In a couple of weeks I’ll be teaching a three week module on digital media ethics, using Charles Ess’s book by the same name. I’m especially looking forwards to sessions discussing the ethics of surveillance and the section on global citizenship and the danger of ethnocentricity and the echo chamber effect – here Kristian BjÂŻrkelo will join us with his expertise on right-extremism in Norway and in particular how it

Today I read about a current Norwegian case that will be perfect to discuss when we talk about piracy, surveillance and privacy. The Norwegian Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet) has rules that NTNU (the university in Trondheim) can not track students’ data traffic to reveal illegal filesharing and also that they can not connect traffic to individual students in order to forward rights organisations complaints to said students. (Here’s a link to a google translated article about it.)

Students in the computer laboratory, Sep. 1980.
Students in the computer lab, 1980. UVic Archives.

Among reasons given are that we’re talking about students living in dorms who are dependent on the NTNU internet connection, but who wouldn’t have had a real choice in signing the “I accept” agreement – because living without the internet today is not really an option. The right to privacy in your own home is seen as more important than the right’ organisations case, which is not deemed of sufficient importance to society. The Data Protection Agency is requiring NTNU to remove all person information from their logs, though they may keep information for up to three weeks for the sole purpose of maintaining the IT system. NTNU may appeal this.

Obviously this is almost the opposite approach to the UK’s Digital Economy Act, which punitively removes or reduces the quality of offenders’ internet access (not quite sure how that is possible, really?) and allows for more tracking of data traffic.

And how does it fit with the Data Retention Directive, which was recently made law in Norway? I would love to hear your thoughts!

4 thoughts on “piracy vs privacy

  1. Hattemaker

    #DLD @jilltxt http://t.co/iz3ONWw ĂĄpen forelesning pĂĄ Ui #Bergen ?

  2. Dag Blakstad

    #DLD @jilltxt http://t.co/iz3ONWw ĂĄpen forelesning pĂĄ Ui #Bergen ?

  3. William Patrick Wend

    Jill,

    My Composition students are writing their term papers about online privacy this semester. I am going to add some of your links to the bibliography I am putting together for them. I’m looking forward to reading about your students work.

  4. Jill Walker Rettberg

    Great, William – and likewise 🙂

Leave A Comment

Recommended Posts

Triple book talk: Watch James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me discuss our 2023 books

Thanks to everyone who came to the triple book talk of three recent books on machine vision by James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me, and thanks for excellent questions. Several people have emailed to asked if we recorded it, and yes we did! Here you go! James and Jussi’s books […]

Image on a black background of a human hand holding a graphic showing the word AI with a blue circuit board pattern inside surrounded by blurred blue and yellow dots and a concentric circular blue design.
AI and algorithmic culture Machine Vision

Four visual registers for imaginaries of machine vision

I’m thrilled to announce another publication from our European Research Council (ERC)-funded research project on Machine Vision: Gabriele de Setaand Anya Shchetvina‘s paper analysing how Chinese AI companies visually present machine vision technologies. They find that the Chinese machine vision imaginary is global, blue and competitive.  De Seta, Gabriele, and Anya Shchetvina. “Imagining Machine […]

Do people flock to talks about ChatGPT because they are scared?

Whenever I give talks about ChatGPT and LLMs, whether to ninth graders, businesses or journalists, I meet people who are hungry for information, who really want to understand this new technology. I’ve interpreted this as interest and a need to understand – but yesterday, Eirik Solheim said that every time […]