Privacy Law Commons^™

Smart Baby Monitors: The Modern Nanny Or A Home Invader, Sarah Ensenat

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Smart baby monitors exist to help parents protect and watch over their children. The smart baby monitors act as a second set of eyes when parents cannot be in the same room as their children. Low-tech hackers take advantage of gaps in the security of smart baby monitors. A hacker violates a consumer’s privacy by gaining access to private information, viewing the home and its occupants, and even speaking to children through the monitor.

This comment advocates for stricter security legislation for smart baby monitors. Without new legislation, manufacturers of smart baby monitors do not apply or invest in the …

"I Call Alexa To The Stand": The Privacy Implications Of Anthropomorphizing Virtual Assistants Accompanying Smart-Home Technology, Christopher B. Burkett

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Note offers a solution to the unique privacy issues posed by the increasingly humanlike interactions users have with virtual assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa, which accompany smart-home technology. These interactions almost certainly result in the users engaging in the cognitive phenomenon of anthropomorphism--more specifically, an assignment of agency. This is a phenomenon that has heretofore been ignored in the legal context, but both the rapidity of technological advancement and inadequacy of current applicable legal doctrine necessitate its consideration now. Since users view these anthropomorphized virtual assistants as persons rather than machines, the law should treat them as such. To …

Dating Dangerously: Risks Lurking Within Mobile Dating Apps, Alyssa Murphy

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In modern society, cell phones have become a virtual extension of most Americans. Advances in cell phone technology have given rise to the popularity of mobile dating applications (“apps”), which are capable of allowing users to date and meet potential partners without leaving the comfort of their own homes. The convenience and allure of mobile dating apps has led to a staggering increase in the number of crimes orchestrated against other users of the apps. Such crimes often include solicitation, stalking, murder, and human trafficking. Unsuspecting and trusting users fall victim to these crimes due to the false sense of …

Defamation And Privacy In The Social Media Age: What Would Justice Brennan Think?, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Microsoft Ireland, The Cloud Act, And International Lawmaking 2.0, Jennifer Daskal

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On March 23, President Trump signed the CLOUD Act, 1 thereby mooting one of the most closely watched Supreme Court cases this term: the Microsoft Ireland case. 2 This essay examines these extraordinary and fast-moving developments, explaining how the Act resolves the Supreme Court case and addresses the complicated questions of jurisdiction over data in the cloud. The developments represent a classic case of international lawmaking via domestic regulation, as mediated by major multinational corporations that manage so much of the world's data.