Abstract
Spiders are the workhorses of the Internet, silently (and almost invisibly) traversing the online world, 24 hours a day, looking for information that may be of interest to someone. It is being archived, organized, and sold, usually without the knowledge or consent of the subject of the information. Serious consequences are starting to appear, such as the withdrawal of three candidates from the October 2008 Canadian Federal election because of previous online indiscretions. While these were intentional if mis-guided postings, information made available without our consent can have equally devastating effects. Advances in artificial intelligence, as well as the increasing tendency to post more and more information, such as videos, will make the gathering, aggregation, and republishing of this “silent information” an increasingly important issue that must be addressed from the technical, social, ethical and legal perspectives, and sooner rather than later.
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Keenan, T.P. (2009). When Spiders Bite: The Use, Misuse, and Unintended Consequences of “Silent Information”. In: Matyáš, V., Fischer-Hübner, S., Cvrček, D., Švenda, P. (eds) The Future of Identity in the Information Society. Privacy and Identity 2008. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 298. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03315-5_6
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