Course description: This course will study the threats to and protections for privacy in the digital age, examining public and private sector threats, and looking at issues from an international point of view. Topics to be covered include privacy threat models, location tracking and first- and third-party collection by private parties, government threats to privacy, and privacy protective technologies.

The course will include a mixture of technical and policy material, with an emphasis on policy and legal issues, but will include sufficient enough technical material to add computer science depth to these discussions. The beginning of the course will be a bit technology heavy in order to enable discussions to happen at that depth.

Enrollment requirements: No programming background needed, but a willingness to, and interest in, playing with digital tools is required. The course will include five hands-on computer labs.

This is a graduate course; undergraduates will be admitted by permission of the instructor. Please send a brief (one-two short paragraphs) to the instructor explaining why you are interested in the course and your background (background relevant to the course).

Course schedule: This course will meet weekly on Mondays 3:20-5:20; at present (1/21), the course meets in Mugar 235. This course is on the Fletcher academic calendar. Thus two weeks classes will occur on unusual days: during the week of January 21, class will be on Tuesday January 22^nd and during the week of February 18, class will be on Wednesday February 20.

Office Hours:

My office hours are tentatively: Mondays, 10:30-11:30 Halligan 241 (no appointment necessary); Tuesdays 2-3 Mugar 251B (appointments through signing up online).

Note: During the week of 1/21, 1/22 is a Fletcher Monday, so I will not be holding office hours on the Tuesday. Instead, I will hold office hours on Thursday 1:15-2:00 in Halligan 241.

During the weeks before labs are due, Ben Janis (benjamin.janis@tufts.edu) will hold TA hours; these are the weeks of January 28, February 4, February 18, February 25, and March 25. Except for the week of February 18, Ben's office hours will be Wednesday 4:45-6 and Thursday 3-4:15 in the Mugar Computer Lab (Ginn Library); during the week of February 18, Ben will hold office hours Tuesday 3-4:15 and Wednesday 4:45-6.

Course Requirements and Grading:

You will have five labs, three written assignments, and one group presentation. Two of the writing assignments will be short briefing papers; the final paper will be longer (10 pages) and will be written in conjunction with a group presentation for the final day of the course. Though the project and presentation will be a group effort, the paper itself should be done individually.

Important note: each week, in addition to the reading, you will be required to email me a single discussion question based on the reading. This assignment is for weeks 2-11 and is due by 5 pm on Sunday.

Class participation matters in your grade; I'll expect you to attend all classes in this course. Note that the weekly discussion question will form part of the class participation grade.

The grades will be determined as follows:

Five labs: 4% of grade each.
Two short papers: 10% of grade each.
Group presentation: 15%.
Ten-page paper: 25%.
Class participation: 20%.

Note also that there are no late assignments. Any assignment not handed in at the beginning of the class in which it was due will not be accepted; you will receive a "0" for that particular effort.

Documented Disabilities:

In accordance with federal and state law, Tufts University provides reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. If you believe you require an accommodation, e-mail accessiblity@tufts.edu or Catherine.Flynn@tufts.edu.