linking data: the legal implications - semtech2010

Copyright 2009 Digital Enterprise Research Institute. All rights reserved.

Digital Enterprise Research Institute www.deri.ie

Linking Data: The Legal ImplicationsMark Leyden, Bill McDaniel – DERI Applied Innovations

June 24th 2010


IANAL(I Am Not A Lawyer)

TINLA(This Is Not Legal Advice)

First things first...


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


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


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...


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)


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


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


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


Result?

Greater speed, greater scale, greater interconnections,

greater impact


Our Focus for Today...

Privacy &

Accuracy


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'


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


Result?

Lots to be aware of...


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


Result?

Not so much to worry about!


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


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


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


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


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...


Examples...

Which Kenneth Starr?


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'?


Privacy and Linked Data

SIOCSemantically Interlinked Online Communities

Uses FOAF

Connects your identities across Blogs / Wikis / Forums

Web no longer anonymous


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


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'


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/


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


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]


Thank You...

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linking data: the legal implications - semtech2010

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