Law Commons^™

Continuous Reproductive Surveillance, Michael Ulrich, Leah R. Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

The Dobbs opinion emphasizes that the state’s interest in the fetus extends to “all stages of development.” This essay briefly explores whether state legislators, agencies, and courts could use the “all stages of development” language to expand reproductive surveillance by using novel developments in consumer health technologies to augment those efforts.

National Telecommunications And Information Administration: Comments From Researchers At Boston University And The University Of Chicago, Ran Canetti, Aloni Cohen, Chris Conley, Mark Crovella, Stacey Dogan, Marco Gaboardi, Woodrow Hartzog, Rory Van Loo, Christopher Robertson, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

These comments were composed by an interdisciplinary group of legal, computer science, and data science faculty and researchers at Boston University and the University of Chicago. This group collaborates on research projects that grapple with the legal, policy, and ethical implications of the use of algorithms and digital innovation in general, and more specifically regarding the use of online platforms, machine learning algorithms for classification, prediction, and decision making, and generative AI. Specific areas of expertise include the functionality and impact of recommendation systems; the development of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and their relationship to privacy and data security laws; …

Femtechnodystopia, Leah R. Fowler, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

Reproductive rights, as we have long understood them, are dead. But at the same time history seems to be moving backward, technology moves relentlessly forward. Femtech products, a category of consumer technology addressing an array of “female” health needs, seem poised to fill gaps created by states and stakeholders eager to limit birth control and abortion access and increase pregnancy surveillance and fetal rights. Period and fertility tracking applications could supplement or replace other contraception. Early digital alerts to missed periods can improve the chances of obtaining a legal abortion in states with ever-shrinking windows of availability or prompt behavioral …

Understanding Dark Patterns In Home Iot Devices, Monica Kowalczyk, Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Daniel J. Dubois, Woodrow Hartzog, Christo Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are ubiquitous, but little attention has been paid to how they may incorporate dark patterns despite consumer protections and privacy concerns arising from their unique access to intimate spaces and always-on capabilities. This paper conducts a systematic investigation of dark patterns in 57 popular, diverse smart home devices. We update manual interaction and annotation methods for the IoT context, then analyze dark pattern frequency across device types, manufacturers, and interaction modalities. We find that dark patterns are pervasive in IoT experiences, but manifest in diverse ways across device traits. Speakers, doorbells, and camera devices contain the most …

A Concrete Proposal For Data Loyalty, Neil Richards, Woodrow Hartzog, Jordan Francis

Faculty Scholarship

Congress and state legislators are finally experimenting with new privacy frameworks, rights, and duties to move past the thoroughly critiqued “notice and choice” model for data privacy. While many new privacy proposals seek a more fortified version of the fair information practices, some legislators have placed a duty of data loyalty at the heart of their proposed privacy bills. This is important because a duty of data loyalty has the potential to anchor American privacy law in a way analogous to how the European Union approach is grounded in fundamental rights of privacy and data protection.

Unfortunately, there remains some …