Politics of Personal Data, Lab 4 Follow-up

Harvard University

The Politics of Personal Data

Gov 1430

Lab 5 Follow-up: Most Likely and Best Outcomes

Goal.

In this activity you do a risk assessment and predict what you think will be the most likely and best outcomes for mac address tracking.

Individual Activity. (Due Tuesday, 4/21)

In the lab this week, your team identified important issues for your team's position in the debates. In the debates, you heard issues from all the different teams that collectively examined both sides of proposed approaches. Student reports are on the wiki.

In this assignment, you will conduct two risk assessments related to the future of MAC address tracking. One of your assessments concerns what you believe would be the best possible outcome for technology and society. What is a way for society to enjoy the benefits of the new technology without harms. The other assessment you will do makes a prediction as to the likely outcome. Five years from now, what do you think will be the dominant practice? You may focus on the proposed approaches specifically, or other approaches that address MAC address tracking.

Submit

Your write-up will consist of two 1-page writings. First, you state what you believe would be the best solution. After you state your opinion, then spend the remainder of the page, a paragraph or so, describing why, among other choices, is this the best solution. That concludes your assessment for the best possible outcome. On the next page, you repeat the process, but for the most likely outcome. Frame your prediction in terms of the most likely factors you identified, for and against.