Identifying downside of social networking

The research follows the rise of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, which have led to an increase in the amount of personal data available online. Because of a similar increase in internet fraud, the two year project, 'Ethical issues of Emerging ICT Applications (ETICA)' aims to minimise the problems by identifying the technologies likely to enter common usage while they are still in the development stage. A network of 12 European partners is involved in the project, worth €1million, with the scheme being coordinated by Dr Bernd Stahl, reader in critical research in technology in the centre for computing and social responsibility at De Montford. He said: "Some technologies and their applications, such as social network sites like Facebook or Twitter, are easily identified as areas of future ethical problems. Others are much more difficult to understand, such as quantum computing or ubiquitous sensor networks. Quantum computers and cloud computing for example may have serious implications on computer security as they can be used for novel types of encryption. Ubiquitous sensor networks can conceivably raise new challenges to privacy and develop new capacities of surveillance." Once potential problems have been identified, ETICA researchers will create a list of ethical issues, from which they will make recommendations to policy makers and investigate governance models. Members of the public and industry are invited to get involved in the project.