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A Comment On Privacy And Accountability In Black-Box Medicine, Carl E. Schneider Apr 2017

A Comment On Privacy And Accountability In Black-Box Medicine, Carl E. Schneider

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Human institutions and activities cannot avoid failures. Anxiety about them often provokes governments to try to prevent those failures. When that anxiety is vivid and urgent, government may do so without carefully asking whether regulation’s costs justify their benefits. Privacy and Accountability in Black Box Medicine admirably labors to bring discipline and rationality to thinking about an important development — the rise of “black-box medicine” — before it causes injuries regulation should have prevented and before it is impaired by improvident regulation. That is, Privacy and Accountability weighs the costs against the benefits of various forms of regulation across the …


Privacy And Accountability In Black-Box Medicine, Roger Allan Ford, W. Nicholson Price Ii Jan 2016

Privacy And Accountability In Black-Box Medicine, Roger Allan Ford, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Black-box medicine—the use of big data and sophisticated machine-learning techniques for health-care applications—could be the future of personalized medicine. Black-box medicine promises to make it easier to diagnose rare diseases and conditions, identify the most promising treatments, and allocate scarce resources among different patients. But to succeed, it must overcome two separate, but related, problems: patient privacy and algorithmic accountability. Privacy is a problem because researchers need access to huge amounts of patient health information to generate useful medical predictions. And accountability is a problem because black-box algorithms must be verified by outsiders to ensure they are accurate and unbiased, …


Geographically Restricted Streaming Content And Evasion Of Geolocation: The Applicability Of The Copyright Anticircumvention Rules, Jerusha Burnett Jan 2013

Geographically Restricted Streaming Content And Evasion Of Geolocation: The Applicability Of The Copyright Anticircumvention Rules, Jerusha Burnett

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

A number of methods currently exist or are being developed to determine where Internet users are located geographically when they access a particular webpage. Yet regardless of the precautions taken by website operators to limit the locations from which they allow access, it is likely that users will find ways to gain access to restricted content. Should the evasion of geolocation constitute circumvention of access controls so that § 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") applies? Because location data can properly be considered personally identifiable information ("PII"), this Note argues that § 1201 should not apply absent a …


Privacy Policies, Terms Of Service, And Ftc Enforcement: Broadening Unfairness Regulation For A New Era, G. S. Hans Jan 2012

Privacy Policies, Terms Of Service, And Ftc Enforcement: Broadening Unfairness Regulation For A New Era, G. S. Hans

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Note examines website privacy policies in the context of FTC regulation. The relevant portion of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), uses the following language to define the scope of the agency's regulatory authority: "Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful." Specifically, this Note analyzes the FTC's power to regulate unfair practices (referred to as the FTC's "unfairness power") granted by Section 5, and also discusses the deception prong of Section 5, which allows the agency to …


Property As Control: The Case Of Information, Jane B. Baron Jan 2012

Property As Control: The Case Of Information, Jane B. Baron

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

If heath policy makers' wishes come true, by the end of the current decade the paper charts in which most of our medical information is currently recorded will be replaced by networked electronic health records ("EHRs").[...] Like all computerized records, networked EHRs are difficult to secure, and the information in EHRs is both particularly sensitive and particularly valuable for commercial purposes. Sadly, the existing federal statute meant to address this problem, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"), is probably inadequate to the task.[...] Health law, privacy, and intellectual property scholars have all suggested that the river …


No Cause Of Action: Video Surveillance In New York City, Olivia J. Greer Jan 2012

No Cause Of Action: Video Surveillance In New York City, Olivia J. Greer

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In 2010, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced a new network of video surveillance in the City. The new network would be able to prevent future terrorist attacks by identifying suspicious behavior before catastrophic events could take place. Kelly told reporters, "If we're looking for a person in a red jacket, we can call up all the red jackets filmed in the last 30 days," and "[w]e're beginning to use software that can identify suspicious objects or behaviors." Gothamist later made a witticism of Kelly's statement, remarking, "Note to terrorists: red jackets are not a good look for …


Does Law Matter Online - Empirical Evidence On Privacy Law Compliance, Michael Birnhack, Niva Elkin-Koren Jan 2011

Does Law Matter Online - Empirical Evidence On Privacy Law Compliance, Michael Birnhack, Niva Elkin-Koren

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Does law matter in the information environment? What can we learn from the experience of applying a particular legal regime to the online environment? Informational privacy (or to use the European term, data protection) provides an excellent illustration of the challenges faced by regulators who seek to secure user rights and shape online behavior. A comprehensive study of Israeli website compliance with information privacy regulation in 2003 and 2006 provides insights for understanding these challenges. The study examined the information privacy practices of 1360 active websites, determining the extent to which these sites comply with applicable legal requirements related to …


A Path Toward User Control Of Online Profiling, Tracy A. Steindel Jan 2011

A Path Toward User Control Of Online Profiling, Tracy A. Steindel

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Online profiling is "the practice of tracking information about consumers' interests by monitoring their movements online." A primary purpose of online profiling is to "deliver advertising tailored to the individual's interests," a practice known as online behavioral advertising (OBA). In order to accomplish this, publishers and advertisers track a individual's online behavior using cookies and other means. Publishers and advertisers aggregate the information, often compile it with information from offline sources, and sort individuals into groups based on characteristics such as age, income, and hobbies. Advertisers can then purchase access to these consumer groups, controlling their selections with such specificity …


There Is A Time To Keep Silent And A Time To Speak, The Hard Part Is Knowing Which Is Which: Striking The Balance Between Privacy Protection And The Flow Of Health Care Information, Daniel J. Gilman, James C. Cooper Jan 2010

There Is A Time To Keep Silent And A Time To Speak, The Hard Part Is Knowing Which Is Which: Striking The Balance Between Privacy Protection And The Flow Of Health Care Information, Daniel J. Gilman, James C. Cooper

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Health information technology (HIT) has become a signal element of federal health policy, especially as the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act or ARRA) comprises numerous provisions related to HIT and commits tens of billions of dollars to its development and adoption. These provisions charge various agencies of the federal government with both general and specific HIT-related implementation tasks including, inter alia, providing funding for HIT in various contexts: the implementation of interoperable HIT, HIT-related infrastructure, and HIT-related training and research. The Recovery Act also contains various regulatory provisions pertaining to HIT. Provisions of the …


When Mobile Phones Are Rfid-Equipped - Finding E.U.-U.S. Solutions To Protect Consumer Privacy And Facilitate Mobile Commerce, Nancy J. King Jan 2008

When Mobile Phones Are Rfid-Equipped - Finding E.U.-U.S. Solutions To Protect Consumer Privacy And Facilitate Mobile Commerce, Nancy J. King

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

New mobile phones have been designed to include delivery of mobile advertising and other useful location-based services, but have they also been designed to protect consumers' privacy? One of the key enabling technologies for these new types of phones and new mobile services is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a wireless communication technology that enables the unique identification of tagged objects. In the case of RFID-enabled mobile phones, the personal nature of the devices makes it very likely that, by locating a phone, businesses will also be able to locate its owner. Consumers are currently testing new RFID-enabled phones around the …


Biometrics: Weighing Convenience And National Security Against Your Privacy, Lauren D. Adkins Jan 2007

Biometrics: Weighing Convenience And National Security Against Your Privacy, Lauren D. Adkins

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The biometric identifier relies on an individual's unique biological information such as a hand, iris, fingerprint, facial or voice print. When used for verification purposes, a "one-to-one" match is generated in under one second. Biometric technology can substantially improve national security by identifying and verifying individuals in a number of different contexts, providing security in ways that exceed current identification technology and limiting access to areas where security breaches are especially high, such as airport tarmacs and critical infrastructure facilities. At the same time, a legitimate public concern exists concerning the misuse of biometric technology to invade or violate personal …


Password Theft: Rethinking An Old Crime In A New Era, Daniel S. Shamah Oct 2006

Password Theft: Rethinking An Old Crime In A New Era, Daniel S. Shamah

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

By putting themselves out in front as the victims, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) helped reshape the governing norms of the times, and as a result, people viewed the act of file-sharing differently. By forcing people to see music downloading as a form of theft, the RIAA was quite successful in deterring it. In the process, they also proposed a radical view of theft that changes our basic economic understandings of the action[...] This paper argues that the RIAA's model for deterring music theft could be successfully used to deter many other forms of computer theft, and, specifically, …


'Code' And The Slow Erosion Of Privacy, Bert-Jaap Koops, Ronald Leenes Sep 2005

'Code' And The Slow Erosion Of Privacy, Bert-Jaap Koops, Ronald Leenes

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The notion of software code replacing legal code as a mechanism to control human behavior--"code as law"--is often illustrated with examples in intellectual property and freedom of speech. This Article examines the neglected issue of the impact of "code as law" on privacy. To what extent is privacy-related "code" being used, either to undermine or to enhance privacy? On the basis of cases in the domains of law enforcement, national security, E-government, and commerce, it is concluded that technology rarely incorporates specific privacy-related norms. At the same time, however, technology very often does have clear effects on privacy, as it …


The Need For Revisions To The Law Of Wiretapping And Interception Of Email, Robert A. Pikowsky Oct 2003

The Need For Revisions To The Law Of Wiretapping And Interception Of Email, Robert A. Pikowsky

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

I argue that a person's privacy interest in his email is the same as his privacy interest in a telephone conversation. Moreover, the privacy interest in email remains unchanged regardless of whether it is intercepted in transmission or covertly accessed from the recipient's mailbox. If one accepts this assumption, it follows that the level of protection against surveillance by law enforcement officers should be the same[...] As technology continues to blur the distinction between wire and electronic communication, it becomes apparent that a new methodology must be developed in order to provide logical and consistent protection to private communications. The …


Snake-Oil Security Claims The Systematic Misrepresentation Of Product Security In The E-Commerce Arena, John R. Michener, Steven D. Mohan, James B. Astrachan, David R. Hale Apr 2003

Snake-Oil Security Claims The Systematic Misrepresentation Of Product Security In The E-Commerce Arena, John R. Michener, Steven D. Mohan, James B. Astrachan, David R. Hale

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The modern commercial systems and software industry in the United States have grown up in a snake-oil salesman's paradise. The largest sector of this industry by far is composed of standard commercial systems that are marketed to provide specified functionality (e.g. Internet web server, firewall, router, etc.) Such products are generally provided with a blanket disclaimer stating that the purchaser must evaluate the suitability of the product for use, and that the user assumes all liability for product behavior. In general, users cannot evaluate and cannot be expected to evaluate the security claims of a product. The ability to analyze …


Constitutional Issues In Information Privacy, Fred H. Cate, Robert Litan Oct 2002

Constitutional Issues In Information Privacy, Fred H. Cate, Robert Litan

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The U.S. Constitution has been largely ignored in the recent flurry of privacy laws and regulations designed to protect personal information from incursion by the private sector despite the fact that many of these enactments and efforts to enforce them significantly implicate the First Amendment. Questions about the role of the Constitution have assumed new importance in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Recent efforts to identify and apprehend terrorists and to protect against future attacks threaten to weaken constitutional protections against government intrusions into personal privacy. However, these …


Corporate Cybersmear: Employers File John Doe Defamation Lawsuits Seeking The Identity Of Anonymous Employee Internet Posters, Margo E. K. Reder, Christine Neylon O'Brien Jun 2002

Corporate Cybersmear: Employers File John Doe Defamation Lawsuits Seeking The Identity Of Anonymous Employee Internet Posters, Margo E. K. Reder, Christine Neylon O'Brien

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Communications systems are now wide open and fully accessible, with no limits in range, scope or geography. Targeted audiences are accessible with pinpoint accuracy. Messages reach millions of readers with one click. There is a chat room for everyone. Most importantly, there is no limit on content. Therefore, employees can register their dissatisfaction by posting a message in a chat room. Moreover, the identity of the posting employee is not easily discoverable due to anonymous and pseudonymous communications capabilities. The nature of these online messages is qualitatively different from real-world communications. By way of example, newspapers have a responsibility regarding …


Marking Carnivore's Territory: Rethinking Pen Registers On The Internet, Anthony E. Orr Jun 2002

Marking Carnivore's Territory: Rethinking Pen Registers On The Internet, Anthony E. Orr

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

"Carnivore" entered the online world's collective consciousness in June 2000 when the Federal Bureau of Investigation unveiled the Internet surveillance software program to telecommunications industry specialists. The FBI claims the program allows agents to scan the traffic of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for messages or commands to or from a criminal suspect and then intercept only those messages, capturing copies of e-mails, web site downloads and other file transfers[...] A central issue in the controversy surrounding Carnivore is whether current law permits the FBI to employ the program in the Internet context. Bureau officials claim statutory authority for deployments …


Computer Searches And Seizures: Some Unresolved Issues, Susan W. Brenner, Barbara A. Frederiksen Jun 2002

Computer Searches And Seizures: Some Unresolved Issues, Susan W. Brenner, Barbara A. Frederiksen

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The goal of this article is to illustrate the issues that arise in the context of computer search and seizures by examining several areas in which the application of Fourth Amendment concepts to computer searches and/or seizures can be problematic. In order to illustrate this point, the article will build on a hypothetical. The hypothetical situation assumes law enforcement officers have lawfully obtained a warrant to search for and seize evidence concerning the commission of one or more crimes. It will also be assumed that computer technology played some role in the commission of these crimes, so computer equipment and …


The Emergence Of Website Privacy Norms, Steven A. Hetcher Jun 2001

The Emergence Of Website Privacy Norms, Steven A. Hetcher

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Part I of the Article will first look at the original privacy norms that emerged at the Web's inception in the early 1990s. Two groups have been the main contributors to the emergence of these norms; the thousands of commercial websites on the early Web, on the one hand, and the millions of users of the early Web, on the other hand. The main structural feature of these norms was that websites benefitted through the largely unrestricted collection of personal data while consumers suffered injury due to the degradation of their personal privacy from this data collection. In other words, …


Criminalization Of True Anonymity In Cyberspace, The, George F. Du Pont Jun 2001

Criminalization Of True Anonymity In Cyberspace, The, George F. Du Pont

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The question of whether a state or the federal government can create a narrowly tailored restriction on cyberspace anonymity without violating the First Amendment remains unresolved[...]The Supreme Court has not directly addressed the issue, but it may soon consider the constitutionality of criminalizing certain kinds of cyber-anonymity in light of the unique nature of cyberspace. This comment explores the various forms of anonymity, examines the First Amendment status of anonymity in and outside of cyberspace, analyzes relevant scholarly commentary, and concludes that a narrowly tailored legislative restriction on "true" anonymity in cyberspace would not violate the First Amendment.


Establishing A Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy In Clickstream Data, Gavin Skok Jun 2000

Establishing A Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy In Clickstream Data, Gavin Skok

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

This Article argues that Web users should enjoy a legitimate expectation of privacy in clickstream data. Fourth Amendment jurisprudence as developed over the last half-century does not support an expectation of privacy. However, reference to the history of the Fourth Amendment and the intent of its drafters reveals that government investigation and monitoring of clickstream data is precisely the type of activity the Framers sought to limit. Courts must update outdated methods of expectation of privacy analysis to address the unique challenges posed by the Internet in order to fulfill the Amendment's purpose. Part I provides an overview of the …


Building A Community Through Workplace E-Mail: The New Privacy Frontier, Peter Schnaitman Jun 1999

Building A Community Through Workplace E-Mail: The New Privacy Frontier, Peter Schnaitman

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The relatively new technology of electronic mail (e-mail) presents an entirely new issue of workplace privacy. Currently, whether a person has a privacy interest in their workplace e-mail communications is as unsettled an issue as it has been since the technology emerged in the early part of this decade as the preferred mode of communication in the workplace. Indeed, e-mail may soon be the preferred mode of communication in general. This comment will argue that all e-mail users have a privacy interest in workplace e-mail communications and that the current law does not afford e-mail users any type of protection …