark similar discussions on place of the above links.
- Introduce concept of sousveillance: watching from below, rather from above (e.g.: video recordings of police misconduct).
- Use the driving questions to guide and focus the discussions, either as a large group or in facilitated smaller groups with a large-group recap.