Privacy Law Commons^™

Regulating The Revolution: A Legal Roadmap To Optimizing Ai In Healthcare, Fazal Khan Md, Jd

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Our Changing Reality: The Metaverse And The Importance Of Privacy Regulations In The United States, Anushkay Raza

Global Business Law Review

This Note discusses the legal and pressing digital challenges that arise in connection with the growing use of virtual reality, and more specifically, the metaverse. As this digital realm becomes more integrated into our daily lives, the United States should look towards creating a federal privacy law that protects fundamental individual privacy rights. This Note argues that congress should emulate the European Union's privacy regulations, and further, balances the potential consequences and benefits of adapting European regulations within the United Sates. Finally, this Note provides drafting considerations of future lawyers who will not only be dealing with the rise of …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Direct To Consumer Or Direct To All: Home Dna Tests And Lack Of Privacy Regulations In The United States, Karen J. Kukla

IP Theory

Although the U.S. has some measures of privacy protection for genetic data, the lack of a comprehensive approach to protecting direct-to-consumer genetic testing results in privacy violations for both consumers and their relatives. This essay explores the critical need for the U.S. government to address these privacy violations and argues that the U.S. should approach the problem and strategize a solution similar to the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Part I identifies current United States law, both federal and state regulations that address DTC-GT and genetic privacy. Part II examines the lack of regulation surrounding current DTC-GT …

Stay Out Of My Head: Neurodata, Privacy, And The First Amendment, Wayne Unger

Washington and Lee Law Review

The once science-fictional idea of mind-reading is within reach as advancements in brain-computer interfaces, coupled with advanced artificial intelligence, produce neurodata—the collection of substantive thoughts as storable and processable data. But government access to individuals’ neurodata threatens personal autonomy and the right to privacy. While the Fourth Amendment is traditionally considered the source of privacy protections against government intrusion, the First Amendment provides more robust protections with respect to whether governments can access one’s substantive ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. However, many theorists assert that the concept of privacy conflicts with the First Amendment because privacy restricts the flow of information …

The Eyes Beyond The Screen: Digital Media Policy And Child Health, Yahia Al-Qudah

Research Symposium

Background: Modern communication technology and digital media have provided society with a foundation for instant messaging. Pictures, videos, and texts connect individuals with families, friends, and the world. Consequently, digital media has accelerated exposure to risk in which children and adolescents are most vulnerable. This project’s objective is to 1) congregate and highlight current knowledge about the impact of digital media on child health, and 2) underline deficiencies in related laws and regulations as well as offer solutions in digital media policy.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted through the JAMA Pediatrics database with keywords such as “digital media,” …

A Trusted Framework For Cross-Border Data Flows, Alex Joel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), in cooperation with the Tech, Law and Security Program (TLS) of the American University Washington College of Law, and with support from Microsoft, convened a Global Taskforce to Promote Trusted Sharing of Data comprising experts from civil society, academia, and industry to submit proposals for harmonizing approaches to global data use and sharing. Former US Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and GMF Distinguished Fellow Karen Kornbluh and Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Vice President Julie Brill co-chaired the taskforce; TLS Senior Project Director Alex Joel …

A Sleeping Giant: Mhelath Applications, The Gdpr, And The Need For Federal Privacy Regulation In The United States, Kali Peeples

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

An analysis of privacy regulation concerning mHealth apps is a multifaceted process that requires the examination of changes within not only the healthcare space but also the technological world, as well as the legislative history and intent of various nations.The main issue being addressed in this paper is whether the United States should create nationwide legislation that directly relates to mHealth data protection or continue with a self-regulatory method. Part I focuses on the development and rapid creation of mHealth apps within the past decade. Part II seeks to illustrate the distinct privacy concerns of mHealth apps by concentrating on …

Complying With New And Existing Biometric Data Privacy Laws, Ariel Latzer

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

After providing an overview of the history behind biometric information, this article will discuss the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA)—which laid the foundation for biometric privacy regulations in the United States—and then discuss the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its amendments in the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). It will also briefly touch on biometric information regulations in other states and then delve into how some notable companies are currently using individuals’ biometric information to give readers a general idea of what is happening to their personal information and highlight areas businesses should take note of in order to …

Encouraging Public Access To Pharmaceuticals Through Modified Protection Of Clinical Trial Data, Scott M. Nolan Ii

IP Theory

Part I of this Article investigates the development of pharmaceuticals and clinical trial data with a focus on patent and data protection. Part II evaluates the effects of protection and the challenges it poses to widespread public pharmaceutical access. Part III discusses two scholarly approaches to the public access issue that focus on clinical data protection and their associated challenges. In light of these scholarly works, Part IV suggests a new approach to clinical trial data protection that aims to improve public pharmaceutical access while maintaining the incentives to invent for drug developers.

The Future Of Data Protection Enforcement In Canada: Lessons From The Gdpr, Guilda Rostama, Teresa Scassa

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Imagine a not-too-distant scenario in which a private sector organization in Canada is investigated by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada jointly with the Commissioners of Quebec, British Columbia (‘‘BC”), and Alberta in relation to complaints that it shared massive quantities of personal data with third parties contrary to its stated practices in its privacy policies. Imagine also that each of the commissioners is empowered under newly amended data protection legislation to issue substantial Administrative Monetary Penalties (‘‘AMPs”). If each of the commissioners finds that its respective laws were breached, should the organization be subject to four different AMPs, or just …

Slouching Toward Regulation: Assessing Bill 88 As A Solution For Workplace Surveillance Harms, Danielle E. Thompson, Adam Molnar

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Employee monitoring applications (‘‘EMAs”) are proliferating in Canada and provide employers with sophisticated surveillance tools for the monitoring of workers (e.g., on-device video surveillance, browser activity, and email monitoring). In response to concerns about these increasingly invasive surveillance practices, the Government of Ontario passed Bill 88, the Working for Workers Act, 2022, which requires all employers with 25 or more workers to have a written policy stating whether and how they electronically monitor their employees. Bill 88 marks a more explict attempt to regulate workplace surveillance in a modern digital context in Canada; however; however, an analysis of the Bill’s …

When Your Boss Is An Algorithm: Preserving Canadian Employment Standards In The Digital Economy, Fife Ogunde

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The platform or ‘‘gig” economy is a rapidly growing economy in Canada. Between 2005 and 2016, the share of gig workers among all workers in Canada rose from 5.5% to 8.2%. These include independent contractors, select freelancers and platform workers. In 2018, 28% of Canadians aged 18 and older reported making money through online platforms. Research by Payments Canada in 2021 showed gig workers as representing more than one in 10 Canadian adults with more than one in three Canadian businesses employing gig workers. As the share of platform workers in the economy has grown, so has the discussion regarding …

The Challenge Designing Intermediary Liability Laws, Emily Laidlaw

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The ideal framework for intermediary liability has vexed policymakers since the internet’s commercialization. The quest has taken on a frenzied pace in recent years with intense scrutiny of who they are, what they do and what they should be responsible for. Over the years a theme has emerged from my discussions about intermediaries, and its subset platforms, and it prompts me to explore it as the focus of this article. My question is simple: why is it so difficult for law and policymakers to agree on a regulatory framework?

This article tackles two parts of the regulatory challenge that are …

The Need For Cyber Resilience Of Space Assets: Law And Policy Considerations Of Ensuring Cybersecurity In Outer Space, Daniella Febbraro

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2018, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was the subject of a data breach where over 500 megabytes of data from a major mission system was stolen by hackers. This attack affected NASA’s Deep Space Network, prompting the United States Johnson Space Center to disconnect the International Space Station from the affected gateway due to fears that mission systems could become compromised. NASA has acknowledged that its vast online presence, which includes thousands of publicly accessible datasets, offers a large potential target for cybercriminals. The 2018 incident was one of many, with NASA experiencing more than 6000 cyberattacks from 2017-2021 alone. …

Femtechnodystopia, Leah R. Fowler, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

Reproductive rights, as we have long understood them, are dead. But at the same time history seems to be moving backward, technology moves relentlessly forward. Femtech products, a category of consumer technology addressing an array of “female” health needs, seem poised to fill gaps created by states and stakeholders eager to limit birth control and abortion access and increase pregnancy surveillance and fetal rights. Period and fertility tracking applications could supplement or replace other contraception. Early digital alerts to missed periods can improve the chances of obtaining a legal abortion in states with ever-shrinking windows of availability or prompt behavioral …

Opaque Notification: A Country-By-Country Review, Lauren Mantel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

A New Right Is The Wrong Tactic: Bring Legal Actions Against States For Internet Shutdowns Instead Of Working Towards A Human Right To The Internet (Part 1), Jay Conrad

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law

A New Right is the Wrong Tactic: Bring Legal Actions Against States for Internet Shutdowns Instead of Working Towards a Human Right to the Internet (Part 1) is the first of a two-part series dealing with an increasingly prevalent threat to human rights: State-sanctioned Internet shutdowns. Part 1 details the current tactics and impacts of Internet shutdowns and which human rights are most likely to be violated by or during a shutdown. Part 2 will address the deficiencies of advocating for Internet access to be a recognized human right as a means of combatting shutdowns. Despite the popularity of this …

Aclu V. Clearview Ai, Inc.,, Isra Ahmed

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Texas’ War On Social Media: Censorship Or False Flag, Leni Morales

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Necessity, Proportionality, And Executive Order 14086, Alex Joel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Do Not Touch My Data: Exploring A Disclosure-Based Framework To Address Data Access, Francis Morency

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Companies have too much control over people’s information. In the data marketplace, companies package and sell individuals’ data, and these individuals have little to no bargaining power over the process. Companies may freely buy and sell people’s data in the private sector for targeted marketing and behavior manipulation. In the justice system, an unchecked data marketplace leaves black and brown communities vulnerable to serious data access issues caused by predictive sentencing, for example. Risk assessment algorithms in predictive sentencing rely on data on individuals and run all relevant data points to provide the likelihood that a defendant will recidivate low …

Extended Privacy For Extended Reality: Xr Technology Has 99 Problems And Privacy Is Several Of Them, Suchismita Pahi, Calli Schroeder

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

Americans are rapidly adopting innovative technologies which are pushing the frontiers of reality. But, when they look at how their privacy is protected within the new extended reality (XR), they will find that U.S. privacy laws fall short. The privacy risks inherent in XR are inadequately addressed by current U.S. data privacy laws or courtcreated frameworks that purport to protect the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches. Many scholars, including Ryan Calo, Danielle Citron, Sherry Colb, Margaret Hu, Orin Kerr, Kirsten Martin, Paul Ohm, Daniel Solove, Rebecca Wexler, Shoshana Zuboff, and others, have highlighted the gaps in U.S. …

Law Informs Code: A Legal Informatics Approach To Aligning Artificial Intelligence With Humans, John J. Nay

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities are rapidly advancing. Highly capable AI could cause radically different futures depending on how it is developed and deployed. We are unable to specify human goals and societal values in a way that reliably directs AI behavior. Specifying the desirability (value) of AI taking a particular action in a particular state of the world is unwieldy beyond a very limited set of state-action-values. The purpose of machine learning is to train on a subset of states and have the resulting agent generalize an ability to choose high value actions in unencountered circumstances. Inevitably, the function ascribing …

A Loaded God Complex: The Unconstitutionality Of The Executive Branch’S Unilaterally Withholding Zero-Days, Brendan Gilligan

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Comment: The United Nations And Robot Rights, Heather Alexander

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This comment predicts that robot rights under the law are likely to become a reality in the next fifty years, possibly in multiple countries, as governments pass laws granting rights to robots, including civil rights like voting. This comment calls on the United Nations (‘‘UN”) to be pro-active in guiding the emergence of robot rights by convening a working group on robot rights to better guide member states through what will be a time of momentous change.

Why are robots likely to soon gain rights in some UN member states? There have been huge advances in AI that can pass …

Regulating Uncertain States: A Risk-Based Policy Agenda For Quantum Technologies, Tina Dekker, Florian Martin-Bariteau

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Many countries are taking a national approach to developing quantum strategies with a strong focus on innovation. However, societal, ethical, legal, and policy considerations should not be an afterthought that is pushed aside by the drive for innovation. A responsible, global approach to quantum technologies that considers the legal, ethical, and societal dimensions of quantum technologies is necessary to avoid exacerbating existing global inequalities. Quantum technologies are expected to disrupt other transformative technologies whose legal landscape is still under development (e.g., artificial intelligence [‘‘AI”], blockchain, etc.). The shortcomings of global policies regarding AI and the digital context teach lessons that …

Cryptocurrencies And Climate Change: A Net-Zero Paradox, Jason Maclean

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Cryptocurrencies pose a number of complex law and policy problems, the most pressing of which are the industry’s climate and environmental impacts. This article examines the climate and environmental impacts of crypto-assets in the broader law and policy context of the UN Paris Agreement and the global goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 or earlier. This approach not only illuminates the limitations and paradoxical nature of the crypto-industry’s climate commitments, but also the limitations and paradoxical nature of ‘‘net zero” itself as the predominant framing of national, subnational, and nonstate actors’ climate pledges. The article concludes by examining the …

Crowdsourcing Justice, Matthew Dylag

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Social media has become ubiquitous in the daily lives of Canadians. Beyond connecting with friends and family, people also turn to social media to find information and seek advice on any number of topics, be it home cooking, workout routines, or automobile purchases. Indeed, social media is a flexible vehicle that can be leveraged for communication on almost any topic. It is not surprising, therefore, that individuals are also turning to social media to help resolve their legal problems. Even a cursory examination of social media will reveal that it is not uncommon for individuals who are experiencing legal difficulties …

From Cartier To Codification: Website-Blocking Injunctions And Third-Party Internet Service Provider Respondents, Dan Mackwood

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In recent years, the proliferation of commercial-scale copyright infringement through unauthorized online content streaming has created persisting legal hurdles for Canadian rights holders seeking redress. John Doe defendants in online copyright disputes can easily preserve their anonymity and operate their infringing enterprises from unknown locations, undeterred by injunctions issued against them directly. These anonymized administrators of illicit streaming platforms offer users unauthorized access to content for a lower cost than or as a free alternative to the access provided by the legitimate rights holder. This form of copyright infringement has reportedly resulted in up to hundreds of thousands of lost …