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Full-Text Articles in Consumer Protection Law
Economic Rationality And Ethical Values In Design-Defect Analysis: The Trolley Problem And Autonomous Vehicles, W. Bradley Wendel
Economic Rationality And Ethical Values In Design-Defect Analysis: The Trolley Problem And Autonomous Vehicles, W. Bradley Wendel
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
The trolley problem is a well-known thought experiment in moral philosophy, used to explore issues such as rights, deontological reasons, and intention and the doctrine of double effect. Recently it has featured prominently in popular discussions of decision making by autonomous vehicle systems. For example, a Mercedes-Benz executive stated that, if faced with the choice between running over a child that had unexpectedly darted into the road and steering suddenly, causing a rollover accident that would kill the driver, an automated Mercedes would opt to kill the child. This paper considers not the ethical issues raised by such dilemmas, but …
Privacy As Product Safety, James Grimmelmann
Privacy As Product Safety, James Grimmelmann
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Online social media confound many of our familiar expectations about privacy. Contrary to popular myth, users of social software like Facebook do care about privacy, deserve it, and have trouble securing it for themselves. Moreover, traditional database-focused privacy regulations on the Fair Information Practices model, while often worthwhile, fail to engage with the distinctively social aspects of these online services.
Instead, online privacy law should take inspiration from a perhaps surprising quarter: product-safety law. A web site that directs users' personal information in ways they don't expect is a defectively designed product, and many concepts from products liability law could …