Re-Viewing the Resonances and Regulation of Reputation Jennifer
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TIME TO CARE ABOUT REPUTATION: Re-Viewing the Resonances and Regulation of Reputation jennifer barrigar Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree in Law Graduate Studies in Law Faculty of Law University of Ottawa ©jennifer barrigar, Ottawa, Canada 2013 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is dedicated to Carole Lucock, who never got to finish hers. I am forever indebted and grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Ian Kerr for his unflagging enthusiasm, encouragement and insightful feedback. Working with Dr. Kerr has provided me with invaluable experiences, friendships and opportunities, among them the chance to return to university and pursue this doctorate. Thank you also to Jane Bailey, Valerie Steeves, Shoshana Magnet, Constance Backhouse, Michael Geist, Elizabeth Judge and of course Ian Kerr for teaching, inspiration, assistance and challenge at various points during the process. Every experience I had within the University of Ottawa contributed in some way to the development of this project, and I am grateful to all of you who were part of that. I must also acknowledge the opportunities, support and assistance received in support of this dissertation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); The University of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law; the Canadian Council of Administrative Tribunals; the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada; the Samuel-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic; Google; the Electronic Privacy Information Centre; and the Oxford Internet Institute. Last but by no means least, my boundless gratitude to my families – both to my parents and siblings and to my chosen family here in Ottawa and elsewhere. Without your love, support, encouragement, periodic scolding and unflagging faith neither this project nor my surviving it would have been possible. A final thanks to Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Dominion Tavern, Steamwhistle and Sourpuss for support of a different kind, though no less necessary or helpful. i ABSTRACT This dissertation examines reputation as a regulating force in online and offline relationships and transactions, arguing that reputation requires protection through the promulgation of new laws. Using John Locke’s famous “under-labourer” approach as its central method, this dissertation ultimately sets out a series of conclusions, which form a preliminary framework upon which appropriate reputation regulation might be built. Part I of this dissertation studies offers an interdisciplinary study of reputation. Chapter 1 examines the ways that reputation is created and maintained, the purposes for which it is used, and its role in risk management and trust. These understandings are then applied to reputation in process. Chapter 2 explores formal reputation systems and the ways in which user investments and desires become written into reputation such that multiple levels of “dominant” norms may be simultaneously operant. Chapter 3 shows this normative force also operating on social network sites, shaping identity performances. Finally, having established these intersections and the regulating power of norms upon reputation, the effect of such performances is examined in chapter 4, which identifies reputation’s gatekeeper role in offline and online spaces and the risks this can create when information is accessed or employed without an understanding of the norms which have shaped that information. Thus reputation is shown as a socially negotiated and co-created process which exerts an unseen hegemonic force, with dominant political, economic and ideological interests embedded in seemingly social norms. These norms are enforced via reputation, which takes on a gatekeeper role, regulating access to a variety of spaces, information, and economic opportunities. Part II begins with an examination of the current forms of legal and quasi-legal regulation of reputation that exist, ultimately finding that none of them is fully applicable to the complexity of reputation. Having established this complexity and shown that current approaches are inadequate, chapter 6 moves on to examine and then reject the neoliberal approach currently applied to these issues, finding its focus on individual responsibility to be inadequate and inappropriate, calling instead for a mode of regulation that understands reputation within its social context. ii Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Introducing Reputation...................................................................................................................... 4 Increasing Reliance on Reputation .................................................................................................... 6 Why Inquire Further? ........................................................................................................................ 8 The Under-labourer ......................................................................................................................... 11 Clearing the Technological and Legal Underbrush: Methodology ................................................. 12 The Path Forward ............................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 1: .......................................................................................................................................... 19 Situating the Discussion: Norms, Trust and Reputation ..................................................................... 19 Norms .............................................................................................................................................. 21 Norms and the Derivation of Reputation ........................................................................................ 25 Preliminary Exploration of Trust ...................................................................................................... 26 Extensions of Reputation and Trust ................................................................................................ 27 Reputation as Proxy for Trust .......................................................................................................... 29 The Role of Trust .............................................................................................................................. 31 The Goal of Trust ............................................................................................................................. 32 Extending Trust to Online Spaces .................................................................................................... 33 Surveillance ...................................................................................................................................... 34 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 2: .......................................................................................................................................... 40 Creation, Embedding and (re)Enforcement of Community Norms via Reputation Systems .............. 40 Participatory Surveillance ................................................................................................................ 41 Reputation Systems as External Surveillant Force .......................................................................... 46 Panopticism ..................................................................................................................................... 46 Is Reputation Panoptic? ................................................................................................................... 48 Parsing Participatory Reputation Systems ...................................................................................... 51 Synopticism ...................................................................................................................................... 55 iii Synoptic Forces in Reputation ......................................................................................................... 58 EXAMPLE 1: COMMUNITY DERIVED NORMS: Ebay ................................................................... 61 EXAMPLE 2: MAINSTREAM NORMS: INTERNET DATING ............................................................ 64 EXAMPLE 3: USER DETERMINED CONTENT: DIGG ..................................................................... 67 Creation of the Transoptic Norm ..................................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 3: .......................................................................................................................................... 74 Non-Systematized Impression and Reputation Management ............................................................ 74 Social Network Sites .......................................................................................................................