CS 4501

This review is for Privacy in the Internet Age.

This was a really interesting course that was not particularly difficult. Professor Sun explores a variety of privacy topics -- most of them relate to networking (TLS, Tor, IP, DNS) but there are some other topics too (public data releases, GDPR). She is super knowledgable in the field and does a good job explaining it. There are three homework projects that dive into specific topics. One was data analysis for smart TVs (pretty easy), one was exploring Tor circuits (a little harder but nothing crazy), and one was performing a correlation attack (hard but not impossible). There was then a final project where you could explore anything related to privacy alone or with a group, it just needed to have some coding component. There were also periodic pop quizzes that were mostly graded on completion (ie served more of an attendance-taking role). My one complaint was that there was no rigorous assessment of lecture material, which made it all-too-easy to zone out in lecture and not need to review the material later. But, overall, I'd recommend this course as an integral part of a CS education! #tCFF23

Grading: Assignments: 45% (3 assignments, 15% each), Quizzes: 24%, Final project: 30%, Attendance: 1%.

The first homework was okay, but the next two were crazy hard. There are pop-up quizzes, so you are gonna have to show up to almost every lecture. And honestly, the lectures are pretty boring and not very engaging.

The course delves into topics such as Tor and censorship, primarily focusing on IP addresses and tracking. If these subjects pique your interest, then this course might be a good fit for you. However, given that it's an advanced 4000-level computer science elective, be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time in both assignments and group projects. If you're looking for something less demanding, I'd recommend exploring alternative options.

1. This class actually teaches interesting material. She does not just give you boring things to memorize, but instead she actually shows practical applications of the everything in pretty much every lecture. Her lectures can get a tiny bit dry here and there but I think that's just how it is for a course that requires some niche background info.
2. Prof. Sun is a super nice person. She just got her PhD from Princeton like 2 years ago so she understands how students feel sometimes. She has never asked us to do things that are impossible and usually are very reasonable with things if you do talk to her.
3. Assignments are mostly jupyter notebooks, each actually applies some knowledge you learned, like processing captured data, and etc.
4. Quizzes are very doable IF YOU PAY ATTENTION in class. You don't need to be well versed, as long as you do show up and not zone out the home time you should be good! Attendance is not required but I think it's quite crucial to understand the material. Quizzes are a mix of some easy copy pasta from the lecture slides and a few questions that requires deeper level understanding but overall they are very doable.
5. Just one late note, it would be better that people taking this course has a little of networks/cybersecurity/privacy/ML background. I didn't take anything like that before this but I had some personal interest in them so I understand some info faster. I believe you will have a small learning curve if you don't know much about networks/cybersec (just a small learning curve tho, it's not hard to overcome).

This course (Privacy in the internet age) is interesting in theory. I took this class because I was interested in Cybersecurity and wasn't able to get into Intro to Cyber, and if you're looking to take it for the same reason: don't. The professor is really kind and is obviously really interested in the subject but I feel like it leads to a lot of tangents that made it hard for me to follow along with the lecture and what we were really supposed to be learning. The class is constructed mostly on the homework assignments and the final project, where the assignments are 15% each and the final project is worth 40%. The assignments are the thing I had the most trouble with in this course, as we're never actually taught how to do the code we need for the assignments. The instructions often were also unclear and just made it difficult to even get started with a question because you were unsure what it was asking for. Overall I think that some people might strive in this course, but it was not for me. If you are someone genuinely interested in this topic and are confident enough with your personal skills to work through the assignments independently then this might be the course for you... and prior experience would definitely be helpful.

This review is for Privacy in the Internet Age.

This is an interesting topic taught by a great Professor. Professor Sun is passionate about the course material and was engaging, both in person and virtually (she had both in person and virtual lectures available during the covid semester). I thought the course got a little dry at the end because we dug into some low level stuff relating to networks and privacy, but the course was overall interesting, especially the first half.

Grade breakdown: There were three hw assignments worth 15% of your grade each. The first one was a bit difficult, the last two were really easy imo. There were three open note, open internet quizzes worth 5% each. These were very easy, basically you just had to ctrl-f for keywords in the slides and you'd find the answers. There was a final project worth 40% of your grade and you could work with one other person. The project was open ended and just had to be related to the course topics and involve a bit of coding.

Overall, I would rank this as an above average CS elective both in terms of easiness and coolness.

#tCF2020