Teaching at the Professorship of Cyber Trust

Proseminar: Privacy

The seminar explores key facets of the concept of privacy. Questions that will be considered include the following: What is the history and origin of the concept of privacy? What are approaches to define and conceptualize privacy? What is the value of privacy seen from different perspectives such as economics and human rights? How is privacy currently regulated in different geographical regions (U.S., Europe, Germany), and across different business sectors? How do consumer express their desire for privacy and how do they act to protect or divulge personal information? How is privacy discussed in public, and by various stakeholders (e.g., companies)? What is the relationship of privacy to other important topics including identity, anonymity, and security? What technologies exist to protect and manage privacy, how do they work, and what do we know about their effectiveness? To address these questions a mix of theoretical, practice-oriented and policy literature and case examples will be used and evaluated by seminar participants.

Seminar: Security and Privacy Economics

The seminar explores the nascent and growing field of the economics of privacy and security. Many security failures have economic causes. Systems are vulnerable when their defenders do not have sufficient incentives to invest in security technologies, for example, because they do not suffer the full consequences of their actions. At the same time, users’ personal and financial information has played a critical role in the monetization of attacks. But personal information has also become a commercial good for legitimate companies. Data is collected for countless purposes. Targeted advertisements, personalization, price discrimination as well as the creation and sale of background reports are enabled by the automated wholesale accumulation of users’ trail online and offline. In this seminar, we will investigate the economic incentives for security attacks and appropriate security defenses. A further objective is a better understanding of the current and future marketplace for personal information and the behavioral foundations of user privacy. We will discuss methods from the economic and behavioral sciences to contribute to a rigorous comprehension of the challenges and solution approaches for current privacy and security challenges.