Topics in Informatics: Information Security and Privacy in a Connected World [for non-majors]

In this discussion-focused course, we consider the nature of privacy as contested, contextual, and constructed. We consider how privacy changes over time and in different contexts, and consider the implications of rapid technological change on the dynamics of information, privacy, surveillance, and security. Throughout this course we critically examine how social and personal values inform social, organizational, and policy perspectives on privacy and security, and learn how to analyze the societal implications of privacy and security through an analysis of policy instruments and public debates informed by social theory.

A central premise of this course is that the rapid pace of change in technology presents an ongoing challenge for information professionals, policymakers, and organizational leaders. In this course we consider how our increasingly connected environment is changing our conceptions of privacy at organizational, political, and interpersonal levels, and how changes in our ability to manage and make use of vast quantities of information fundamentally changes our experience of surveillance and the nature of security. We explore how policy decisions, technology design, and organizational approaches represent and reflect tensions between fundamental human values, and how approaches to privacy, surveillance, and security embed, structure, and reflect existing, developing, and changing power dynamics.