How Will Today's Technology Shape our Tomorrow?

When searching the internet, it is possible for one to reveal certain information that they would rather keep private. For example, looking up medical symptoms online could inadvertently reveal their health conditions to Google, an online medical database like WebMD, and perhaps hundreds of these companies’ advertisers and business partners. MIT researchers developed a protocol known as Simple PIR, in which a server performs much of the underlying cryptographic work in advance before a client even sends a query. The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fifth Edition provides an understanding of modern technological tools and their applications through the exploration of the latest research.

"The Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology continues its tradition of presenting a comprehensive, international snapshot of the latest information technologies of interest to librarians, academicians, and researchers from numerous industries." – Jennifer Bartlett, Oral History Librarian, University of Kentucky Libraries

“Utility theory is concerned with people’s choices and decisions based on preferences and values (Fishburn, 1968). Representing satisfaction experienced, utility is derived from the self-attributed worth and goodness of an option compared to other options. Standard neo-classical economic theory describes utility as a set of internally-consistent assumptions about options in the wish to maximize utility (Fishburn, 1968). Utility theory has leveraged as one of the most dominant theories in economics as an underpinning of rational choice and game theory.…” Preview the chapter here.