Privacy Law Commons^™

Are Your Secrets Safe?: Imposing A Fiduciary Duty On Healthcare Ai Developers Dealing With Sensitive Health Information, Lauren Quinn

Fordham Law Review

In 1996, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to establish standards for transmitting health information. For decades, the HIPAA Privacy Rule has operated as the primary regulation protecting health information in the United States. However, in the decades since HIPAA was enacted, new technologies have demonstrated the shortcomings of the Privacy Rule. In particular, the development of healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) has created new privacy concerns and exacerbated existing ones. This Note examines the current healthcare privacy framework in the United States and considers how healthcare AI complicates it. This Note also explores how AI developers …

Recommended For You Streaming Platform Recommendation Algorithms And Consumer Rights, Margaret Wilson

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Streaming platforms are becoming increasingly popular with consumers. In Canada, recent studies have suggested that 55% of Canadians use video streaming services, like Netflix, on a daily basis. Similarly, up to 30% stream audio content daily on platforms like Spotify.6 The federal government has recognized that the broadening use of these technologies creates new challenges for consumer privacy and has proposed updates to consumer privacy laws in Bill C-27. With the dissolution of the 44th Parliament on March 23, 2025, Bill C-27 died on the roll and will not be adopted. As proposed legislation, Bill C-27 signalled the direction of …

Navigating The Shadows: Evaluating Privacy Protections Against Dark Patterns, Matt Gaulton, Dominique Kelly, Dr. Jacquelyn Burkell

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Privacy dark patterns are user interface design strategies that manipulate individuals into disclosing personal information or consenting to data practices they may not fully understand or intend. This paper critically evaluates the effectiveness of Canadian, American, and European privacy frameworks — specifically, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — in addressing the regulatory challenges posed by privacy dark patterns. We argue that PIPEDA is significantly less equipped to counteract such manipulative practices, particularly in comparison to the GDPR and CCPA, due to …

Balancing The Use Of Ai With Canadian Privacy Rights: An Analysis Of Personal Information Collection Through Emerging Ai Tools, Tamie Dolny, Methura Sinnadurai

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Biometric information collection through artificial intelligence (AI) is a new, dynamic and exciting technology that also raises significant privacy law considerations for in house and governmental lawyers in Canada. While organizations may be quick to collect personal information using forms of AI technology, these entities should be aware of the legal risk posed by technologies which may violate the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA)1 and/or the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA),2 especially if users are unaware of, or have not consented to the use of their personal information by the AI …

Considering The Concept Of Law In The Legal Singularity, Matthew Tse

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This review article engages with the idea of a ‘‘legal singularity”, which has been developed by Abdi Aidid and Benjamin Alarie in their book, The Legal Singularity: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Law Radically Better.

The legal singularity describes a legal system in the future that harnesses algorithmic computation to facilitate a ‘‘stable and complete legal order, capable of addressing and resolving practically all types of legal uncertainty in real time and on demand”. Aidid and Alarie believe algorithmic computation will achieve this promise in an interdependent dual process. On one hand, algorithms will structure the law with conceptual standardization. …

From Code To Compliance: Regulating Daos In Canada: Legal Frameworks And Challenges, Gulnoza Abdurakhmonova

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper examines the regulatory challenges surrounding Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) in Canada and argues that existing legal frameworks— primarily designed for traditional corporate entities— are inadequate for addressing the unique characteristics of DAOs. While securities regulators have taken steps to oversee aspects of DAO activity, a broader regulatory framework is needed to provide legal clarity, address governance and liability concerns, and foster responsible innovation. This study recommends a dual approach: (1) extending corporate law reforms to define the legal status and obligations of DAOs, and (2) developing a regulatory framework that balances investor protection with the flexibility needed for …

Volume 48 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Keynote Address: Community Over Constitution, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay challenges the veneration of the U.S. Constitution by highlighting its origins in exclusion and its continued failure to protect marginalized communities. Drawing from her experience in civil legal aid and gender justice, she argues that the Constitution was drafted to consolidate power among white, wealthy men and continues to reflect that legacy through racial, gender, and class-based inequities. While acknowledging the significance of constitutional amendments and landmark cases, Mukhopadhyay emphasizes that meaningful change has always come from community-led action, not top-down reform. Additionally, Mukhopadhyay calls on lawyers and legal advocates to center community, practice …

The Lost Child: A Critique On Transracial Adoption Rhetoric, Hallie Conyers-Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

Transracial adoption in the United States reflects a deeply rooted history of colonialism, cultural assimilation, and racial hierarchy, masked by rhetoric focused on the “best interest of the child.” The author critiques that rhetoric and traces how adoption practices and policies, both domestic and international, have evolved to reinforce systemic inequities. Through historical analysis of the forced adoption of Native American, Black, and Asian children, it reveals how the best interest standard has been wielded not to protect children but to uphold political and racial ideologies. The author argues that the prevailing adoption framework relies on child-saving and color-blind narratives …

A Global Reconstruction: Black Internationalism And The Human Rights Regime, Britta Redwood

Seattle University Law Review

Black American advocates for civil, political, and economic rights have long taken an internationalist approach and fostered connections with international organizations and transnational movements. This engagement has also been a generative force and played role in shaping international law. Beginning in the early years of the twentieth century, Black intellectuals and leaders, spearheaded by the NAACP and the UNIA, focused on human rights as a means for addressing and repairing the harms wrought by slavery, Jim Crow, and racism. From the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Genocide Convention, and the drafting of …

The Gap: Addressing The Missing Piece In HawaiʻI’S Anti-Discrimination Laws On Credit And Lending, Wendy Mun

Seattle University Law Review

This author addresses the significant gap in Hawaiʻi’s anti-discrimination laws, specifically the lack of explicit protections for LGBTQ+ individuals against credit and lending discrimination. Although federal laws like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and recent interpretations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) extend some protections, they remain vulnerable to shifting federal priorities and interpretations. The author explores how other states, particularly California and Washington, have enacted robust statutory protections that clearly prohibit credit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They argue that Hawaiʻi, despite its large LGBTQ+ population, must amend its credit protection laws to reflect …

The U.S. Drug Policy Hamster Wheel: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Seattle’S New Drug Ordinance, Hallie Conyers-Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

The author critically examines Seattle’s new drug ordinance using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to reveal how legislative language influences the policy's actual effect. Although the ordinance claims to prioritize diversion and community health, the use of permissive language such as “may” and “shall” grants broad discretionary power to law enforcement and undermines the stated intent. The author situates the ordinance within a broader historical context, highlighting how drug policy in the United States has consistently been shaped by racialized and stigmatizing narratives. Additionally, the author argues that meaningful reform requires reframing the discourse around substance use to support public health …

Something Concrete: How Labor Advocates Can Best Respond To The Ambiguity Of Glacier Northwest, Ateş Serifsoy

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court’s much-anticipated decision in Glacier North-west, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local No. 174 (Glacier) marked a critical moment for workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the longstanding practice of Garmon preemption. Yet, initial fears of a significant rollback of workers’ rights, driven by sensational headlines, were met with an unexpectedly narrow Court opinion. This Comment examines Glacier’s implications for Gar-mon preemption and the right to strike. It offers the historical background of the doctrine of labor law preemption before Glacier; presents a detailed analysis of Glacier itself, including its …

A New Exclusionary Rule To Protect Bodily Integrity And Discourage Pretext Stops, Josephine Ross

Seattle University Law Review

The author proposes a novel state-level exclusionary rule to reduce racial profiling and protect bodily autonomy during police encounters. The current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence fails to deter pretextual stops and frisks because the exclusionary rule often turns on officer fault and "good faith," allowing racially motivated practices to go unchecked. As federal rollbacks on diversity and data collection hinder efforts to track racial bias, the author argues for a statutory evidentiary rule that automatically excludes drug evidence found during (1) traffic stops, (2) pat-downs for weapons, and (3) consent searches, regardless of an officer’s intent or the legality of the …

Navahine V. HawaiʻI Dept. Of Transportation: The Keiki Will Lead Us, Catherine Smith

Seattle University Law Review

The author analyzes the landmark case Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, which culminated in the world’s first constitutional climate settlement. Catherine Smith, serving as an expert for the youth plaintiffs, situates the case within Hawaiʻi’s legal tradition of prioritizing children’s rights and intergenerational equity. She explores the evolution of children’s constitutional protections, contrasting Hawaiʻi’s progressive jurisprudence with the dominant adult-centric legal framework on the mainland. She critiques four recurring analytical missteps in U.S. courts that marginalize children’s interests and highlights Hawaiʻi’s public trust doctrine and cultural values, such as the Aloha Spirit, as models for addressing climate-related harms. …

Constitutional Futurism As Pedagogy, Jeremiah Chin

Seattle University Law Review

Constitutional Law has transformed from a course on history to a discussion of current events. Cases like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo reveal that the study of constitutional law is not a static, or even linear, discussion of constitutional text and history. Law is a shifting, changing enterprise that reflects social constructions of power, authority, and identity. How do we teach, learn, and understand constitutional law that is so laden with history, riddled with theories of consistency and adherence to precedent, but ultimately subject …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Can The Law Protect My Craft? How Gaps In Copyright Of Knitting Patterns Symbolize A Greater Struggle For Protecting Traditionally Feminine Forms Of Intellectual Property, Kysa Walzer

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of intel-lectual property rights within the context of copyright protection of knit-ting patterns. The article will discuss the underutilization of copyright pro-tection for knitters and crafters and its larger impact upon craft and indus-try traditionally comprised of women. Part I introduces knitting patterns and a short history of copyright protections. Part II discusses the specific areas within knitting patterns and the knitting community which give rise to legal grey areas for copyright protection. Part III discusses the larger implications of copyright and intellectual property in spaces where women traditionally make …

Lower Your Expectation Damages: Bipa Reforms Amplify Need For Federal Standards In Biometric Data Privacy, Jessica Schmitz

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Not Her Fault: Ai Deepfakes, Nonconsensual Pornography, And Federal Law’S Current Failure To Protect Victims, Taylor Percival James

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can Ai, As Such, Invade Your Privacy? An Experimental Study Of The Social Element Of Surveillance, Aileen Nielsen

Indiana Law Journal

The increasing use of AI rather than human surveillance puts pressure on two long-used cultural and (sometimes) legal distinctions: as between human and machine observers and as between content and metadata. Machines do more and more watching through advancing technology, rendering AI a plausible replacement for humans in surveillance tasks. Further, machines can commit to surveil only certain forms of information in a way that humans cannot, rendering the distinction between content and metadata increasingly relevant too for crafting privacy law and policy. Yet despite the increasing importance of these distinctions, their legal importance remains in four key domains of …

Ninth Amendment Neurorights, Joseph A. Tomain

Indiana Law Journal

Neurotechnology developments threaten two fundamental human rights: freedom of thought and mental privacy. For example, neuroscientists use brain scans to decode unspoken thoughts and to predict political ideology and sexual orientation. Additionally, they have successfully implanted false memories in the minds of mice. There are undoubtedly beneficial uses of this dual-use technology, such as identifying and treating a variety of medical conditions. But left unchecked, neurotechnology will be exploited by public and private actors alike. There is a growing and contested literature about how the law should respond to the increasing risks of neurotechnology. This Essay contributes to that literature …

Facial Recognition Ai, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

The integration of algorithmic decisionmaking and artificial intelligence (“AI”) into facial recognition technology poses new, unprecedented risks to privacy and individual autonomy rights, particularly in urban settings. The murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in New York City on December 4, 2024, provides a timely case study to examine the deployment of facial recognition systems by the New York Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to identify the suspect. New York City deploys some of the most sophisticated surveillance architecture in the nation, put into place following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This Article explores the …

Facial Recognition Technology: The Case For Comprehensive Federal Oversight, Christopher Hart

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article will argue that regulations for government agency use of FRT should be stringent and limit the exploitation of personal biodata in the private sector. Instead of creating a new agency, Congress could expand an existing agency’s responsibility by granting it regulatory power over facial recognition technology. First, this article will seek to delineate the contours of facial recognition technology and its contemporary application within the United States. Then, this article will analyze the intricacies of FRT in both the public and private sectors. Within the public domain, specific attention will be devoted to discussing the use of FRT …

Unveiling The Underbelly Of Artificial Intelligence: The Inadequacies Of The Legal System With Regard To Victims Of Nonconsensual Sexual Deepfakes, Zilana Lee

Journal of Law and Policy

Artificial intelligence-powered deepfake technology has ushered a new era of digital sexual abuse, allowing for the seamless fabrication of explicit images that violate bodily autonomy with alarming realism. With little more than a photograph scraped from social media, individuals can use AI tools to fabricate hyper-realistic nude images and pornographic videos of people without their consent. These nonconsensual sexual deepfakes are rapidly spreading online, often going viral before victims are even aware of their existence. The technology can affect anyone, but women and girls remain disproportionately targeted. Recent incidents involving minors highlight both the reach and severity of this harm. …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …