Teens and Venture Investors Demand Online Safety and Privacy

Kolodny, Lora. "Teens and Venture Investors Demand Online Safety and Privacy." Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2012.

From the article: A new study from the Family Online Safety Institute, a nonprofit on a mission to “make the online world safe for kids and families,” found that teens are not only more connected than ever, increasingly using mobile devices and social networks, but they understand privacy and safety issues in a way that previous generations didn’t.

In addition, FOSI and venture investors say they are focused on ensuring that entrepreneurs consider safety and privacy issues and plan for them from the start when developing a business.  Read more

See also

Hart Research Associates. The Online Generation Gap: Contrasting Attitudes and Behaviors of Parents and Teens, prepared for The Family Online Safety Institute, November 14, 2012.

More Companies Are Tracking Online Data, Study Finds

Singer, Natasha. "More Companies Are Tracking Online Data, Study Finds." New York Times Bits Blog, November 12, 2012.

From the article: "The number of trackers collecting data on users’ activities on the most popular Web sites in the United States has significantly increased in the last five months, according to research from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Berkeley project, called the “Web Privacy Census,” aims to measure online privacy by conducting periodic web crawls and comparing the number of cookies and other types of tracking technology found over time on the most visited sites." Read more

See also 

Berkeley Law. "Web Privacy Census."

Research: Online Pediatric Health Information Is Not Reliable

Hamaker, Paul. "Research: Online Pediatric Health Information Is Not Reliable." Examiner, October 21, 2012.

From the article: "A first of its kind assessment of the reliability of internet web sites as sources of pediatric health information was presented at the October 21, 2012, session of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans. …“The content of each website was scored out of a possible 100 points. Overall, academic websites had the highest content score (mean: 60.8 ± 15.5), followed by physician (57±18), non profit (54.2±20.2) and commercial (46.7±22.2). Among the disease/condition-specific information, osteochondroma websites had the highest content scores (mean: 75.8 ± 11.8), and those on leg length discrepancy had the lowest (39.5 ± 16.5).”

Part of the problem in accuracy and reliability was adjudged to be the fault of the site creator. An unaddressed part of the equation was the pay for placement schemes used by search engines to promote web sites that pay them to rank that web site in the top ten." Read more

See also

American Academy of Pediatrics. "Academic Websites Offer the Most Reliable Pediatric Orthopedic Information Online." October 21, 2012.

Winning Combo: Social Media and Health Care

Mathur, Charu and Nidi Mathur. "Winning Combo: Social Media and Health Care." October 14, 2012.

From the paper: "Social Media will be the preferred medium of communication, network and connections in time to come. This paper analyses the co-relationship between Social Media and healthcare sector. The study tried to see if there is link between social media and healthcare. The study found that there is very strong link and ordinary people surf the net to find about ailments and even medications prescribed. The study further found that people even interchange ideas, share issues and queries regarding various drugs, there usage and effect. Even pharmaceutical companies are active across the board. They try and create awareness by developing games, running campaigns etc. For this we studied social media policies of some companies. As healthcare is a vital sector which affects like and quality of life some regulations are required. Study found that US and EU have some regulations already in place. The key recommendation is that the tweets and comments should be carefully made and responded to. The study found that social media and health care is a major winning combo." Read more

Big Data for Education: Data Mining, Data Analytics, and Web Dashboards

West, Darrell. "Big Data for Education: Data Mining, Data Analytics, and Web Dashboards." The Brookings Institute, September 2012.

From the report: "In this report, I examine the potential for improved research, evaluation, and accountability through data mining, data analytics, and web dashboards. So-called “big data” make it possible to mine learning information for insights regarding student performance and learning approaches.[1] Rather than rely on periodic test performance, instructors can analyze what students know and what techniques are most effective for each pupil. By focusing on data analytics, teachers can study learning in far more nuanced ways.[2] Online tools enable evaluation of a much wider range of student actions, such as how long they devote to readings, where they get electronic resources, and how quickly they master key concepts." Read more

EHRs Feed Clinical Research Machine

Lewis, Nicole. "EHRs Feed Clinical Research Machine." InformationWeek, August 31, 2012. 

From the article: "A major medical study that used EHR data to comb through the clinical records of nearly one million patients shows that advanced technology can have a significant impact on clinical research.

The study, which was recently published in the online edition of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, involved a team of data experts at MetroHealth Medical Center and Explorys Inc., a Cleveland Clinic spinoff company that provides a health data analytics platform.

The study tried to find out whether height and/or weight can make a person more susceptible to blood clots in the lung or leg." Read more

See also 

Kaelber, David C., et al. “Patient Characteristics Associated With Venous Thromboembolic Events: A Cohort Study Using Pooled Electronic Health Record Data.” Journal of the  American  Medical Informatics Association, July 3, 2012.

The Guardians of the Internet? Politics and Ethics of Cyberactivists (and of their Observers)

Milan, Stefania. "The Guardians of the Internet? Politics and Ethics of Cyberactivists (and of their Observers)." Inter-Asia Roundtable 2012 - Methodological And Conceptual Issues In Cyber Activism Research, August 30-31, 2012, Organised by Asia Research Institute, National University Of Singapore.

From the paper: "In this paper, I explore these norms and ethical discourses. I also reflect on the politics and ethics of approaching cyberactivism as an object of study, taking into account epistemological considerations and methodological challenges. 

In the next section, I offer an historical overview of cyberactivism, in order to help situating different forms of contemporary activism in relation to other progressive communities and subcultures. I then turn my attention to one of the forms of contemporary cyberactivism, namely ‘radical tech activism’, as a case study for looking more closely at the ethics of activists. Further, I discuss the methodological and epistemological challenges of approaching cyberactivism as a researcher, drawing on my own experience with investigating radical tech activism." Read more

DOE Wants Big Data To Mix, Blend Information For Users

Kenyon, Henry. "DOE Wants Big Data To Mix, Blend Information For Users." Aol.gov, August 29, 2012.

From the blog: "Big data can mean a lot of things to different federal agencies. To the Department of Energy, big data not only means managing an information sharing network to promote big science, but also making the results of that research available to the public.

This information can be blended together in a variety of ways, depending on the end users' needs, explained Robert Bectel, CTO and senior policy advisor at the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)." Read more

The Debate Over ‘Re-Identification’ Of Health Information: What Do We Risk?

Barth-Jones, Daniel. "The Debate Over ‘Re-Identification’ Of Health Information: What Do We Risk?" Health Affairs, August 10, 2012.

From the article: "Because a vast array of healthcare improvements and medical research critically depend on de-identified health information, the essential public policy challenge then is to accurately assess the current state of privacy protections for de-identified data, and properly balance both risks and benefits to maximum effect…Considerable costs come with incorrectly evaluating the true risks of re-identification under current HIPAA protections. It is essential to understand that de-identification comes at a cost to the scientific accuracy and quality of the healthcare decisions that will be made based on research using de-identified data. Balancing disclosure risks and statistical accuracy is crucial because some popular de-identification methods, such as “k-anonymity methods,” can unnecessarily, and often undetectably, degrade the accuracy of de-identified data for multivariate statistical analyses. This problem is well understood by statisticians and computer scientists, but not well-appreciated in the public policy arena. Poorly conducted de-identification and the overuse of de-identification methods in cases where they do not produce real privacy protections can quickly lead to “bad science” and damaging policy decisions.

Even worse, if we abandon the use of de-identified data because we falsely believe that de-identification cannot provide valuable privacy protections, we will lose the rich benefits that come from analysis of de-identified health data." Read more