What do they know about me? Contents and Concerns of Online Behavioral Profiles

Data aggregators collect large amounts of information about individual users from multiple sources, and create detailed online behavioral profiles of individuals. Behavioral profiles benefit users by improving products and services. However, they have also raised privacy concerns. To increase transparency, some companies are allowing users to access their behavioral profiles. In this work, we investigated behavioral profiles of users by utilizing these access mechanisms. Using in-person interviews (n=8), we analyzed the data shown in the profiles and compared it with the data that companies have about users. We elicited surprises and concerns from users about the data in their profiles, and estimated the accuracy of profiles. We conducted an online survey (n=100) to confirm observed surprises and concerns. Our results show a large gap between data shown in profiles and data possessed by companies. We also find that large number of profiles contain inaccuracies with levels as high as 80%. Participants expressed several concerns including collection of sensitive data such as credit and health information, extent of data collection and how their data may be used.

Source: Carnegie Mellon Univeristy (Cylab)

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Citizen Security with a Human Face: Evidence and proposals for Latin America

Description:

The Regional Human Development Report 2013-14 for Latin America maps the problems of crime and violence in the region, and offers important recommendations for improving public policies on citizen security. 

The report builds on UNDP’s Central America Human Development Report launched in 2009, and the Caribbean Human Development Report of 2012. This report analyzes the phenomenon of citizen security in-depth, studying successful experiences, and proposing concrete recommendations for improvements.

Source: United Nations Human Development Programme (UNDP)

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Making campuses safer and staying out of court: leadership practices facilitating compliance with The Jeanne Clery Act

From the abstract:
This study identifies how the origins of higher education and In Loco Parentis have contributed to a mindset in postsecondary education which favors, in many cases, internal handling of campus crime and related matters rather than the transparency the public and consumers demand. The new era of student-as-consumer has ushered in the necessity that postsecondary institutions provide honest and accurate information in their Annual Security Report (ASR). Recent examples of post-secondary institutional non-compliance with the Clery Act and the costly consequences of such a course of action are identified and analyzed using a systems theory lens combined with a multiple paradigm approach to problem solving.

Source: California State University-Sacramento

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Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (updated CRS report)

From the introduction:

The United States and its partner countries are reducing military involvement in Afghanistan as Afghan security forces assume lead security responsibility throughout the country and the Afghan government prepares for presidential and provincial elections on April 5, 2014. The current international security mission terminates at the end of 2014 and will likely transition to a smaller mission consisting mostly of training the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF). The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which peaked at about 100,000 in June 2011, was reduced to a “pre-surge” level of about 66,000 by September 2012, and is expected to fall to 34,000 in February 2014. The “residual force” that will likely remain in Afghanistan after 2014 is expected to consist of about 6,000-10,000 U.S. trainers and counterterrorism forces, assisted by about 5,000 partner forces performing similar missions. The U.S. troops that remain after 2014 would do so under a U.S.-Afghanistan security agreement that has been negotiated but which President Hamid Karzai, despite significant Afghan public a nd elite backing for the agreement, refuses to sign until additional conditions he has set down are met. Fearing instability after 2014, some ethnic and political faction leaders are reviving their militia forces should the international drawdown lead to a major Taliban push to retake power.

Source: Congressional Research Service

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