Trust and Safety Engineering

An introduction to the ways consumer internet services are abused to cause real human harm and the potential operational, product and engineering responses. Students will learn about spam, fraud, account takeovers, the use of social media by terrorists, misinformation, child exploitation, harassment, bullying and self-harm. This will include studying both the technical and sociological roots of these harms and the ways various online providers have responded. Our goal is to provide students with an understanding of how the technologies they may build have been abused in the past and how they might spot future abuses earlier. The class is taught by a long-time practitioner and supplemented by guest lecturers from tech companies and non-profits. Fulfills the Technology in Society requirement. Prerequisite: CS106B or equivalent for grad students. Content note: This class will cover real-world harmful behavior and expose students to potentially upsetting material.