Privacy Law Commons^™

Social Media: The Law Simply Stated, Steve Coughlan, Robert J. Currie

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

It is a challenge to simply state the law about social media, because there is no such thing as “social media law.” Rather, the law bumps up against social media in many ways. In some cases, existing law can be seamlessly applied to new technologies and means of interaction. In other cases, entirely new paradigms will likely need to be adopted to handle new challenges. Many other cases will fall somewhere in between.

Our goal in this Law Simply Stated is to provide some background on the nature of social media themselves, and then to state the basic law in …

Implementing Technology In The Justice Sector: A Canadian Perspective, Jane Bailey, Jacquelyn Burkell

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Despite the many technological advances that could benefit the court system, the use of computers and network technology to facilitate court procedures is still in its infancy, and court procedures largely remain attached to paper documents and to the physical presence of the parties at all stages. More and more research is focusing on the use of technology to make the legal system more efficient and to reduce excessive legal costs and delays. The goal of this exploratory research project is to examine the experience of justice sector technology implementation from the perspective of individuals involved first-hand in the implementation …

Drawing The Line Between Competing Interests: Strengthening Online Data Privacy Protection In An Increasingly Networked World, Lori Chiu

San Diego International Law Journal

This article seeks to elucidate these issues and provide a roadmap for the U.S. government to create unified federal laws to provide the private sector with specific protocols regarding use and dissemination of consumer personal information. First, this article will provide an explanation of the U.S.’s current sector-by-sector approach to regulating personally identifying information and will provide a case study of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) enforcement action against a social networking site in 2011 as one example of the FTC’s recent efforts at regulating online privacy. Next, this article will analyze the U.S.’s current challenge of judicial enforcement of …

Addressing The Harm Of Total Surveillance: A Reply To Professor Neil Richards, Danielle Keats Citron, David C. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

In his insightful article The Dangers of Surveillance, 126 HARV. L. REV. 1934 (2013), Neil Richards offers a framework for evaluating the implications of government surveillance programs that is centered on protecting "intellectual privacy." Although we share his interest in recognizing and protecting privacy as a condition of personal and intellectual development, we worry in this essay that, as an organizing principle for policy, "intellectual privacy" is too narrow and politically fraught. Drawing on other work, we therefore recommend that judges, legislators, and executives focus instead on limiting the potential of surveillance technologies to effect programs of broad and indiscriminate …

Cyberfrontier: New Guidelines For Employers Regarding Employee Social Media, Michelle Scheinman

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Lord Coke To Internet Privacy: The Past, Present, And Future Of Electronic Contracting, Juliet M. Moringiello, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

Contract law is applied countless times every day, in every manner of transaction large or small. Rarely are those transactions reflected in an agreement produced by a lawyer; quite the contrary, almost all contracts are concluded by persons with no legal training and often by persons who do not have a great deal of education. In recent years, moreover, technological advances have provided novel methods of creating contracts. Those facts present practitioners of contract law with an interesting conundrum: The law must be sensible and stable if parties are to have confidence in the security of their arrangements; but contract …

Navigating Through The Fog Of Cloud Computing Contracts, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L.13 (2013), T. Noble Foster

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This paper explores legal issues associated with cloud computing, provides analysis and commentary on typical clauses found in contracts offered by well-known cloud service providers, and identifies strategies to mitigate the risk of exposure to cloud-based legal claims in the critical areas of data security, privacy, and confidentiality. While current research offers numerous case studies, viewpoints, and technical descriptions of cloud processes, our research provides a close examination of the language used in cloud contract terms. Analysis of these contract terms supports the finding that most standard cloud computing contracts are unevenly balanced in favor of the cloud service provider. …

My Iphone Is My Castle: One Aspect Of Protecting Privacy In A Digital Age, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 1 (2013), Joan Catherine Bohl

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Crisis On Impact: Responding To Cyber Attacks On Critical Information Infrastructures, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 31 (2013), Eugenia Georgiades, William Caelli, Sharon Christensen, W.D. Duncan

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

In the developing digital economy, the notion of traditional attack on enterprises of national significance or interest has transcended into different modes of electronic attack, surpassing accepted traditional forms of physical attack upon a target. The terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11, 2001 demonstrated the physical devastation that could occur if any nation were the target of a large-scale terrorist attack. Therefore, there is a need to protect critical national infrastructure and critical information infrastructure. In particular, this protection is crucial for the proper functioning of a modern society and for a government to …

Why Arthur Goldberg Cared So Much About Privacy, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 67 (2013), David Stebenne

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

How Far Can The Government’S Hand Reach Inside Your Personal Inbox?: Problems With The Sca, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L.75 (2013), Dana T. Benedetti

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Tweet Tweet: A First Amendment Wake Up Call Regarding Social Media In The Sports Arena, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 117 (2013), Samantha Levin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Warrantless Government Drone Surveillance: A Challenge To The Fourth Amendment, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 155 (2013), Jennifer O'Brien

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 aims to integrate drones into the United States national airspace by 2015. While the thought of prevalent private and public daily drone use might seem implausible now, the combination of this new legislation and the increasing availability of inexpensive, technologically advanced small drones will make it a reality. From detectaphones to pen registers and most recently, the GPS, the Supreme Court has faced a plethora of unreasonable search challenges to the warrantless use of such sense augmentation devices by law enforcement to collect information. Acting as the privacy safeguard of …

Prism And The European Union’S Data Protection Directive, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 227 (2013), Liane Colonna

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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The Lemons Problem In Crowdfunding, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 253 (2013), Gmeleen Faye Tomboc

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Crowdfunding, an offshoot of crowdsourcing, is being touted as an alternative to traditional sources of financing for small businesses. Despite all its promise, crowdfunding is not without potential problems. To the extent feasible, these possible issues must be anticipated well in advance so that crowdfunding can fulfill its goal of democratizing access to capital.

This paper explores how asymmetrical information in the crowd-funding market can lead to a lemons problem, where high quality start-ups are driven out of the market by low quality projects. Understanding how the lemons problem can arise is critical in determining what reforms are needed to …

Sometimes I Feel Like Somebody’S Watching Me . . . Read?: A Comment On The Need For Heightened Privacy Rights For Consumers Of Ebooks, 30 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 281 (2013), Meredith Mays Espino

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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My Life Is Not My Own: Do Criminal Arrestees’ Privacy Interests In Mug Shots Outweigh Public’S Desire For Disclosure?, 30 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 307 (2013), Jocelyn Watkins

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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The Thirty-Second Annual John Marshall Law School International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Bench Memorandum, 30 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 339 (2013), Dana Benedetti, Daniel Johnson, Kalli Kling, Samantha Levin, Zayna Nubani, Pamela Szelung

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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The Thirty-Second Annual John Marshall Law School International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Brief For The Petitioner, 30 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 373 (2013), Eliana Albelbaisi, Robert Koehl, Todd Smith

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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The Thirty-Second Annual John Marshall Law School International Moot Court Competition In Information Technology And Privacy Law: Brief For The Respondent, 30 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 403 (2013), Samuel Bragg, Leslie Brockhoeft, Matthew Vinson

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

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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 …

Voir Dire In The #Lol Society: Jury Selection Needs Drastic Updates To Remain Relevant In The Digital Age, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 459 (2013), Zachary Mesenbourg

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Emerging Reality Of Social Media: Erosion Of Individual Privacy Through Cyber-Vetting And Law’S Inability To Catch Up, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 551 (2013), Saby Ghoshray

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The rise of social media means that data about a large number of people is available in public and quasi-public digital locations. Employers, keen on taking advantage of this additional data to decrease the risk associated with an offer of employment, are engaging in “cyber-vetting”—non-consenting social media searches conducted by third parties or the employers themselves. To the extent that current law applies to this practice, the regulation it provides is weak and attacks only part of the problem. Left unchecked, cyber-vetting has the potential to fundamentally alter the scope of prospective employees’ rights. This article surveys the legal and …

Corporate Cyber-Censorship: The Problems With Freedom Of Expression Online, Max Rothschild

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article will explore the problem of the applicability of human rights law to the corporate entities that own and enable the operation of the Internet. The focus will be the status of the right to freedom of expression online, and the different possibilities that have been suggested in order to ensure that users have and are able to exercise this right. As the Internet is a communicative tool that allows for an unprecedented global discourse, freedom of expression is naturally of primary importance in the online context.

Access Denied: The "Facebook Law" And Illinois' Evolving Workplace Protections, Steven A. Montalto

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

What Alex Kozinski And The Investigation Of Earl Bradley Teach About Searching And Seizing Computers And The Dangers Of Inevitable Discovery, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

This paper tells two stories. One concerns the investigation of a Delaware physician named Earl B. Bradley that resulted in a conviction and sentence of fourteen consecutive life terms for the sexual abuse of children. The other concerns the computer problems, both judicial and extra-judicial, of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Though in a sense unrelated, they share lessons about the practicalities of computers and their search that are worth telling. As courts continue to struggle with how to cabin the searches of computers in order to minimize privacy intrusion …

Agriculture Under Threat - A Crisis Of Confidence? The Solution: Redefine Adventitious Presence Maximum Levels From Zero To Zero++, Mark Perry, Ramesh Karky

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The issue of Adventitious Presence (AP) of genes, those that are not “naturally” present in food and crops but rather have been placed there using recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology, has become a hot issue for producers and consumers. It can also be a major problem for exporters. Part of this problem is the reality that zero presence is now impossible to guarantee in some crops and products. Pressure has arisen to establish a Low Level Presence (LLP) threshold, one that is above zero, to be determined at an international level. This would allow crops to be imported and exported …

Striking A Balance Between Privacy And Online Commerce, Mark Bartholomew

Journal Articles

It is becoming commonplace to note that privacy and online commerce are on a collision course. Corporate entities archive and monetize more and more personal information. Citizens increasingly resent the intrusive nature of such data collection and use. Just noticing this conflict, however, tells us little. In "Informing and Reforming the Marketplace of Ideas: The Public-Private Model for Data Production and the First Amendment" Professor Shubha Ghosh not only notes the tension between the costs and benefits of data commercialization, but suggests three normative perspectives for balancing privacy and commercial speech. This is valuable because without a rich theoretical framework …

Keep Your Update To Yourself, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

An essay from Wired Magazine (UK)'s special edition, The Wired World in 2013. The essay makes the argument that frictionless sharing of reading habits should decline in 2013.

Three Paradoxes Of Big Data, Neil M. Richards, Jonathan H. King

Scholarship@WashULaw

Big data is all the rage. Its proponents tout the use of sophisticated analytics to mine large data sets for insight as the solution to many of our society’s problems. These big data evangelists insist that data-driven decision making can now give us better predictions in areas ranging from college admissions to dating to hiring to medicine to national security and crime prevention. But much of the rhetoric of big data contains no meaningful analysis of its potential perils, only the promise. We don’t deny that big data holds substantial potential for the future, and that large dataset analysis has …