Nina Squicciarini
Independent Research
The work listed below consists of highly-accomplished projects I have completed at Marist College.
2020
Does Privacy On Social Media Exist? The Newest Threat of Deepfakes to Internet Privacy
For my Honors Senior Thesis project, I investigated the threat of Deepfakes to social media privacy. Social media has become part of many people’s everyday lives. Posting pictures has become a great way to connect with family and friends, but do you really know what happens when you post these pictures? My project will demonstrate how the new artificial intelligence program, Deepfakes, can be used for malicious purposes and its impact on the Internet.
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Abstract: Social media has become a regular part of many people’s everyday lives. Most social media users are unaware of the dangers and threats that come with putting your personal information on the Internet. The newest threat to Internet privacy is the artificial intelligence (AI) program, Deepfakes. This program uses a collection of images to create fake videos of people. Once Deepfake technology is more accessible, there will be plenty of opportunities for anyone to use people’s images from social media to create fake videos. There is no privacy protection on social media that would help prevent this situation, and there are no laws to support victims from this new spread of misinformation. In this study, an online experiment was conducted with four different conditions of varying proximity and efficacy involving the threat of Deepfakes. A total of 203 Marist students participated and the majority had never heard of this AI program. The respondents already did not trust Instagram and Facebook to protect their information, but they will continue to actively use these platforms. The participants plan to change their future behavior by restricting certain information they post on social media and limiting the people who follow their accounts. Many felt that Deepfakes are a distant threat and were unsure of how it could impact them. Currently, people value the instant gratification of social media over their own privacy on the Internet.
2019
Gender & Deception
In my Deceptive Communications class, I had the opportunity to conduct research with one of my classmates. We created an experiment and examined the interactions of college students for our study.
The role that gender and biological sex play in deception continues to be studied from different points of views. Previous and current studies have investigated gender in relation to deception on a behavioral level, neural level, social level, and even biological level. Gender and deception have also been looked at throughout the different developmental stages of an individual’s life, including childhood and post-adolescence. Numerous studies have commonly concluded that there are significant gender differences in deception, however this study aims to look at the role that gender and sex play in deception and the accuracy of detecting deception by observing interactions between male and female college students.
2019
Artificial Intelligence: The Dark Side of Deep Learning
During my Sophomore year of college, I had the opportunity to work with a faculty member and do independent research for the honors program. As an extension to my Media Ethics class, I worked with Professor McNulty on the ethics of the artificial intelligence system, Deep Fakes. Deep Fakes is the name of an artificial intelligence that scans pictures of a person to create a fake video of them.
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Throughout the semester I reached out to experts in the field and gained an understanding of the potential threat this program presents. I interviewed the former Senior Director of Cyber Security at the White House under the Obama and Trump administration, Andrew Grotto. Mr. Grotto provided essential insight for my project and changed the direction of my argument. I was able to conclude that no matter what kind of technology is being developed, people will always find a way to misuse it.