linking data: the legal implications - semtech2010
DESCRIPTION
To date most of the focus on the Semantic Web has, quite rightly, been focused on the enabling technologies. However, as the technologies are becoming more mainstream, and as ever increasing volumes of Linked Data is produced, the implications of linking this data becomes more of an issue. This presentation highlights some of the current thinking as to the possible legal implications of linking data while discussing some solutions that are emerging.TRANSCRIPT
Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.
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Linking Data: The Legal ImplicationsMark Leyden, Bill McDaniel – DERI Applied Innovations
June 24th 2010
Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie
IANAL(I Am Not A Lawyer)
TINLA(This Is Not Legal Advice)
First things first...
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Background
This talk is based on a paper published in the Journal of the Society for Computers and Law:
'The Semantic Web: Legal Challenges', Brian Harley1, Philip Nolan1, Liam Ó Móráin2 and Mark Leyden2
1. Mason Hayes+Curran, Dublin, Ireland
2. Digital Enterprise Research Institute, Galway, Ireland
Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie
Define: Linked Data
'The term Linked Data is used to describe a method of exposing, sharing, and connecting data via dereferenceable URIs on the Web.1'
1 – Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data
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The Problem?
Linking data, storing it, moving it, sharing it, analyzing it, inferring things from it and presenting it,
without understanding the implications, can get you into a whole
lot of legal bother...
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Legal Overview
EuropeMix of Legal Systems
• Common Law (England, Ireland)• Civil Law (France, Germany etc.)
European Directives• Set 'Legal Objectives' to be met by Member
States• Does not detail how these objectives should be
met• Each State implements their own version
Libel / Defamation• Must prove truth of statement (Ireland / England)
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Legal Overview
USIndividual States
• Common Law
Federal Law• A Rough equivalent to EU Directives
Libel / Defamation• Must prove 'actual malice'• Fair Comment• Less 'Plaintiff Friendly' than EU
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Where are we now?
Computers give us1:
New scales of information gathering
New scales of information distribution and exchange
Amplification of Effect of erroneous information
Information may endure much longer than ever before
1. 'Computer Ethics', 3rd ed., Johnson, Deborah G., Prentice Hall
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And with the Semantic Web?
Linked Data gives us1:
Open Standards
Interoperability
Ease of Integration
Inference over all data
Greater Identifiability
Persistence of data
1. 'Informed Consent on the Semantic Web - Issues for Interaction and Interface Designers', Paul Shabajee
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Result?
Greater speed, greater scale, greater interconnections,
greater impact
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Our Focus for Today...
Privacy &
Accuracy
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Privacy
EU Data Protection Directivehttp://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/index_en.htm
'Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data'
'Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector'
'Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications)'
'Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC'
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Privacy
EU Data Protection DirectiveProcessing of Personal Data
Free movement of Personal Data
Regulates with EU
No Processing of Personal Data except where there is:• Transparency• Legitimate Purpose• Proportionality
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Result?
Lots to be aware of...
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Privacy
USElectronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988
USA PATRIOT Act - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001
'The United States has largely avoided legislation governing the treatment of sensitive personal information in records systems held by sources other than the federal government.'1
1. Data Protection and Privacy in the United States and Europe, IASSIST Quarterly, Fall 1998
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Result?
Not so much to worry about!
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Examples...
Direct Energie vs. Google.frMay 7 2009
Commercial Court of Paris
Google suggest resulted in Direct Energie being associated with 'arnaque' meaning 'scam / swindle'
Sued under Civil code
Won – Google had to modify suggested search terms
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Examples...
CNFDI vs. Google.frJul 10 2009
Centre National Prive de Formation a Distance
Google.fr suggest resulted in CNFDI also being associated with 'arnaque'
Sued Google under Libel (Criminal code)
Lost – freedom of speech
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Examples...
Zwartepoorte vs. Klup.nlJune 2009
Google provided search for Klup.nl
Zwartepoorte searched on Klup.nl for 'Zwartepoorte bankrupt' and got:
“Complete name: Zwartepoorte Specialiteit: BMW…This company has been declared bankrupt, it has been acquired by the motordealer I have worked for Boat Rialto…”
Won - €500 per day until search results were removed
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Examples...
Swedish Citizen vs. Google SwedenApril 2010
Small business owner suing because Google have been showing search results that suggest he is a paedophile
On-going
JR vs. Google BrazilApril 2010
Priest accused of being a paedophile on Orkut
Won - $8,500 compensation
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Examples...
Google Street View WiFi DataGoogle collected public SSID, MAC Address & Payload Data'On Friday May 14 [2010] the Irish Data Protection Authority asked us to
delete the payload data we collected in error in Ireland. We can confirm that all data identified as being from Ireland was deleted over the weekend in the presence of an independent third party. We are reaching out to Data Protection Authorities in the other relevant countries about how to dispose of the remaining data as quickly as possible.'
EU has requested deletion be stopped
Germany has launched a criminal investigation into the Data collection...
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Examples...
Which Kenneth Starr?
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Privacy and Linked Data
Friend Of A Friend (FOAF)A bundle of Personal Data
Each person has a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
List of people I know
Can gather all the personal data from list
I am, in effect, publishing private data about my 'friends'
Do I have permission to gather this data?
Do I have permission to share my list of 'friends'?
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Privacy and Linked Data
SIOCSemantically Interlinked Online Communities
Uses FOAF
Connects your identities across Blogs / Wikis / Forums
Web no longer anonymous
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Accuracy and Linked Data
Libel / Defamation'...is the communication of a statement that makes a
claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image.', wikipedia.org
Contracts'In law, a contract is an agreement between two or more
parties, that if it contains the elements of a valid legal agreement is enforceable by law or by binding arbitration. That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises with a specific remedy for breach.', wikipedia.org
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Accuracy and Linked Data
PresentationTriples are small facts of information
Displaying subset of data may result in defamation
Loss of context
Pete Townshend
InferenceA -> B, B -> C therefore A -> C
e.g. Price Comparison Website with incorrect result leads to a user entering a contract they would not have entered into
How do you qualify these statements?
e.g. 'Lee Harvey Oswald' 'killed' 'John F. Kennedy'
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Privacy Solutions?
Informed Consent1
Do you fully understand what you are about to do?
Central to medical practice
Informed Consent and Interface Design, from the Value Sensitive Design Research Lab2:
• Disclosure• Comprehension• Voluntariness• Competence• Agreement• Minimal Distraction
1. 'Informed Consent on the Semantic Web - Issues for Interaction and Interface Designers', Paul Shabajee
2. http://depts.washington.edu/vsdesign/
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Privacy Solutions?
Machine Readable LicensesPolicy Aware Web
Transparent Accountable Datamining Initiative
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project
Use OWL to create Access Policies?
Fair Rights Management1
1. 'FRM: Towards a Semantic Platform for Fair Content Distribution', Slawomir Grzonkowski, Bill McDaniel
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Accuracy Solutions?
Terms and ConditionsDisclaim any responsibility for accuracy of the information
provided
Clearly identify automatically generated dataAdd Provenance DataUncertaintity Reasoning1
Link vocabulary – 'UncertainLinkSet'
Imprecise value vocabulary
1. 'Position paper: Uncertainty reasoning for linked data', Dave Reynolds
:London :population [a :ImpreciseValue;:samplevalue [:value 7700000; :source :s1; :context :y2009]:samplevalue [:value 7900000; :source :s2; :context :y2008]:estimatedValue 785123]
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Thank You...
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