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TOPICS

• What are tipping points (TPs)?

• The importance of communicating TPs

• Examples from climate change

• Can TP modeling be applied to privacy?

• Privacy TPs recent examples (Israel)

• Conclusions

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WHAT ARE TIPPING POINTS?

• “The notion of the tipping point comes from epidemiology, and refers to

the moment a given social process becomes generalized rather than

specific in a rapid rather than gradual manner” (Gladwell)

• A privacy tipping point is an event (or events) that change the way

individuals and organizations perceive privacy, eventually leading to

more responsibility and accountability (YR)

• Arab spring, Occupy Wall Street, … Social Media Revolutions

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COMMUNICATING INNOVATIONS AND IDEAS

• the number of adopters due to interpersonal communications is far

greater than the number of adopters due to mass media

• Opinion leaders serve as mediators between the mass media and the

broader society by starting word-of-mouth (offline and online)

• The role of opinion leaders is key to diffusion of ideas and innovations,

and also to tipping points

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THE LAW OF THE FEW

• Few key types of people play an important role in pushing an

idea, or a product forward – connectors, mavens and salesmen

(Gladwell).

• Market mavens - have access to information and proactively

engage in discussions with others

• Connectors (social hubs) - people with very large number of

social connections

• Salesmen - amplify the message to make it more persuasive

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INFLUENCER MARKETING

• The study of individuals with exceptional skills of generating word-of-

mouth and catalyzing the diffusion of ideas and new products

• Potential buyers or value-added influencers, such as journalists,

academics, industry analysts and activists

• Influencing the influencers (identify > engage)

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CLIMATE CHANGE TIPPING POINTS

“Tipping points, on the other hand, suggest moments or

intervals of high sensitivity to abrupt and irreversible

changes, and they are intended to aid in the

identification of discrete thresholds for danger. Media

coverage emphasizes these points in a sensational

and alarming way” (Russil & Nyssa)

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CLIMATE CHANGE TIPPING POINTS

• when just 10 percent of the population holds an

unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted

by the majority of the society (Xie et al 2011)

• But what happens when there is an equal force at the

other end (Global Warming’s Six Americas)

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SURVEY: WHAT WAS THE TOP #PRIVACY STORY OF 2011?

1. Pervasive use of surveillance tools: surveillance cameras, license plate scanners, TSA expands beyond airports, US wiretaps nearly double, Wall Street Journal and Wikileaks report on surveillance-industrial complex

2. Location Location Location: "locationgate" (iPhone and Windows Phone all store history of locations), California bill to limit cellphone searches vetoed, Supreme Court hears arguments about GPS tracking in US vs. Jones, malls announce they’ll use Path Intelligence to track shoppers via cellphone but then drop plans, Carrier IQ

3. FTC settlements with Facebook and Google

4. News of the World phone hacking scandal

5. ….

PrivacyCamp

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THE CARRIER IQ STORY

Carrier IQ provides telemetry to cellular carriers and manufacturers,

it is preinstalled on over 141 million phones. The software is

monitoring every single key you press on your smartphone, reading

your SMS, and logging much of the personal data you transmit

• Revealed on November 12 2011,

• Video by Trevor Eckhart on YouTube (almost 2 million views)

• Several legal actions filed against Carrier IQ,

• US and European gov’t investigation planned

• Apps for detecting the software

• Sprint now removing Carrier IQ software

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POPULATION REGISTRY LEAK (ISRAEL)

• A copy of the population registry was stolen in 2006 and leaked to the

Internet

• The database contained the name, date of birth, national identification

number, and family members of 9 million Israelis, living and dead

• Police investigation closed in 2008 with no results, reopened in 2010

(by ILITA – data protection agency)

• Suspects were found in October 2011

• The leak mostly benefited orthodox Jews (matchmaking - family history

is important)

• The Biometric data base – Gov’t approved bill calling for creation of

database of all Israeli citizens (fingerprints, computerized facial

features embedded on IDs, passports - 2009)

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THE SAUDI HACKER INCIDENT (ISRAEL)

• In January 2012 a Saudi hacker (allegedly) threatened to release

1 million Israeli credit card numbers

• The hacker, known as 0xOmar, released 15,000 credit card

numbers and 11,000 more a week later

• The information was picked by the hacker from Israeli sports and

coupons sites with lacking security mechanisms

• Identity numbers were also stolen, which is more worrying since

credit cards can easily be cancelled

Other credit cards hacking stories – global scale (Sony, Citybank,

Stratfor, ..)

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COMMUNICATING THE 2 INCIDENTS

• A televised ILITA press conference took place in 24.10.11 and was picked

up by the major TV channels. Similar media coverage in the hacker

incident

• A 1 minute video clip on the leakage uploaded to YouTube but with limited

number of viewers (less than 1000 ). Some videos concerning the hacker

incident appeared (“free us from being slaves to shopping” – 15,300

views)

• Newspapers (online) coverage followed in the next few days.

• Two parliament committees discuss the implications of this incidents on

the future of privacy including the implementation of the biometric

database

• The credit card of a Parliament member (Labor Party leader) was also

stolen. She is asking the prime minister to stop the implementation of the

biometric IDs initiative

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SOME ACTIONS THAT FOLLOWED

• A request for class action lawsuit against a credit card company

was made claiming close to IS 75 million

• At the request of ILITA the court issued a warrant to disconnect

1700 businesses that failed to provide adequate data protection

(!!)

• ILITA will issue guidelines – not all businesses will be able to

demand id numbers from buyers on the Internet

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PRIVACY TIPPING POINTS PROCESS

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Privacy Events

Gov’t & self Regulation

Word-of-Mouth Gov’t Discussions

Public Actions

Mass Media

Tipping Point

CONCLUSIONS & FURTHER RESEARCH

• Privacy stories (scandals) are abundant and may create tipping points

towards more responsibility and accountability – if properly

communicated

• The main barrier is moving from mass media coverage to interpersonal

communications

• This includes identifying and motivating (engaging) the influencers

(mavens, connectors, salespeople) to promote privacy related issues

• Governments (central, local), NGOs, others (?), should be more involved

in communicating privacy concerns

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WE WANT SOCIAL JUSTICE, BUT WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY?

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From one tent in a central TLV Blvd to 450,000 protesters in 45 days