This undergraduate course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of ethics and privacy––a current topic of great international interest for those in technology, policy, law, and/or business. The course includeslectures, break-out groups, in-class teamwork, and other techniques to engage student participation. There are no pre-requisites for this course, and students from varied backgrounds are welcome.
Course topics include Ethics and Privacy; Foundations of Privacy; Privacy & Technology (Surveillance, IoT, and Data Collection); Privacy Engineering and Design; Ethics of AI and Analytics; Social Media, Social Networks, & Privacy; Privacy Law and Regulatory Frameworks; Business, Governance, & Privacy Policies; Cybersecurity, Encryption, & Wiretapping; Real World Privacy Challenges; and Emerging Technologies & Privacy Futures.
The course features group projects that engage students in real-world privacy challenges; specifically, compliance with new privacy regulations, development of an organization’s privacy and security policies, anddesigning new privacy-sensitive approaches and/or tools for Internet technologies. The professor draws on extensive experience in business, government, technology, and law to address current privacy debates.
This course will enable students to understand how privacy is defined, protected, and managed in the areas of technology, business, policy, and law. Specific objectives include:
- Examining the state-of-the-art research and practice in information privacy, including methods, tools, notations and processes used in information systems;
- Understanding the legal, ethical, and policy issues surrounding technologies that operate on sensitive information;
- Developing the multidisciplinary skills needed to analyze, manage, and resolve the challenges associated with privacy, technology, law, and policy;
- Gaining a basic grounding for future technical research in privacy via the examination of current research issues and problems;
- Gaining experience in handling real-world privacy challenges through analysis of software and business artifacts using written and oral communication; and
- Learning how to write privacy policies for software systems and companies.
All required material is available online through Canvas. No textbook exists for this course, but there will be an extensive amount of required reading in the form of academic papers and other readings related to privacy, security, law, business, and technology.
Final grades in the course will be determined as follows:
Ripped from the Headlines. 5%
Class Participation. 15%
Project 1. 25%
Project 2. 25%
Project 3. 20%
Project 4. 10%
Class participation and attendance are crucial components of the course. Attendance is required. Studentsare expected to participate in class discussions. This will be done via an "on call" group assignment established after Week 1 of the semester. Students will be assigned to one of three different “on call” groups.
Attendance will be monitored by our instructional team after the first week of class when students are still dropping and adding courses. For subsequent weeks, you may miss up to one class session (the equivalent of a week of class) without an excuse.
Each unexcused absence, beyond the first, will result in a 5-point (5%) reduction in your final grade for EACH unexcused absence outside of the 1 free miss.
Attendance at the Public Service Announcement is mandatory; failure to attend will result in a 10-point reduction in your final grade.
Because Professors are required to verify participation by each student at various times throughout the semester, we will request a “wellness check” for you at the Dean of Students Office if you miss three class periods.
In order for an absence to be excused, students must complete “Class Absence Verification” Form at the Dean of Students Website. The URL is: https://studentlife.gatech.edu/request-assistance. If you do not hear back from the Dean of Students within a week, please contact the head TA.
Our understanding is that the Dean of Students will evaluate the following for determination of an excused absence:
- documented illness;
- death or illness in the family;
- jury duty;
- military obligation;
- documented obligations to attend Institute sponsored events (such as described in a GTAA travel letter);
- a documented job interview; or
- religious holiday.
All requests for excused absences must be submitted to the Dean of Students’ office via the URL provided above.
Consistent with Georgia Tech’s fully-residential instruction policies, accommodations for illness or quarantine do not include our providing recording of in-person lectures. In- person lectures will not berecorded. You should work with a classmate to receive a copy of the lecture notes if you miss a class for any reason.
Students arriving 10 or more minutes after the start of a class, or leaving before the end of a class, areasked to speak with a professor or TA concerning why they are missing a portion of that class.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.