Law Commons^™

Me, Myself And My Digital Double: Extending Sara Greene’S Stealing (Identity) From The Poor To The Challenges Of Identity Verification, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

Identity is an essential part of the human condition. When one’s identity is stolen or when a state rejects a citizen’s identity, the consequences can be devastating to one’s notion of selfhood as well as undermine their economic security. In Stealing (Identity) from the Poor, Sara Greene explores the serious harms suffered by low-income people who are victimized by identity theft. She explains that our plutocratic regime of identity theft laws serves the interests of wealthier Americans at the expense of those experiencing poverty.

This Essay extends Greene’s analysis and framing to the harms of identity verification systems, particularly in …

Periods For Profit And The Rise Of Menstrual Surveillance, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

Menstruation is being monetized and surveilled, with the voluntary participation of millions of women. Thousands of downloadable apps promise to help women monitor their periods and manage their fertility. These apps are part of the broader, multi-billion dollar, Femtech industry, which sells technology to help women understand and improve their health. Femtech is marketed with the language of female autonomy and feminist empowerment. Despite this rhetoric, Femtech is part of a broader business strategy of data extraction, in which companies are extracting people’s personal data for profit, typically without their knowledge or meaningful consent. Femtech can oppress menstruators in several …

Privacy, Poverty, And Big Data: A Matrix Of Vulnerabilities For Poor Americans, Mary Madden, Michele E. Gilman, Karen Levy, Alice Marwick

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the matrix of vulnerabilities that low-income people face as a result of the collection and aggregation of big data and the application of predictive analytics. On one hand, big data systems could reverse growing economic inequality by expanding access to opportunities for low-income people. On the other hand, big data could widen economic gaps by making it possible to prey on low-income people or to exclude them from opportunities due to biases entrenched in algorithmic decision-making tools. New kinds of “networked privacy” harms, in which users are simultaneously held liable for their own behavior and the actions …

Never Alone: Why The Inevitable Influx Of Drones Necessitates A New Fourth Amendment Standard That Adequately Protects Reasonable Expectations Of Privacy, Paul Burgin

University of Baltimore Law Review

In June 2011, North Dakota cattle rancher Rodney Brossart became the first American to be arrested with the aid of a drone (Unmanned Aircraft System(s) or UAS) operated by law enforcement. Six cows found their way onto Brossart's property, and he refused to turn them over to law enforcement officials. Brossart and a few family members chased police officers off of his property at gunpoint, and police later returned with a warrant and SWAT team. A sixteen-hour standoff ensued until police called in the assistance of a UAS to pinpoint Brossart's exact location. Shortly thereafter, SWAT officers rushed in, tased, …

Comments: Hipaa Confusion: How The Privacy Rule Authorizes "Informal" Discovery, Myles J. Poster

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Anonymity, Faceprints, And The Constitution, Kimberly L. Wehle

All Faculty Scholarship

Part I defines anonymity and explains that respect for the capacity to remain physically and psychologically unknown to the government traces back to the Founding. With the advent and expansion of new technologies such as facial recognition technology (“FRT”), the ability to remain anonymous has eroded, leading to a litany of possible harms.

Part II reviews the existing Fourth and First Amendment doctrine that is available to stave off ubiquitous government surveillance and identifies anonymity as a constitutional value that warrants more explicit doctrinal protection. Although the Fourth Amendment has been construed to excise surveillance of public and third-party information …

Comments: What's Yours Is Ours? Gamete Donation In The Marital Context: Why Courts And Legislatures Should Not Interfere With An Individual's Fundamental Right To Privacy, Emily K. Alt

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comments: Newborn Screening Programs And Privacy: Shifting Responsibility From The Parent To The Laboratory, Michael D. Leeb

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy Online: "Do Not Track" Legislation, Alicia Shelton

University of Baltimore Law Forum

This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the World Wide Web (“Web”), and more than 81% of Americans are now using the internet on a regular basis. Yet, despite the fact that key pieces of personally identifying information—name, address, phone number, email address, and birthday—and sensitive personal data—political opinions, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, and health—can be learned through tracking an individual’s online activity, there continues to be a void of federal legislation protecting the privacy of internet users. In the absence of federal action, state legislatures are tasked with regulating electronic surveillance by both private companies and the …

Research And Reality: Better Understanding The Debate Between Sequential And Simultaneous Photo Arrays, Frederick H. Bealefeld Iii

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Dna Databasing Is Good For Maryland — A Dna Analyst's Perspective, Rana Santos

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Symposium Foreword: Privacy Rights And Proactive Investigations: Emerging Constitutional Issues In Law Enforcement, Thiru Vignarajah

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Back To The Future: United States V Jones Resuscitates Property Law Concepts In Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, Nancy Forster

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indecent Exposure: Genes Are More Than A Brand Name Label In The Dna Database Debate, Jessica D. Gabel

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Post-Jones: How District Courts Are Answering The Myriad Questions Raised By The Supreme Court's Decision In United States V. Jones, Jason D. Medinger

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Location, Location, Location: Balancing Crime Fighting Needs And Privacy Rights, Nancy K. Oliver

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Imperative Of Eyewitness Identification Reform And The Role Of Police Leadership, Rebecca Brown, Stephen Saloom

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Class Differential In Privacy Law, Michele E. Gilman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article analyzes how privacy law fails the poor. Due to advanced technologies, all Americans are facing corporate and governmental surveillance. However, privacy law is focused on middle-class concerns about limiting the disclosure of personal data so that it is not misused. By contrast, along the welfare-to-work continuum, poor people face privacy intrusions at the time that the state or their employers gather data. This data collection tends to be stigmatizing and humiliating, and it thus not only compounds the harmful effects of living in poverty, but also dampens democratic participation by the poor. The poor interact with the government …

Big Brother Or Little Brother? Surrendering Seizure Privacy For The Benefits Of Communication Technology, José F. Anderson

All Faculty Scholarship

Over two centuries have passed since Benjamin Franklin quipped that we should defend privacy over security if people wanted either privacy or security. Although his axiom did not become a rule of law in its original form, its principles found voice in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution's Bill of Rights. To a lesser extent, provisions against the quartering of troops in private homes found in the Third Amendment also support the idea that what a government can require you to do, or who you must have behind the doors of your home, is an area of grave …

Big Brother Is Watching: The Reality Show You Didn't Audition For, J. Amy Dillard

All Faculty Scholarship

In 1984, at the height of the Reagan-era war on drugs, the Supreme Court created a bright-line exception to Fourth Amendment protection by declaring that no person had a reasonable expectation of privacy in an area defined as an open field. When it created the exception, the Court ignored positive law and its own jurisprudence that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. The open fields doctrine allows law enforcement officers to enter posted, private areas that are not part of a house or its curtilage for brief surveillance. The Supreme Court has never “extended the open fields doctrine to …

Ten Years After: Bartnicki V. Vopper As Laboratory For First Amendment Advocacy And Analysis, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

How many ways can one approach a First Amendment analysis? What influences a lawyer or a judge to select one analytical approach over another? And what is the long-term effect of a court's choice of one over another? In Bartnicki v. Vopper, a 2001 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court considered federal and state statutes prohibiting the disclosure of illegally intercepted telephone conversations, we are privileged to have a small laboratory through which to study the first two questions. And, from the vantage point of ten years, we ought to be able to make some informed predictions as to …

Comments: Naturally Shed Dna: The Fourth Amendment Implications In The Trail Of Intimate Information We All Cannot Help But Leave Behind, Mike Silvestri

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comments: Privacy At Risk: Patients Use New Web Products To Store And Share Personal Health Records, Juliana Bell

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Welfare, Privacy, And Feminism, Michele E. Gilman

University of Baltimore Law Forum

Feminism has long been concerned with privacy. Second-wave feminists assailed the divide between the public and the private spheres that trapped women in the home, excluded them from the workforce, and subjected them to domestic abuse. Second-wave feminists also argued in favor of a sphere of privacy that would allow women to make reproductive choices without state interference. These were powerful critiques of existing power structures, but they tended to overlook the experiences of poor women. As a condition of receiving welfare benefits, poor women have been subjected to drug tests, and they continue to face unannounced home inspections by …

Comments: Electronic Access To Court Records: Shifting The Privacy Burden Away From Witnesses And Victims, John Losinger

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Internet Cookies: When Is Permission Consent?, Max Oppenheimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Information And The Eu Data Protection Directive, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

The EU Data Protection Directive attempts to balance protection of privacy and freedom of information acquisition. It does this by authorizing Member States to provide exemptions and derogations in their individual legislation.

Business Information And "Personal Data": Some Common-Law Observations About The Eu Draft Data Protection Directive, James Maxeiner

All Faculty Scholarship

Discusses the public interest in the free flow of information.

Lost Privacy In The Computer Age: Computer Matching Programs Are Turning Uncle Sam Into Big Brother, Miriam Lapp Azrael

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.