Law Commons^™

Tragedy Of The Data Commons, Jane Yakowitz

Jane Yakowitz

Accurate data is vital to enlightened research and policymaking, particularly publicly available data that are redacted to protect the identity of individuals. Legal academics, however, are campaigning against data anonymization as a means to protect privacy, contending that the wealth of information available on the Internet enables malfeasors to reverse-engineer the data and identify research subjects. Privacy scholars advocate for stringent new legal restrictions on the collection and dissemination of research data. This Article challenges the dominant wisdom, arguing that properly de-identified data is not only safe, but of extraordinary social utility. It makes three core claims. First, legal scholars …