NetSE: Medium: Collaborative Research: Auditing Internet Content for Credibility, Fairness, and Privacy

NetSE：媒介：协作研究：审核互联网内容的可信度、公平性和隐私

• 批准号: 1064595
• 负责人: Aleksandar Kuzmanovic
• 金额: $ 54.95万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-05-01 至 2016-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1064595&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NetSE; Medium; Collaborative; Research; Auditing

Millions of users are accessing a portion of billions of Web pages and other content on the Internet on a daily basis. While the networking research community and the public in general are well-aware of the net neutrality problem, i.e., how to develop regulatory policies and auditing mechanisms to prevent Internet Service Providers from discriminating against various applications, very little effort is invested in enabling content neutrality. In particular, it is not a secret that almost every browsing click we make is collected by either Web- or ISP-based 'information collectors and aggregators', and that our profiles are used for online advertising. Still, no public auditing mechanisms, capable of detecting and informing end users about such practices, exist in this emerging area. Take search engines as another example. How does one know that information available on these services is not biased (or will become biased in the future) for commercial, political, or any other reason? More generally, no public auditing systems are capable of monitoring the scope and effectiveness of advertising or spam campaigns on the Internet. The PIs argue that all these questions fundamentally affect fairness at all levels, information credibility, and user privacy, all of which have significant relevance for the future development of the Internet and beyond.The PIs will build a set of methodologies and tools unified in a system capable of (i) enabling auditing mechanisms for the Web advertising domain, (ii) monitoring search engines? services and revealing their neutrality, and (iii) independently determining a Web site's popularity and checking for the truthfulness of advertised popularity. Further, the PIs plan to deploy the developed system on the PlanetLab wide area network testbed to perform long term monitoring of content neutrality in the Internet.Broader Impact: By informing the public of how online advertisers and search engines behave, the auditing system will enable fair competition and preclude monopolies, oligopolies, or collusions, eventually helping to improve online information credibility and user privacy. Even if no bias nor privacy-violating practices were to exist in today's Internet (unfortunately, the PI's preliminary results show that this is not the case), the auditing system and methodologies will always be a barrier for anyone who would believe that applying such approaches might be done without public knowledge and repercussions. By exposing biased content behavior, the auditing system will be capable of revealing discriminating acts that can happen for commercial, social, political, religious, or any other reason, ultimately facilitating the development of free and open society. The PIs will design and disseminate easy-to-use browser extensions and plug-ins that will be capable of assisting end users in detecting content neutrality violations. Education is an integral part of this award. The insights and tools derived from this project will be integrated into the current undergraduate and graduate curricula.

每天有数百万用户访问互联网上数十亿网页和其他内容的一部分。虽然网络研究界和公众普遍都清楚网络中立性问题，即如何制定监管政策和审计机制来防止互联网服务提供商歧视各种应用程序，但在实现内容中立性方面投入的精力却很少。特别是，我们所做的几乎每一次浏览点击都由基于网络或基于 ISP 的“信息收集者和聚合者”收集，并且我们的个人资料用于在线广告，这已不是什么秘密。尽管如此，这个新兴领域不存在能够检测并向最终用户通报此类做法的公共审计机制。以搜索引擎为例。人们如何知道这些服务上提供的信息不会因商业、政治或任何其他原因而存在偏见（或将来会变得有偏见）？更一般地说，没有公共审计系统能够监控互联网上广告或垃圾邮件活动的范围和有效性。 PI 认为，所有这些问题从根本上影响各个层面的公平性、信息可信度和用户隐私，所有这些都对互联网及其他领域的未来发展具有重大意义。PI 将建立一套统一的方法论和工具。系统能够 (i) 启用网络广告领域的审核机制，(ii) 监控搜索引擎？服务并揭示其中立性，以及 (iii) 独立确定网站的受欢迎程度并检查广告受欢迎程度的真实性。此外，PI 计划在 PlanetLab 广域网测试平台上部署开发的系统，以对互联网中的内容中立性进行长期监控。 更广泛的影响：通过告知公众在线广告商和搜索引擎的行为方式，审核系统将能够实现公平竞争，排除垄断、寡头垄断或共谋，最终有助于提高在线信息可信度和用户隐私。即使当今的互联网不存在偏见或侵犯隐私的行为（不幸的是，PI 的初步结果表明情况并非如此），对于任何相信应用此类方法的人来说，审计系统和方法将始终是一个障碍可能会在公众不知情和不产生影响的情况下进行。通过揭露有偏见的内容行为，审计系统将能够揭露出于商业、社会、政治、宗教或任何其他原因可能发生的歧视行为，最终促进自由开放社会的发展。 PI 将设计和传播易于使用的浏览器扩展和插件，这些扩展和插件将能够帮助最终用户检测内容中立违规行为。教育是该奖项不可或缺的一部分。从该项目中获得的见解和工具将被纳入当前的本科生和研究生课程中。