Law Commons^™

Regulating Data Breaches: A Data Superfund Statute, Kyle Mckibbin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Collecting and processing large amounts of personal data has become a fundamental feature of the modern economy. Personal data, combined with good data analytics, are valuable to businesses as they can provide highly detailed information about individual preferences and behaviors. This data collection can also be valuable to the consumer as it generates innovative products and digital platforms. The era of big data promises great rewards, but it is not without its costs. Data breaches, or the release of personal data into unwanted hands, are pervasive and increasingly massive in scale. Despite the personal privacy harm caused by data breaches, …

Flagging The Middle Ground Of The Right To Be Forgotten: Combatting Old News With Search Engine Flags, Hannah L. Cook

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Incomplete and outdated news articles present an increasing problem for individuals who find themselves stigmatized on the basis of truthful but misleading reports. This Article proposes a moderate solution between the European right to be forgotten and the protectionless status quo in the United States. It proposes a flagging system, administered through Federal Trade Commission adjudications, where links to articles whose private harms outweigh their public benefits are flagged in the search results of an individual. This flag will help combat psychological biases that may cause decisionmakers to place an irrational weight on these articles while preserving the ability of …

The Shaky Ground Of The Right To Be Delisted, Miquel Peguera

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

It has long been discussed whether individuals should have a "right to be forgotten" online to suppress old information that could seriously interfere with their privacy and data protection rights. In the landmark case of Google Spain v. Agencia Espafiola de Proteccion de Datos, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) addressed the particular question of whether, under EU Data Protection Law, individuals have a right to have links delisted from the list of search results in searches made on the basis of their name. It found that they do have this right--which can be best described as …

"Do-Not-Track" As Contract, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Support for enforcement of a do-not-track option in browsers has been gathering steam. Such an option presents a simple method for consumers to protect their privacy. The problem is how to enforce this choice. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could enforce a do-not-track option in a consumer browser under its section 5 powers. The FTC, however, currently appears to lack the political will to do so. Moreover, the FTC cannot follow the model of its successful do-not-call list since the majority of Internet service providers (ISPs) assign Internet addresses dynamically--telephone numbers do not change, whereas Internet protocol (IP) addresses may …

Privacy, Accountability, And The Cooperating Defendant: Towards A New Role For Internet Access To Court Records, Caren M. Morrison

Vanderbilt Law Review

Now that federal court records are available online, anyone can obtain criminal case files instantly over the Internet. But this unfettered flow of information is in fundamental tension with many goals of the criminal justice system, including the integrity of criminal investigations, the accountability of prosecutors, and the security of witnesses. It has also altered the behavior of prosecutors intent on protecting the identity of cooperating defendants who assist them in investigating other targets. As prosecutors and courts collaborate to obscure the process by which cooperators are recruited and rewarded, Internet availability risks degrading the value of the information obtained …

Accommodating Technological Innovation: Identity, Genetic Testing And The Internet, Gaia Bernstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

To evaluate the need for legal change stemming from technological innovation, we need to look beyond the accommodations of specific rules to the impact of technological innovation on social structures, institutes and values. In this Article I study how social tensions created by recent technological innovations produce a need to elevate legal interest from the shadows of legal discourse into the forefront of legal debate. Specifically, I examine two innovations that are exerting significant influence on our lives-genetic testing and the Internet-and their impact on our normative conception of identity. This socially oriented approach leads to several insights.

First, I …

Privacy And Democracy In Cyberspace, Paul M. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this Article, Professor Schwartz depicts the widespread, silent collection of personal information in cyberspace. At present, it is impossible to know the fate of the personal data that one generates online. Professor Schwartz argues that this state of affairs degrades the health of a deliberative democracy; it cloaks in dark uncertainty the transmutation of Internet activity into personal information that will follow one into other areas and discourage civic participation. This situation also will have a negative impact on individual self- determination by deterring individuals from engaging in the necessary thinking out loud and deliberation with others upon which …