The Ethics Center: Events - Searching the Internet

Surfing the Internet: Who's Watching? Who's Censoring?

Listen to the special event
produced by KPBS and broadcast on These Days:

An Interdisciplinary Conference for the San Diego Community

Date:	March 20, 2006, 6 - 8 p.m.
Location:	University of San Diego Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Auditorium
Sponsor:	Center for Ethics in Science & Technology (The Ethics Center)
Produced by:	These Days
Moderator:	Tom Fudge, host of These Days
Panelists:	• David Brin, science fiction writer and author • Lance Cottrell, President and Founder, Anonymizer, Inc • Pam Dixon, Executive Director, World Privacy Forum • Lawrence Hinman, Director, Values Institute, University of San Diego
Contact:	Diane Ballard
Description:	Note: Our November 2005 panel discussion on the Internet was a great success, raising important issues about Internet search engine privacy and transparency issues that soon after our conference became increasingly popular themes in the public press. We were, if anything, a bit ahead of the curve on this topic, anticipating issues that had not yet received widespread public notice. Now that the public is more fully engaged with this issue, we present a special event produced by KPBS and subsequently broadcast on These Days on KPBS. Search engines have been increasingly in the news in the last few months, both because of privacy concerns and because of concerns about censorship and filtering of search results. How private are our Internet searches? Who has access to our search histories? Can the government legally require that search engine companies turn over records of search histories, either as individual records or aggregate data? Can such records be subpoenaed in civil litigation? What privacy rights do we give up when we click "I accept" on end-user agreements? Can search engine companies sell our data to commercial firms? Can they target us for advertisements from such firms? Are search results censored or filtered? We know this happens in China for political reasons, in Germany and other European countries that ban hate speech, in many other countries that filter for pornography as well as unwelcome political views. What kind of filtering should be permissible? Should users be informed of any filtering or censoring? As search engines come to play in increasingly important role in our lives, these questions are central to the shape of knowledge and society itself. Please join us for an enlightening and thoughtful discussion of these issues, which will include questions from the audience.
Suggested Resources:	Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Rights Clearinghouse World Privacy Forum

Event Links

[ Current Ethics Center Events ]
[ Previous Ethics Center Events ]

Ethics Center Events

The Ethics Center sponsors several kinds of events, some of which are open to the public, others of which are by invitation only. To be added to our mailing list, please contact The Ethics Center.

Public Lectures

The Ethics Center sponsors public lectures, often in conjunction with other local organizations such as the SDSTC (UCSD), The Burnham Institute and the Values Institute (USD).

Stake Holder Events

The Ethics Center regularly sponsors stake-holder events, which typically involve a local group of 40-50 individuals along with a distinguished visiting leader in ethics. Past events have included Thomas Murray, President of the Hastings Center, and William Hurlbut, Professor of Medicine at Stanford and member of the President's Council on Bioethics.

Focus Groups

In order to assess the needs of or local community and also to develop local communities of individuals who share a particular interest in ethics, science and technology (i.e., religious leaders, health care personnel), we hold periodic focus groups that are devoted to the conjunction of ethics, science, and technology.