Internet Law Commons^™

Surveillance Law Through Cyberlaw's Lens, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

The continuing controversy over the surveillance-related provisions of the USA Patriot Act highlights the depth of Americans' concern about internet privacy. Although calls to limit the government's surveillance powers strike a chord with the public, the legal framework governing surveillance activities is highly technical and poorly understood. The Patriot Act's sunset date provides Congress with an opportunity to revisit that framework.
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/="/">This Article seeks to contribute to the debate over the appropriate scope of internet surveillance in two ways. First, the Article explores the intricacies of the constitutional and statutory frameworks governing electronic surveillance, and particularly surveillance to …

The International Privacy Regime, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Privacy has joined one of many areas of law understandable only by reference to the results of overlapping and conflicting national agendas. What has emerged as the de facto international regime is complex. Yet based on a few simplifying principles, we can nonetheless do much to understand it and predict its operation.

First, the idea that self-regulation by the internet community will be the driving force in privacy protection must be laid to rest. The experience of the last decade shows that nation-states, powerful nation-states in particular, drive the system of international privacy. The final mix of privacy protection that …

The Right Of Privacy Of Employees With Respect To Employer-Owned Computers And E-Mails, Charles Adams

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

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 …

Regulatory Challenges And Models Of Regulation, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

States And Internet Enforcement, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

This essay addresses the enforcement of decisions through internet instruments. The starting point is a brief justification of internet enforcement as the obligation of democratic states. Next, the essay argues that the movement to re-engineer the internet infrastructure by public and private actions also facilitates state enforcement of legal and policy decisions. The essay maintains that states will increasingly try to use network intermediaries such as payment systems and Internet Service Providers as enforcement instruments. Finally, and most importantly, the essay focuses on ways that states may harness the power of technological instruments such as worms, filters and packet interceptors …

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

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 …

Carnivore, The Fbi’S E-Mail Surveillance System: Devouring Criminals, Not Privacy, Griffin S. Dunham

Federal Communications Law Journal

On July 11, 2000, the FBI intorduced Carnivore, an Internet monitoring system. It was designed, and is used exclusively, to carry out court-ordered surveillance of electronic communications. It is a tangible, portable device, tantamount to a phone tap, that allows the FBI to intercept and collect criminal suspects' e-mail without their knowledge or consent. This Note addresses competing and parallel interests between the government and society to determine the legitimacy and necessity of Carnivore. The purpose of this Note is twofold: first, to demonstrate the need for Carnivore to enable law enforcement to keep up with criminals who utilize cyberspace …

Indecent Exposures In An Electronic Regime, Natalie L. Regoli

Federal Communications Law Journal

As the topic of data privacy is vast and the subject of much scrutiny, this Comment focuses narrowly on commercial cyber-activities relating to the nonconsensual Internet acquisition of personally identifiable user data. Beginning with a brief examination of the technology that has exacerbated privacy law's inadequacies, it briefly discusses failed attempts to safeguard privacy rights through the market and federal agency management. It then addresses current U.S. privacy legislation and the 1995 European Privacy Directive. Finally, this Comment proposes the creation of a new legislative system to effectively combat the surreptitious collection, storage, use, and sale of personal data.

Privacy Wrongs In Search Of Remedies, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The American legal system has generally rejected legal rights for data privacy and relies instead on market self-regulation and the litigation process to establish norms of appropriate behavior in society. Information privacy is protected only through an amalgam of narrowly targeted rules. The aggregation of these specific rights leaves many significant gaps and fewer clear remedies for violations of fair information practices. With an absence of well-established legal rights, privacy wrongs are currently in search of remedies. This Article first describes privacy rights and wrongs that frame the search for remedies in the United States. It explores public enforcement of, …

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

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.

Is Coppa A Cop Out? The Child Online Privacy Protection Act As Proof That Parents, Not Government, Should Be Protecting Children's Interests On The Internet, Melanie L. Hersh

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note first presents a historical background of media regulations protecting children, and introduces COPPA. Next, it presents the arguments fueling the debate about who should regulate the Internet - the government or non-government entities. It then argues that in light of COPPA's shortcomings and faulty attempts to emulate regulations of other media, the government should step back and allow parents to maintain the bulk of regulatory responsibility. Finally, it suggests a future course of action for successfully regulating the Internet to protect children's privacy while taking into account the Internet's dissimilarity to previously regulated media. This Note concludes that …

Chasing Bits Across Borders, Patricia L. Bellia

Journal Articles

As computer crime becomes more widespread, countries increasingly confront difficulties in securing evidence stored in electronic form outside of their borders. These difficulties have prompted two related responses. Some states have asserted a broad power to conduct remote cross-border searches - that is, to use computers within their territory to access and examine data physically stored outside of their territory. Other states have pressed for recognition of a remote cross-border search power in international fora, arguing that such a power is an essential weapon in efforts to combat computer crime. This Article explores these state responses and develops a framework …

E-Commerce And Trans-Atlantic Privacy, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

For almost a decade, the United States and Europe have anticipated a clash over the protection of personal information. Between the implementation in Europe of comprehensive legal protections pursuant to the directive on data protection and the continued reliance on industry self-regulation in the United States, trans-Atlantic privacy policies have been at odds with each other. The rapid growth in e-commerce is now sparking the long-anticipated trans-Atlantic privacy clash. This Article will first look at the context of American e-commerce and the disjuncture between citizens' privacy and business practices. The Article will then turn to the international context and explore …

Privacy, Ideology, And Technology: A Response To Jeffrey Rosen, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay reviews Jeffrey Rosen’s The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America (2000).

Rosen offers a compelling (and often hair-raising) account of the pervasive dissolution of the boundary between public and private information. This dissolution is both legal and social; neither the law nor any other social institution seems to recognize many limits on the sorts of information that can be subjected to public scrutiny. The book also provides a rich, evocative characterization of the dignitary harms caused by privacy invasion. Rosen’s description of the sheer unfairness of being “judged out of context” rings instantly true. Privacy, Rosen …

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 …

Privacy And Democracy In Cyberspace, Paul M. Schwartz

Vanderbilt Law Review

In this Article, Professor Schwartz depicts the widespread, silent collection of personal information in cyberspace. At present, it is impossible to know the fate of the personal data that one generates online. Professor Schwartz argues that this state of affairs degrades the health of a deliberative democracy; it cloaks in dark uncertainty the transmutation of Internet activity into personal information that will follow one into other areas and discourage civic participation. This situation also will have a negative impact on individual self- determination by deterring individuals from engaging in the necessary thinking out loud and deliberation with others upon which …

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 …

The Changing Face Of Privacy Protection In The European Union And The United States, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Among the wide variety of national and multinational legal regimes for protecting privacy, two dominant models have emerged, reflecting two very different approaches to the control of information. The European Union has enacted a sweeping data protection directive that imposes significant restrictions on most data collection, processing, dissemination, and storage activities, not only within Europe, but throughout the world if the data originates in a member state. The United States has taken a very different approach that extensively regulates government processing of data, while facilitating private, market-based initiatives to address private sector data processing.

Under the EU data protection directive, …

Women And The Internet, Carlin Meyer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Restoring Americans' Privacy In Electronic Commerce Symposium - The Legal And Policy Framework For Global Electronic Commerce: A Progress Report, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

In the United States today, substance abusers have greater privacy than web users and privacy has become the critical issue for the development of electronic commerce. Yet, the U.S. government’s privacy policy relies on industry self-regulation rather than legal rights. This article argues that the theory of self-regulation has normative flaws and that public experience shows the failure of industry to implement fair information practices. Together the flawed theory and data scandals demonstrate the sophistry of U.S. policy. The article then examines the comprehensive legal rights approach to data protection that has been adopted by governments around the world, most …

Resolving Conflicting International Data Privacy Rules In Cyberspace, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

While core principles for the fair treatment of personal information are common to democracies, privacy rights vary considerably across national borders. This article explores the divergences in approach and substance of data privacy between Europe and the United States. It argues that the specific privacy rules adopted in a country have a governance function. The article shows that national differences support two distinct political choices for the roles in democratic society assigned to the state, the market and the individual: either liberal, market-based governance or socially-protective, rights-based governance. These structural divergences make international cooperation imperative for effective data protection in …

Logos, Links, And Lending: Towards Standardized Privacy And Use Policies For Banking Web Sites, Walter Effross

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Piracy,Privacy, And Privatization: Fictional And Legal Approaches To The Electronic Future Of Cash , Walter A. Effross

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lex Informatica: The Formulation Of Information Policy Rules Through Technology , Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

Historically, law and government regulation have established default rules for information policy, including constitutional rules on freedom of expression and statutory rights of ownership of information. This Article will show that for network environments and the Information Society, however, law and government regulation are not the only source of rule-making. Technological capabilities and system design choices impose rules on participants. The creation and implementation of information policy are embedded in network designs and standards as well as in system configurations. Even user preferences and technical choices create overarching, local default rules. This Article argues, in essence, that the set of …

Governing Networks And Rule-Making In Cyberspace, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The global network environment defies traditional regulatory theories and policymaking practices. At present, policymakers and private sector organizations are searching for appropriate regulatory strategies to encourage and channel the global information infrastructure (“GII”). Most attempts to define new rules for the development of the GII rely on disintegrating concepts of territory and sector, while ignoring the new network and technological borders that transcend national boundaries. The GII creates new models and sources for rules. Policy leadership requires a fresh approach to the governance of global networks. Instead of foundering on old concepts, the GII requires a new paradigm for governance …

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

Federal Communications Law Journal

Because of advancements in information technology, the tension between protection of privacy and freedom of information has intensified. In the United States this tension is addressed with sector specific laws, like the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Conversely, in Europe, data protection laws of general applicability have existed for two decades. Recently, the Council of Ministers adopted a Common Position in a data protection directive.

The Author analyzes specific provisions of the Directive, primarily focusing on the provisions that address the tension between the right of privacy and the free flow of information within the European Union. Ultimately, the Directive strikes …

Privacy Vs. Convenience: The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Tax System Modernization, E. Maria Grace

Federal Communications Law Journal

The Internal Revenue Service has launched the Tax System Modernization (TSM) program, a $23 billion plan to modernize its computer and information systems. TSM will be the largest computer upgrade ever undertaken by the federal government. Like any other computer network, TSM will inevitably be threatened by computer viruses, professional eavesdroppers, power outages, natural disasters, and human error. Given the sensitive nature of tax returns, the IRS has the difficult task of modernizing its data collection procedures and telecommunications facilities without risking the privacy of taxpayers and offending the security measures required by the Privacy Act of 1974, Computer Security …