Digital Commons Network^™

National Security And Federalizing Data Privacy Infrastructure For Ai Governance, Margaret Hu, Eliott Behar, Davi Ottenheimer

Faculty Publications

This Essay contends that data infrastructure, when implemented on a national scale, can transform the way we conceptualize artificial intelligence (AI) governance. AI governance is often viewed as necessary for a wide range of strategic goals, including national security. It is widely understood that allowing AI and generative AI to remain self-regulated by the U.S. AI industry poses significant national security risks. Data infrastructure and AI oversight can assist in multiple goals, including: maintaining data privacy and data integrity; increasing cybersecurity; and guarding against information warfare threats. This Essay concludes that conceptualizing data infrastructure as a form of critical infrastructure …

Academic Economic Espionage?, Elizabeth A. Rowe

William & Mary Law Review

In 2018 the U.S. government announced that Chinese espionage was occurring in university research labs, and the Department of Justice subsequently made it a high priority to prosecute economic espionage in academia. The DOJ’s grave concerns about espionage in academia have continued, and the Director of the FBI has lamented that American taxpayers are footing the bill for China’s technological development. This geopolitical concern about espionage has had real world and personal consequences in academia. Since 2019, over a dozen high-profile criminal prosecutions have put prominent professors at major research universities across the country in handcuffs and almost all the …

If You Think Ai Won't Eclipse Humanity, You're Probably Just A Human, Gary D. Brown

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Building machines that can replicate human thinking and behavior has fascinated people for hundreds of years. Stories about robots date from ancient history through da Vinci to the present. Whether designed to save labor or lives, to provide companionship or protection, loyal, capable, productive machines are a dream of humanity.

The modern manifestation of this interest in using human-like technology to advance social interests is artificial intelligence (AI). This is a paper about what that interest in AI means and how it might develop in the world of national security.

This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.

Congressional Oversight Of Modern Warfare: History, Pathologies, And Proposals For Reform, Oona A. Hathaway, Tobias Kuehne, Randi Michel, Nicole Ng

William & Mary Law Review

Despite significant developments in the nature of twenty-first century warfare, Congress continues to employ a twentieth century oversight structure. Modern warfare tactics, including cyber operations, drone strikes, and special operations, do not neatly fall into congressional committee jurisdictions. Counterterrorism and cyber operations, which are inherently multi-jurisdictional and highly classified, illustrate the problem. In both contexts, over the past several years Congress has addressed oversight shortcomings by strengthening its reporting requirements, developing relatively robust oversight regimes. But in solving one problem, Congress has created another: deeply entrenched information silos that inhibit the sharing of information about modern warfare across committees. This …

Bulk Biometric Metadata Collection, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

Smart police body cameras and smart glasses worn by law enforcement increasingly reflect state-of-the-art surveillance technology, such as the integration of live-streaming video with facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools, including automated analytics. This Article explores how these emerging cybersurveillance technologies risk the potential for bulk biometric metadata collection. Such collection is likely to fall outside the scope of the types of bulk metadata collection protections regulated by the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015. The USA FREEDOM Act was intended to bring the practice of bulk telephony metadata collection conducted by the National Security Agency (“NSA”) under tighter regulation. In …

Horizontal Cybersurveillance Through Sentiment Analysis, Margaret Hu

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Essay describes emerging big data technologies that facilitate horizontal cybersurveillance. Horizontal cybersurveillance makes possible what has been termed as “sentiment analysis.” Sentiment analysis can be described as opinion mining and social movement forecasting. Through sentiment analysis, mass cybersurveillance technologies can be deployed to detect potential terrorism and state conflict, predict protest and civil unrest, and gauge the mood of populations and subpopulations. Horizontal cybersurveillance through sentiment analysis has the likely result of chilling expressive and associational freedoms, while at the same time risking mass data seizures and searches. These programs, therefore, must be assessed as adversely impacting a combination …

Crimmigration-Counterterrorism, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

The discriminatory effects that may stem from biometric ID cybersurveillance and other algorithmically-driven screening technologies can be better understood through the analytical prism of “crimmigrationcounterterrorism”: the conflation of crime, immigration, and counterterrorism policy. The historical genesis for this phenomenon can be traced back to multiple migration law developments, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. To implement stricter immigration controls at the border and interior, both the federal and state governments developed immigration enforcement schemes that depended upon both biometric identification documents and immigration screening protocols. This Article uses contemporary attempts to implement an expanded regime of “extreme vetting” to …

Biometric Cyberintelligence And The Posse Comitatus Act, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

This Article addresses the rapid growth of what the military and the intelligence community refer to as “biometric-enabled intelligence.” This newly emerging intelligence tool is reliant upon biometric databases—for example, digitalized storage of scanned fingerprints and irises, digital photographs for facial recognition technology, and DNA. This Article introduces the term “biometric cyberintelligence” to more accurately describe the manner in which this new tool is dependent upon cybersurveillance and big data’s massintegrative systems.

This Article argues that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, designed to limit the deployment of federal military resources in the service of domestic policies, will be difficult …

Doing Our Part: Acknowledging And Addressing Women’S Contributions To Isis, Elizabeth Buner

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Regulating Drones Under The First And Fourth Amendments, Marc Jonathan Blitz, James Grimsley, Stephen E. Henderson, Joseph Thai

William & Mary Law Review

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires the Federal Aviation Administration to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, into the national airspace system by September 2015. Yet perhaps because of their chilling accuracy in targeted killings abroad, perhaps because of an increasing consciousness of diminishing privacy more generally, and perhaps simply because of a fear of the unknown, divergent UAV-restrictive legislation has been proposed in Congress and enacted in a number of states. Given UAV utility and cost-effectiveness over a vast range of tasks, however, widespread commercial use ultimately seems certain. Consequently, it is imperative to understand …

Submarines, Sonar, And The Death Of Whales: Enforcing The Delicate Balance Of Environmental Compliance And National Security In Military Training, Joel R. Reynolds

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

National Security And The Endangered Species Act: A Fresh Look At The Exemption Process And The Evolution Of Army Environmental Policy, Jason C. Wells

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Bioweapon Impacts On Public Health And The Environment, David Pimentel, Marcia Pimentel

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Gis In An Age Of Homeland Security: Accessing Public Information To Ensure A Sustainable Environment, Patricia E. Salkin

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

American Cities And Sustainable Development In The Age Of Global Terrorism: Some Thoughts On Fortress America And The Potential For Defensive Disperal Ii, Edward H. Ziegler

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Terrorism, Security, And Environmental Protection, Stephen M. Johnson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Whose Line In The Sand: Can Environmental Protection And National Security Coexist, And Should The Government Be Held Liable For Not Attaining This Goal?, Ekundayo B. George

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

National Security Exemptions In Federal Pollution Laws, Amy Sheridan

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

So You Think A Woman Can't Carry Out A Suicide Bombing? Terrorism, Homeland Security, And Gender Profiling: Legal Discrimination For National Security, Ashley Nicole Reynolds

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.