Protecting Privacy and Authenticity Online

This unit examines legal, technical, and social dimensions of online privacy, identity, and authenticity, focusing on encryption, anonymity versus verification, platform practices, and harms to youth. Students will evaluate threats from bots, AI, and malicious actors and begin designing restoration-focused technical and policy mitigations to protect mental health and civil discourse.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze major privacy laws and common encryption methods and produce a concise brief (2–3 pages) that explains their implications for individual data protection and platform responsibilities
• Evaluate identity models by comparing at least three approaches (anonymous, pseudonymous, verified) and recommend appropriate verification strategies for different online contexts based on security, privacy, and usability trade-offs
• Apply threat-analysis techniques to social media by identifying at least five indicators of harm (including bots, trolls, and AI manipulation) and propose a set of at least three technical or policy mitigations to reduce risk to children and teens
• Demonstrate the ability to design a restoration-focused strategy by creating a multi-layered plan (technical controls, parental practices, platform policies, and fact-checking reforms) with at least four concrete, implementable actions to foster authentic civil discourse