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Intro to CS 9-10 / Week 12 / Monday
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Week 12 · Safe, Fair and Ready: Beacon Launch Review

Monday

What Beacon knows about people
// Privacy, security, fairness and a launch day demo
⏱ about 20 min

Monday: What Beacon Knows About People

Launch day is one week away. Mission control sends a checklist titled Beacon Launch Review.

Comet scans it fast. "Security, privacy, fairness, licenses. Easy. Beacon only watches plants."

Wren opens his sign-in screen design. "What do you notice? You ask every crew member for their age, their phone number and a fingerprint."

"I thought it looked official," Comet says.

Nova hovers over the screen. "Every piece you collect is a piece you must protect," she says. "Which ones does Beacon truly need?"

Comet picks up an eraser. "Maybe fewer than I thought."

Personally identifiable information

Personally identifiable information, or PII, is information that identifies, links, relates to or describes a person.

Examples of PII include age, phone numbers, medical information and biometric data, such as a fingerprint.

Devices, websites and networks can collect information about a user's location.

Scattered personal data, such as location, cookies and browsing history, can be combined to learn a lot about one person.

IS IT PII?
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
A crew member's phone number. Is it PII?
A crew member's fingerprint. Is it PII?
The water level in tomato bed 3. Is it PII?
A note in a crew member's Beacon file about their allergy medicine. Is it PII?

Once it is out there

Information placed online can be used in ways nobody intended, and that can cause harm.

Once information is placed online, it is difficult to delete.

So the safest data to protect is data you never collected. Beacon should ask: does a plant app need this?

StatementTrue or false?
Age is an example of PII.?
Information placed online is always easy to delete.?
Scattered data can be combined to learn about a person.?
Networks can collect information about a user's location.?
Collecting more PII always makes an app safer.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEKnowing what PII is helps you decide what an app should never collect.
Field on Comet's sign-in screenKind of data
Crew nameIdentifies a person
AgePII
Phone numberPII
FingerprintBiometric data, PII
Favorite plantNot needed for any Beacon job
TRIM THE SIGN-IN SCREEN
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Beacon needs to know which crew member watered a bed. Which single field is most useful?
Does Beacon need anyone's age to water tomatoes?
Information that identifies or describes a person is called ____.
A fingerprint is an example of ____ data.
Once information is placed online, is it easy or difficult to delete? Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISEHard-to-delete data is a reason to think before collecting or sharing.
Try it
Look at a paper form you have at home, such as a library or club sign-up sheet, without filling anything in.
Which questions ask for PII? Which questions could the form leave out?
For a grown-up
This is the final week. Your student runs a launch review of Beacon, the paper app they designed all course.
On Saturday, they demo it to the family.
No lesson asks your student for personal information or a real password. Every example is invented.
On paper, sketch Comet's sign-in screen again, keeping only the fields Beacon truly needs.

Strong start, developer. Tomorrow you will put locks and keys on Beacon.