People may be more willing to hand over their private information to a machine, rather than a human, because they view machines as more trustworthy and less apt to have designs on their data. That could lead to positive — and negative — results, according to Penn State researchers.
While fitness trackers and other satellite data-enabled devices might be great for health and fitness, these and other technologies that use information from private and government satellites may cause huge problems for people and policymakers, according to Penn State researchers.
Little things can mean a lot online. Researchers suggest that adding small computer graphics, called icons, that imply crowd size and connectivity can lead people to disclose more information — often very personal information — online.
Penn State researchers Vasant Honavar, Timothy Brick and Ariana Winder will look at important issues surrounding data use and privacy that will be discussed at this month’s "Science on Tap" event. They will explore how organizations can better navigate the health data conversation and partner with all stakeholders to provide better prevention, diagnosis and treatment for everyone, and how people collectively move towards better understanding and transparency of who owns what and how is it being used.
App developers should be open and obvious when they're asking users for private information, such as location data. Users' trust and engagement may hinge on perceptions about how the app uses their data and whether it seeks user input before delivering personalized services.
Tim Brick, professor of human development and family studies, will discuss “The MID/DLE Way: Privacy by Design for Science in Real Time” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on March 1 in 233A HUB-Robeson Center on the University Park campus.
Older people like some aspects of Facebook, such as keeping in touch, monitoring other's updates and sharing photos. However, other seniors listed privacy, as well as the triviality of some posts, as reasons they stay away from the site. Improving privacy settings and alerts may be a way for social media companies to tap into a growing senior market.
Penn State Reads will host a panel exploring the impact of technology in students’ daily lives, building off cybersecurity themes found in the “The Circle” — the 2016-17 common book selection by award-winning author Dave Eggers. “Penn State, Your Data and You” will be held from 2-3 p.m. April 4 in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium
Penn State students, faculty and staff members are encouraged to follow best practices for storing and sharing online data in recognition of Data Privacy Day on Jan. 28.
“The Circle” author, Dave Eggers, discusses technology issues during his visit to Penn State's University Park campus.
Authors are invited to submit abstracts addressing the policy and legal aspects of information security, privacy, data protection, cybersecurity-related legislation and critical cyber-infrastructure protection for a Penn State workshop on cybersecurity law and policy scheduled for this fall in Washington, D.C.
A Penn State researcher is working on a system called Maintained Individual Data, Distributed Likelihood Evaluation (MIDDLE) that changes the way data is collected and reported. The system will enable researchers to conduct studies and participants to keep control over their data.
Protecting people's privacy in an age of online big data is difficult, but doing so when using visual representations of such things as social network data may present unique challenges, according to a Penn State computer scientist.
Facebook knows everything about you. So does Google. But there are a host of other forces at work to erode what Americans see as a fundamental right of privacy, a phenomenon that leading media and law experts will address at a panel discussion from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, at Penn State Lehigh Valley (2809 Saucon Valley Road, Center Valley) in the multipurpose room (Room 135). It is free and open to the public.
A computer at Penn State Great Valley that contained 707 Social Security numbers (SSNs) was found to be infected with malware that enabled it to communicate with an unauthorized computer outside the network. The SSNs were found in archived documents related to graduation intention lists from 2001-02.
As soon as the University became aware of the malicious software on this computer, it immediately was taken off line. Although it cannot be determined with certainty that any data was pulled from the computer by the infectious software, the University's policy is to take a cautionary stance and notify individuals who may have been affected.
