Re: Questionable Research

My apologies, Jeff. Perhaps I didn't make my point clearly enough.

You attacked the credibility of Mr. Castro's findings based upon his
connections and funding from industry - "Cisco, Intel, Qualcom, Oracle,
H-P, Microsoft and others."

By that logic, then it would make sense that you have similar issues with
the credibility of the work conducted by the  CDT --- as the CDT also
receives funding from those companies.

My point --- is that either you have issues with CDT's credibility, or you
only questioned the credibility of Mr. Castro's research because you don't
happen to like his conclusions.


From:  Jeffrey Chester <jeff@democraticmedia.org>
Date:  Wednesday, November 14, 2012 11:15 AM
To:  Alan Chapell <achapell@chapellassociates.com>
Cc:  "public-tracking@w3.org" <public-tracking@w3.org>
Subject:  Re: Questionable Research

> The study is from IITF--not CDT.
> 
> 
> 
> Center for Digital Democracy
> 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 550
> Washington, DC 20009
> www.democraticmedia.org <http://www.democraticmedia.org>
> www.digitalads.org <http://www.digitalads.org>
> 202-986-2220
> 
> On Nov 14, 2012, at 10:53 AM, Alan Chapell wrote:
> 
>> Jeff ­ all of the companies you cite below also provide funding for the CDT.
>> Are you questioning the credibility of the CDT's work as well?
>> 
>>>>  
>>>> Shane.  Mr. Castro works for an industry funded and connected group, which
>>>> has worked to weaken privacy rules--including for children. It's board
>>>> includes Cisco, Intel, Qualcom, Oracle,  H-P, Microsoft and others.
>>>>  
>>>> It's important to discuss scholarly research that is relevant, but also
>>>> identify the conflicts of interest which shape their role.
>>>>  
>>>> Best,
>>>>  
>>>> Jeff
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>> Jeffrey Chester
>>>> Center for Digital Democracy
>>>> 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 550
>>>> Washington, DC 20009
>>>> www.democraticmedia.org <http://www.democraticmedia.org/>
>>>> www.digitalads.org <http://www.digitalads.org/>
>>>> 202-986-2220
>>>>  
>>>> On Nov 9, 2012, at 3:47 PM, Shane Wiley wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> An interesting article discussing the lack of objectivity in the research
>>>> paper John just circulated:
>>>>  
>>>> New Survey Shows Some Privacy Scholars Lack Objectivity
>>>> BY DANIEL CASTRO <http://www.innovationfiles.org/author/danielcastro/>  ·
>>>> OCTOBER 14, 2012
>>>> URL:  
>>>> HTTP://WWW.INNOVATIONFILES.ORG/NEW-SURVEY-SHOWS-SOME-PRIVACY-SCHOLARS-LACK-
>>>> OBJECTIVITY/
>>>>  
>>>> ³A survey funded by Nokia
>>>> <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2152135>  and conducted
>>>> at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology shows what has become
>>>> increasingly apparent to those who follow this line of research: some of
>>>> the most prominent academic researchers have ceased to retain even a veneer
>>>> of objectivity in their research on privacy. The authors, Chris Hoofnagle,
>>>> Jennifer Urban and Su Li, state that their survey shows that ³Americans
>>>> have a low level of knowledge about [Do Not Track], but prefer that it mean
>>>> that websites do not collect tracking data.²
>>>> I won¹t mince words here: this is shoddy research.²
>>>> 
>>>> NOTE:  Please follow the link above to read the rest of the article.
>>>>  
>>>> From: John Simpson [mailto:john@consumerwatchdog.org]
>>>> Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 1:13 PM
>>>> To: David Wainberg
>>>> Cc: Walter van Holst; public-tracking@w3.org
>>>> Subject: Re: ISSUE-187 - some thoughts on using javascript
>>>>  
>>>> I've attached as a PDF file an interesting research paper from the Berkeley
>>>> Center for Law and Technology about what people expect from DNT.
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>> ----------
>>>> John M. Simpson
>>>> Consumer Advocate
>>>> Consumer Watchdog
>>>> 2701 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 112
>>>> Santa Monica, CA,90405
>>>> Tel: 310-392-7041
>>>> Cell: 310-292-1902
>>>> www.ConsumerWatchdog.org <http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org/>
>>>> john@consumerwatchdog.org
>>>>  
>>>> On Nov 9, 2012, at 9:59 AM, David Wainberg wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  
>>>> On 11/8/12 5:52 PM, Walter van Holst wrote:
>>>>> On 11/8/12 9:17 PM, Vinay Goel wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Walter,
>>>>>>  
>>>>>> I agree with you that the logical solution would be to store them
>>>>>> together
>>>>>> in the UA preferences.  From what I understand, though, the major UAs
>>>>>> would likely not implement this, though.
>>>>> I probably should have spotted that in the list archives before, but
>>>>> have missed it. I cannot speek for the UAs, nonetheless all research on
>>>>> user opinions on tracking suggests that they are much more inclined to
>>>>> go for a all-out DNT:1 than for DNT:0, which makes me assume that any
>>>>> exception mechanism is unlikely to be used often. Sadly not all research
>>>>> in this field is publicly available, so we have to make do with what is.
>>>> What credible research can you cite that is publicly available?
>>>> Unfortunately we don't have much useful information on what users really
>>>> want, or would want if they properly understood the technology and their
>>>> choices. And it's certainly not very helpful to cite research that isn't
>>>> available.
>>>> 
>>>> -David
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>>>  
>>> 
>