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1. Weaving Privacy and Power: On the Privacy Practices of Labor Organizers in the U.S. Technology Industry

   SAYASH KAPOOR, MATTHEW SUN ( May 2022 , Computer supported cooperative work CSCW)

   We investigate the privacy practices of labor organizers in the computing technology industry and explore the changes in these practices as a response to remote work. Our study is situated at the intersection of two pivotal shifts in workplace dynamics: (a) the increase in online workplace communications due to remote work, and (b) the resurgence of the labor movement and an increase in collective action in workplaces— especially in the tech industry, where this phenomenon has been dubbed the tech worker movement. The shift of work-related communications to online digital platforms in response to an increase in remote work is creating new opportunities for and risks to the privacy of workers. These risks are especially significant for organizers of collective action, with several well-publicized instances of retaliation against labor organizers by companies. Through a series of qualitative interviews with 29 tech workers involved in collective action, we investigate how labor organizers assess and mitigate risks to privacy while engaging in these actions. Among the most common risks that organizers experienced are retaliation from their employer, lateral worker conflict, emotional burnout, and the possibility of information about the collective effort leaking to management. Depending on the nature and source of the risk, organizers use a blend of digital security practices and community-based mechanisms. We find that digital security practices are more relevant when the threat comes from management, while community management and moderation are central to protecting organizers from lateral worker conflict. Since labor organizing is a collective rather than individual project, individual privacy and collective privacy are intertwined, sometimes in conflict and often mutually constitutive. Notions of privacy that solely center individuals are often incompatible with the needs of organizers, who noted that safety in numbers could only be achieved when workers presented a united front to management. Based on our interviews, we identify key topics for future research, such as the growing prevalence of surveillance software and the needs of international and gig worker organizers. We conclude with design recommendations that can help create safer, more secure and more private tools to better address the risks that organizers face. 

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2. Weaving Privacy and Power: On the Privacy Practices of Labor Organizers in the U.S. Technology Industry

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3555574  

   Kapoor, Sayash ; Sun, Matthew ; Wang, Mona ; Jazwinska, Klaudia ; Watkins, Elizabeth Anne ( November 2022 , Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   We investigate the privacy practices of labor organizers in the computing technology industry and explore the changes in these practices as a response to remote work. Our study is situated at the intersection of two pivotal shifts in workplace dynamics: (a) the increase in online workplace communications due to remote work, and (b) the resurgence of the labor movement and an increase in collective action in workplaces-especially in the tech industry, where this phenomenon has been dubbed the tech worker movement. The shift of work-related communications to online digital platforms in response to an increase in remote work is creating new opportunities for and risks to the privacy of workers. These risks are especially significant for organizers of collective action, with several well-publicized instances of retaliation against labor organizers by companies. Through a series of qualitative interviews with 29 tech workers involved in collective action, we investigate how labor organizers assess and mitigate risks to privacy while engaging in these actions. Among the most common risks that organizers experienced are retaliation from their employer, lateral worker conflict, emotional burnout, and the possibility of information about the collective effort leaking to management. Depending on the nature and source of the risk, organizers use a blend of digital security practices and community-based mechanisms. We find that digital security practices are more relevant when the threat comes from management, while community management and moderation are central to protecting organizers from lateral worker conflict. Since labor organizing is a collective rather than individual project, individual privacy and collective privacy are intertwined, sometimes in conflict and often mutually constitutive. Notions of privacy that solely center individuals are often incompatible with the needs of organizers, who noted that safety in numbers could only be achieved when workers presented a united front to management. Based on our interviews, we identify key topics for future research, such as the growing prevalence of surveillance software and the needs of international and gig worker organizers.We conclude with design recommendations that can help create safer, more secure and more private tools to better address the risks that organizers face. 

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3. Big data, data privacy, and plant and animal disease research using GEMS

   https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20933  

   Senay, Senait D. ; Shurson, Gerald C. ; Cardona, Carol ; Silverstein, Kevin A. T. ( November 2021 , Agronomy Journal)

   One of the major challenges in ensuring global food security is the ever‐changing biotic risk affecting the productivity and efficiency of the global food supply system. Biotic risks that threaten food security include pests and diseases that affect pre‐ and postharvest terrestrial agriculture and aquaculture. Strategies to minimize this risk depend heavily on plant and animal disease research. As data collected at high spatial and temporal resolutions become increasingly available, epidemiological models used to assess and predict biotic risks have become more accurate and, thus, more useful. However, with the advent of Big Data opportunities, a number of challenges have arisen that limit researchers’ access to complex, multi‐sourced, multi‐scaled data collected on pathogens, and their associated environments and hosts. Among these challenges, one of the most limiting factors is data privacy concerns from data owners and collectors. While solutions, such as the use of de‐identifying and anonymizing tools that protect sensitive information are recognized as effective practices for use by plant and animal disease researchers, there are comparatively few platforms that include data privacy by design that are accessible to researchers. We describe how the general thinking and design used for data sharing and analysis platforms can intrinsically address a number of these data privacy‐related challenges that are a barrier to researchers wanting to access data. We also describe how some of the data privacy concerns confronting plant and animal disease researchers are addressed by way of the GEMS informatics platform.

    

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4. US-Serbia and West Balkan Data Science Workshop

   Obradovic, Zoran ( January 2020 , NSF Workshop Reports)

   The project mission was to organize a workshop aimed to explore how the US data science community can cooperate with and benefit from collaborations with partners in Serbia and the West Balkan region. The scope included fundamental data science methods and high-impact applications related to big data processing, security and privacy in critical infrastructures, biomedical informatics, and computational archeology. The proposed workshop facilitated closing the gap between data science research in the US and Serbia and the region and brought together data scientists with researchers from disciplines that until recently had little exposure to data science methods, potentially enabling collaborative breakthroughs in those scientific fields. A large fraction of participants from both sides were early career researchers including advanced level graduate students, postdoctoral research associates, and assistant/associate professors within 10 years of obtaining their Ph.D. The participants included a large fraction of female and minority scientists. The workshop objective was achieved by including the following inter-related objectives: (1) Establishing new multidisciplinary international collaborations between data science, mathematics, and sciences that generate big data and require advanced methods; (2) Reinforcing collaboration mechanisms between the NSF and Serbia’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and organize joint research projects; and (3) Widening the impact of the workshop, by involving researchers and stakeholders from the West Balkan region. The workshop consisted of four tracks, each co-chaired by 3 investigators from the US, Serbia and another West Balkan country. Tangible outcomes from the workshop include a report describing workshop activities for each of four tracks and a proposal recommending research collaboration areas of interest for all parties and determining collaboration mechanisms and programs to facilitate collaboration. 

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5. Uncovering Privacy and Security Challenges In K-12 Schools

   Chanenson, J. ; Sloane, B. ; Morrill, A. ; Chee, J. ; Rajan, N. ; Huang, D. ; Chetty, M. ( January 2023 , Human factors in computing systems)

   Increased use of technology in schools raises new privacy and security challenges for K-12 students---and harms such as commercialization of student data, exposure of student data in security breaches, and expanded tracking of students---but the extent of these challenges is unclear. In this paper, first, we interviewed 18 school officials and IT personnel to understand what educational technologies districts use and how they manage student privacy and security around these technologies. Second, to determine if these educational technologies are frequently endorsed across United States (US) public schools, we compiled a list of linked educational technology websites scraped from 15,573 K-12 public school/district domains and analyzed them for privacy risks. Our findings suggest that administrators lack resources to properly assess privacy and security issues around educational technologies even though they do pose potential privacy issues. Based on these findings, we make recommendations for policymakers, educators, and the CHI research community. 

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