Digital traces and physical activities: opportunities,challenges and pitfalls

The strong integration of consumer electronics in everyday life offers many new investigative opportunities. In particular, digital traces from smartphones, smartwatches and activity trackers can now increasingly be used to infer information about actions performed by their users in the physical world that might not be obtainable from any other types of forensic evidence.While potentially very valuable from an investigative perspective, making forensically justifiable statements about such traces can sometimes be more difficult than expected. Requirements for this have not yet received much attention in the digital forensic literature. To help filling this gap, we describe the principles we use in determining the evidential value of such traces, which emphasize the need for experimental verification. For such research, aimed at determining the evidential value of these traces, we coin the term data2activity.In this paper, we devote attention to the potential and limitations of data2activity traces, focusing on challenges and giving two examples to illustrate potential pitfalls in interpreting data. Finally, future research directions into data2activity traces are indicated that, in our opinion, should be given attention. These include development of future-proof data acquisition and storage methodology, enabling division-of-effort and sharing of information, as well as development of labeling methodology for free-living experiments.     

Der Effekt des Haushalts auf die Beteiligungsdisposition

The influence of the primary environment on the willingness to participate in elections or votes is undisputed. However, previous research on this was mainly based on experimental or survey data that exhibit systematic measurement errors (overreporting) or refer only to individual election dates. The aim of this study is therefore to obtain a more precise estimate of the household's basic participation disposition that is unbiased by random or systematic errors. This is possible thanks to official complete survey data on 18 different ballots in about a dozen St. Gallen municipalities. The corresponding analysis shows that the lion's share of individual willingness to participate varies at the household level.     

Understanding markers of trust within the online stolen data market: An examination of vendors’ signaling behaviors relative to product price point

Research Summary

The current study examined 1055 stolen data products across 40 vendors on the Open and Dark Web to determine whether different product- and vendor-level behaviors predicted vendors’ trustworthiness as reflected in their product price point. Understanding the mechanisms that convey trust in the underground marketplace is crucial as it could help law enforcement target serious actors and disrupt the larger marketplace. Findings suggest the online stolen data market may resemble an uninformative cost condition where buyers are unable to accurately differentiate credible sellers due to the obscure nature of signaling behaviors.

Policy Implications

Law enforcement would benefit from designing fake shops and deceptive forum posts that transmit mixed signals to complicate market participants’ process of interpreting trust signals as intended. These interventions would generate high levels of risk that encourage both buyers and sellers to exit the online illicit marketplace without needing law enforcement arrests. Law enforcement could also target prominent market facilitators to generate a larger disruption that prevents actors from continuing their illicit behavior.     

大数据视域下失业监测机制优化 ：机遇与挑战

为实现“十四五”规划提出的“健全就业需求调查和失业监测预警机制”，基于大数据开展失 业监测具有显著的实践意义。本研究在梳理和总结国内外关于就业失业的理论基础上采用文献分析法、访谈法， 分析基于大数据进行失业监测的应用逻辑，进而梳理国内外相关实践及其存在的突出问题，为失业预警机制的 建立健全提供参考。研究提出基于大数据开展失业监测的优化路径：首先建立政府引导、网站提供数据和学界 提供指导的三方合作机制，其次盘点和分类国内招聘网站等劳动力市场的互联网媒介，进而尽快开发和构建搜 索引擎关键词库，并引入专业的社会智库参与，最后强化政府监管力度。     

平台零工劳动对我国劳动关系的影响 ——基于众包型数据标注师的研究

平台零工劳动的兴起是社会发展的内在需求，也是技术创新的产物。平台众包型数据标注劳动 是平台零工劳动的一种典型形式，人工智能的发展、企业生产组织方式的变革、缓解就业压力的需要等因素的 综合作用使其得以规模化兴起。它具有以互联网为主要劳动工具、工作任务的碎片化和简单化、劳动的高度灵 活性和自主性、社会关系的弱化和人的原子化等特点。这种“平台 + 个人”的新型用工形式对我国已有的劳动 雇佣模式、劳动关系认定框架、社会保障体系造成了一定的冲击和挑战，使众多数据标注零工们面临着工作和 收入不稳定、缺乏社会保障的困境。因此，需要结合其劳动特点，调整已有劳动关系认定标准、完善社会保障 体系、引导平台企业承担主体责任，从而更好地保障平台零工的基本权益。