Privacy Law Commons^™

Content Moderation As Surveillance, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Technology platforms are the new governments, and content moderation is the new law, or so goes a common refrain. As platforms increasingly turn toward new, automated mechanisms of enforcing their rules, the apparent power of the private sector seems only to grow. Yet beneath the surface lies a web of complex relationships between public and private authorities that call into question whether platforms truly possess such unilateral power. Law enforcement and police are exerting influence over platform content rules, giving governments a louder voice in supposedly “private” decisions. At the same time, law enforcement avails itself of the affordances of …

Flattening The Curve While Protecting Our Right To Privacy: How The United States Can Implement The Digital Contract Tracing Efforts Used In East Asia, Evan Morris

Global Business Law Review

This paper looks at the digital contact tracing efforts implemented by other nations and assesses how similar measures could operate under enacted and proposed United States laws. Part I overviews the history of contact tracing and its effectiveness in prior disease outbreaks. Part II delves into the digital contact tracing efforts implemented by South Korea and Singapore. These summaries include: the digital contact tracing efforts taken, the laws that authorize these efforts, the public’s reception, and the overall effectiveness of the efforts. Part III overviews the digital contact tracing efforts in the United States, including proposed legislation aimed at user …

Physiognomic Artificial Intelligence, Luke Stark, Jevan Hutson

Articles

The reanimation of the pseudosciences of physiognomy and phrenology at scale through computer vision and machine learning is a matter of urgent concern. This Article—which contributes to critical data studies, consumer protection law, biometric privacy law, and antidiscrimination law—endeavors to conceptualize and problematize physiognomic artificial intelligence (“AI”) and offer policy recommendations for state and federal lawmakers to forestall its proliferation.

Physiognomic AI, as this Article contends, is the practice of using computer software and related systems to infer or create hierarchies of an individual’s body composition, protected class status, perceived character, capabilities, and future social outcomes based on their physical …

Suspect Development Systems: Databasing Marginality And Enforcing Discipline, Rashida Richardson, Amba Kak

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Algorithmic accountability law—focused on the regulation of data-driven systems like artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision-making (ADM) tools—is the subject of lively policy debates, heated advocacy, and mainstream media attention. Concerns have moved beyond data protection and individual due process to encompass a broader range of group-level harms such as discrimination and modes of democratic participation. While a welcome and long overdue shift, the current discourse ignores systems like databases, which are viewed as technically “rudimentary” and often siloed from regulatory scrutiny and public attention. Additionally, burgeoning regulatory proposals like algorithmic impact assessments are not structured to surface important –yet …

Should Data Drive Private Law?, Christoph Busch, Catalina Goanta, Katarzyna Kryla-Cudna, Monika Leszczynska, Vanessa Mak

Faculty Scholarship

This special issue tackles the question of whether and how data shapes private law. The development of new technologies enabled the generation, collection and processing of both personal and non-personal data on an unprecedented scale. The implications

of this phenomenon for private law are threefold. One, how does data affect our understanding of technology regulation in private law relationships? Two, how does data affect the way in which private law is applied? Three, what is the role of data in the design of law from a public policy perspective that transcends doctrinal considerations relating to private law?

Gauging The Acceptance Of Contact Tracing Technology: An Empirical Study Of Singapore Residents’ Concerns With Sharing Their Information And Willingness To Trust, Ee-Ing Ong, Wee Ling Loo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments began implementing various forms of contact tracing technology. Singapore’s implementation of its contact tracing technology, TraceTogether, however, was met with significant concern by its population, with regard to privacy and data security. This concern did not fit with the general perception that Singaporeans have a high level of trust in its government. We explore this disconnect, using responses to our survey (conducted pre-COVID-19) in which we asked participants about their level of concern with the government and business collecting certain categories of personal data. The results show that respondents had less concern with …

Regulating Personal Data Usage In Covid-19 Control Conditions, Mark Findlay, Nydia Remolina

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Concern has been widely expressed about the potential for COVID-19 control technologies and resultant data sharing negatively impacting on civil rights, invading personal privacy, undermining citizen dignity through expansive data matching and ultimately providing opportunities for data use well beyond the brief of virus mitigation. This chapter offers suggestions regarding effective and inclusive regulatory responses when faced with extended surveillance, tracking/tracing, public/private provider data sharing and any breakdown in personal data firewalls, or otherwise conventional aggregated data deviations and distortion. In doing so, the chapter explores personal data usage in the context of COVID-19 as a regulatory enterprise. It addresses …

Policing Police Tech: A Soft Law Solution, Farhang Heydari, Barry Friedman, Max Isaacs, Katie Kinsey

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Policing agencies are undergoing a rapid technological revolution. New products—with almost unfathomable capacities to collect, store, monitor, and transmit data about us—constantly are coming to market. In the hands of policing agencies, some of these products may promise real benefits to society. But too often these public safety benefits are unproven. And many of these products present real harms, including risks to privacy, freedom of speech, racial justice, and much more. Part of “public safety” is being safe from these harms as well.
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Mental Health Mobile Apps And The Need To Update Federal Regulations To Protect Users, Kewa Jiang

Michigan Technology Law Review

With greater societal emphasis on the need for better mental health services coupled with COVID-19 limits, mental health mobile applications have significantly risen in variety, availability, and accessibility. As more consumers use mental health mobile applications, more data is generated and collected by mobile application companies. However, consumers may have the false assumption that the data collected is protected under HIPAA or have an expectation of privacy protection higher than current regulations afford. This Note examines HIPAA, Health Breach Notification Rule, and section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as well as how these regulations fall short of protecting …

The New State Of Surveillance: Societies Of Subjugation, Khaled Ali Beydoun

Washington and Lee Law Review

Foundational surveillance studies theory has largely been shaped in line with the experiences of white subjects in western capitalist societies. Formative scholars, most notably Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, theorized that the advancement of surveillance technology tempers the State’s reliance on mass discipline and corporal punishment. Legal scholarship examining modern surveillance perpetuates this view, and popular interventions, such as the blockbuster docudrama The Social Dilemma and Shoshana Zuboff’s bestseller The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, mainstream the myth of colorblind surveillance. However, the experiences of nonwhite subjects of surveillance—pushed to or beyond the margins of these formative discourses—reflect otherwise. …

Another Katz Moment?: Privacy, Property, And A Dna Database, Claire Mena

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” The understanding of these words seems to shift as new technologies emerge. As law enforcement’s arsenal of surveillance techniques has grown to include GPS tracking, cell phones, and cell site location information (CSLI), the Supreme Court has applied Fourth Amendment protections to these modern tools. Law enforcement continues to use one pervasive surveillance technique without limitations: the routine collection of DNA. In 2013, the Supreme Court in Maryland v. King held that law enforcement may routinely …

Platforms, Encryption, And The Cfaa: The Case Of Whatsapp V Nso Group, Jonathon W. Penney, Bruce Schneier

Articles & Book Chapters

End-to-end encryption technology has gone mainstream. But this wider use has led hackers, cybercriminals, foreign governments, and other threat actors to employ creative and novel attacks to compromise or workaround these protections, raising important questions as to how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the primary federal anti-hacking statute, is best applied to these new encryption implementations. Now, after the Supreme Court recently narrowed the CFAA’s scope in Van Buren and suggested it favors a code-based approach to liability under the statute, understanding how best to theorize sophisticated code-based access barriers like end-to-end encryption, and their circumvention, is now …

The Gatekeepers Of Research: Why A Data Protection Authority Holds The Key To Research In The New York Privacy Acts, Eric B. Green

Brooklyn Law Review

Biometric data is among the most sensitive of personal data because it is biologically tied and unique to the individual. Nonetheless, biometric data is an invaluable facet of the research that enables progressive scientific, technological, and medical innovation. Because a comprehensive federal data privacy act does not appear to be on the horizon, the torch has been passed to the states to create their own personal data protection regimes. New Yorkers’ personal biometric data is not aptly protected, partially because neither the New York Privacy Act nor the Biometric Privacy Act (collectively, the NY Privacy Acts) have matured to the …

The Art Of Regulating Art, Naomi Cahn, Sonia M. Suter

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Wrong Without A Remedy: Leaving Parents And Children With A Hollow Victory I Nlawsuits Against Unscrupulous Sperm Banks, Yaniv Heled, Timothy Lytton, Liza Vertinsky

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Savior Siblings, Protective Progeny, And Parental Determinism In The Age Of Crispr-Cas, Barbara Pfeffer-Billauer

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Consent To Empowerment In Support Of Decision-Making In Embryonic Genetic Design, Pamela Laufer-Ukeles

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Genetically-Engineered Begots, Have-Nots, And Tinkered Tots: (High Scoring Polygenic Kids As A Heredity-Camelot)-An Introduction To The Legalities And Bio-Ethics Of Advanced Ivf And Genetic Testing, Barbara Pfeffier-Billaeuer

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Does A Custodial Rights Understanding Of The Gdpr Justify Fraudulent Misrepresentation By Sperm Donors?, Dov Greenbaum

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Causation And Compensation For Intergenerational Harm, Dov Fox

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Learning From South Korea’S Covid-19 Response: Why Centralizing The United States Public Health System Is Essential For Future Pandemic Responses, Meghan Ricci

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark differences in governmental preparedness across the globe. The United States, once thought of as a global leader in public health, had the theoretical skill and efficiency to handle the pandemic but failed to utilize those skills and resources during an actual health crisis. In the spring of 2020, everyone watched the U.S.’s reaction to the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic due to its historic placeholder as a global leader and innovator. However, the performance of the U.S. in response to the global pandemic disappointed both global commentators and U.S. citizens. This paper will compare the …

Passcodes, Protection, And Legal Practicality: The Necessity Of A Digital Fifth Amendment, Ethan Swierczewski

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Technologies Of Servitude Understanding Firmware Tpms As Interests In Personal Property, Anthony D. Rosborough

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Widespread computerization and embedded system design has facilitated the pervasive and latent implementation of technological protection measures (‘‘TPMs”) to restrict device firmware access. Often referred to as ‘‘digital locks,” these restrictions impose a whole host of limitations on how owners use and manage the increasing number of products and devices in which they are incorporated. In many cases, TPM restrictions can prevent activities with social, environmental, and economical benefits, including repair, repurposing, and interoperability. In response, governments around the world are now revisiting and scrutinizing their TPM anti-circumvention laws within copyright and competition policy. Beyond these perspectives, this article looks …

Dignity, Intersectional Gendered Harm, And A Flexible Approach: Analysis Of The Right To One’S Image In Quebec, Yuan Stevens

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article draws on critical feminist theory and the framework of intersectionality to examine how courts in Quebec have begun — and are poised — to respond to the phenomenon of the non-consensual sharing of images, particularly if they are of an intimate or sexual nature. Dunn’s work has demonstrated that Quebec’s dignity-focused approach to the protection of identity and privacy ought to guide the development of similar civil recourse provided in common law Canada. This paper fills a gap by identifying the affordances and gaps of Quebec’s legal approach from the vantage point of equality-seeking groups, with a particular …

‘‘Don’T Take On The Responsibilty Of Somebody Else’S Fu**Ed Up Behavior”: Responding To Online Abuse In The Context Of Barriers To Support, Chandell Gosse

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Responsibilization, in a true circular fashion, is not only born of but also benefits institutional (e.g., social media companies and law enforcement) and cultural power structures (e.g., misogyny and patriarchy). When targets of online abuse take responsibility for the abuse launched against them, that assumption of responsibility requires energy, and that energy is taken away from efforts to hold institutions and perpetrators accountable. Responsibilization tries to tranquilize change in the service of power. The tricky thing about interrupting this process is that it requires more than just offering better support. It also requires exposing, challenging, and dismantling harmful ideologies, belief …

Data Property, James Grimmelmann, Christina Mulligan

American University Law Review

In this, the Information Age, people and businesses depend on data. From your family photos to Google’s search index, data has become one of society’s most important resources. But there is a gaping hole in the law’s treatment of data. If someone destroys your car, they have committed the tort of conversion, and the law gives a remedy. But if someone deletes your data, it is far from clear that they have done you a legally actionable wrong. If you are lucky, and the data was stored on your own computer, you may be able to sue them for trespass …

Persistent Surveillance, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Persistent surveillance technologies grant police vast new investigative capabilities. The technologies both monitor targeted areas and generate databases of searchable information about people, places, and patterns that can be connected and accessed for criminal prosecutions.

In the face of this growing police surveillance, courts have struggled to make sense of a fragmented Fourth Amendment doctrine. The Supreme Court has offered some clues that “digital may be different” when it comes to surveillance, but lower courts have been left struggling to apply old law to new technologies. Warrantless use of persistent surveillance technologies raises hard questions about when a “search” occurs …

Griswold For Google: Algorithmic Determinism And Decisional Privacy, Joshua Fairfield, Nathaniel Reynolds

Scholarly Articles

As surveillance capitalism continues to collect data and automate decisions, those on the receiving end of such actions are often rendered speechless. We are less left in awe of the great force of these technologies than we lack the language that could properly define and defend against their onslaught. Often, we feel powerless as our data is extracted then aimed at us to manipulate our own choices, and yet the conversation around these practices seems stultified. Algorithms have shifted the technological landscape by co-opting human decision-making and in the process co-opted the very tool that we use to respond to …

In Celebration Of Dissents (And Lengthy Textbooks): How Digital Became Different For The Fourth Amendment And Why It Is Time For A Real Warrant Default, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

The last decade has brought tremendous change to the Fourth Amendment, finally resulting in a ‘digital is different’ norm. We stand at an inflection point between a monolithic, analog past and a murky future of yet-unarticulated constitutional digital policing rules. It is a good time, then, to reflect upon how we came to be here and where we ought to go. This Essay first looks back to a monumental, majestic dissent: that of Justice Louis Brandeis in the 1928 decision of Olmstead v. United States. Every American, and especially every law student, ought to know that opinion, and judges …

The Rise Of 5g Technology: How Internet Privacy And Protection Of Personal Data Is A Must In An Evolving Digital Landscape, Justin Rabine

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.