Privacy Law Commons^™

Summary Of Franchise Tax Board Of The State Of California V. Hyatt, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 71, Stacy Newman, Jennifer Odell, Jaymes Orr, Patrick Phippen

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court (1) affirmed the intentional tort and bad faith exceptions to discretionary-function immunity under NRS 41.032; (2) recognized the common law tort of publicity in a false light; (3) adopted the sliding-scale approach to proving a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress; (4) determined comity does not demand granting immunity from suit to foreign state government agencies if immunity would be available under that state’s laws, but not under Nevada law; and (5) determined comity does not require extending statutory caps to foreign state government agencies even if provided by law to Nevada government agencies.

Chapter 58: Disclosure Of Medical Information In Pretrial Settlements With Marriage And Family Therapists, Brian Geremia

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Setting Parental Controls: Do Parents Have A Duty To Supervise Their Children’S Use Of The Internet?, 31 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 309 (2014), Alberto Bernabe

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Private Law In The Gaps, Jeffrey A. Pojanowski

Journal Articles

Private law subjects like tort, contract, and property are traditionally taken to be at the core of the common law tradition, yet statutes increasingly intersect with these bodies of doctrine. This Article draws on recent work in private law theory and statutory interpretation to consider afresh what courts should do with private law in statutory gaps. In particular, it focuses on statutes touching on tort law, a field at the leading edge of private law theory. This Article's analysis unsettles some conventional wisdom about the intersection of private law and statutes. Many leading tort scholars and jurists embrace a regulatory …

From Privacy To Publicity: The Tort Of Appropriation In The Age Of Mass Consumption, Samantha Barbas

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Privacy For Social Networking, Connie Davis Powell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

This article begins by considering the emergence of social networks as a major medium of communication and posits that the success of social networks is attributable to their users' willingness to share their information. Next, the article considers the expectation of privacy for users of social networks and whether such expectation is reasonable. In particular, the article discusses the privacy policies and legal terms governing the use of social networks, and tracks the evolution of such terms and policies as they slowly whittle away user control over time. The article then discusses public outcry regarding the disclosure of information contrary …

Post-Mortem Right Of Publicity In Arkansas: Protecting Against The Unauthorized Use Of A Person’S Identity For Commercial Purposes, Rashauna A. Norment

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

The right of publicity protects a person against the use of his or her name, identity, likeness, or other personal characteristics for commercial purposes without consent. Many states have implemented a statutory right of publicity or have recognized the right under common law. Currently, only three states have a post-mortem right of publicity. This article discusses jurisdictions that have adopted a postmortem right of publicity, and advocates that Arkansas adopt a postmortem right of publicity for everyone.

Specifically, the article argues that traditional protection stemming from actions for invasion of a right of privacy, trademark infringement, and copyright infringement cannot …

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: A Comment On The Theoretical Foundation And Historical Origin Of The Tort Remedy For Invasion Of Privacy, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 493 (2012), Alberto Bernabe

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

The Laws Of Image, Samantha Barbas

Journal Articles

We live in an image society. Since the turn of the 20th century if not earlier, Americans have been awash in a sea of images throughout the visual landscape. We have become highly image-conscious, attuned to first impressions and surface appearances, and deeply concerned with our own personal images – our looks, reputations, and the impressions we make on others. The advent of this image-consciousness has been a familiar subject of commentary by social and cultural historians, yet its legal implications have not been explored. This article argues that one significant legal consequence of the image society was the evolution …

Re-Mapping Privacy Law: How The Google Maps Scandal Requires Tort Law Reform, Lindsey A. Strachan

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In the Internet savvy and technology dependent world of today, it is difficult to imagine life without Google Maps. The pioneer web- mapping platform provides users with a number of free services, ranging from simple directions to high-resolution imagery of terrain. The service has revolutionized travel, providing guidance and resources to more than just the directionally challenged. Contributing to this notoriety was Google’s addition of “Street View” to the array of mapping functions in May of 2007. As its name implies, the Street View function allows users to view enhanced, 360-degree snapshots of homes, streets and other public property. According …

The Limits Of Tort Privacy, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

The conception of tort privacy developed by Warren, Brandeis and Prosser sits at the heart of American understandings of privacy law. Rooted in protection of private information against unwanted collection, use, and disclosure, tort privacy protects against emotional injury, and was directed by design against disclosures of true, embarrassing facts by the media. In this essay, I argue that as conceived by Warren and Brandeis and interpreted by Prosser, tort privacy is a poor vehicle for grappling with problems of privacy and reputation in the digital age. Tort privacy, especially the disclosure tort, has from its inception been in conflict …

Mainstreaming Privacy Torts, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

In 1890, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis proposed a privacy tort and seventy years later, William Prosser conceived it as four wrongs. In both eras, privacy invasions primarily caused psychic and reputational wounds of a particular sort. Courts insisted upon significant proof due to those injuries’ alleged ethereal nature. Digital networks alter this calculus by exacerbating the injuries inflicted. Because humiliating personal information posted online has no expiration date, neither does individual suffering. Leaking databases of personal information and postings that encourage assaults invade privacy in ways that exact significant financial and physical harm. This dispels concerns that plaintiffs might …

Prosser's Privacy Law: A Mixed Legacy, Neil M. Richards, Daniel J. Solove

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article examines the complex ways in which William Prosser shaped the development of the American law of tort privacy. Although Prosser certainly gave tort privacy an order and legitimacy that it had previously lacked, he also stunted its development in ways that limited its ability to adapt to the problems of the Information Age. His skepticism about privacy, as well as his view that tort privacy lacked conceptual coherence, led him to categorize the law into a set of four narrow categories and strip it of any guiding concept to shape its future development. Prosser’s legacy for tort privacy …

The Puzzle Of Brandeis, Privacy, And Speech, Neil M. Richards

Scholarship@WashULaw

Most courts and scholarship assume that privacy and free speech are always in conflict, even though each of these traditions can be traced back to writings by Louis D. Brandeis – his 1890 Harvard Law Review article “The Right to Privacy” and his 1927 concurrence in Whitney v. California. How can modern notions of privacy and speech be so fundamentally opposed if Brandeis played a major role in crafting both? And how, if at all, did Brandeis recognize or address these tensions? These questions have been neglected by scholars of First Amendment law, privacy, and Brandeis. In this paper, I …

Tort Liability For Software Developers: A Law & Economics Perspective, 27 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 199 (2009), T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Thomas M. Koutsky, Lawrence J. Spiwak

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article explores the economic rationale for applying product liability law to computer software. As demonstrated in the article, a well-designed liability regime must place liability upon all parties who economically control the risks of accidents. Accordingly, this article finds that strict liability may be appropriate for certain types of “intrinsic” software, but not for other types of software requiring that the customer be actively involved in the selection, operation and maintenance thereof. The authors show that for this type of “extrinsic” software, a strict liability rule is unlikely to be economically optimal and, therefore, choosing a generic liability regime …

In The Matter Of Ottinger V. Non-Party The Journal News, Daniel Haier

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reservoirs Of Danger: The Evolution Of Public And Private Law At The Dawn Of The Information Age, Danielle Keats Citron

Faculty Scholarship

A defining problem at the dawn of the Information Age will be securing computer databases of ultra-sensitive personal information. These reservoirs of data fuel our Internet economy but endanger individuals when their information escapes into the hands of cyber-criminals. This juxtaposition of opportunities for rapid economic growth and novel dangers recalls similar challenges society and law faced at the outset of the Industrial Age. Then, reservoirs collected water to power textile mills: the water was harmless in repose but wrought havoc when it escaped. After initially resisting Rylands v. Fletcher’s strict liability standard as undermining economic development, American courts …

Privacy's Other Path: Recovering The Law Of Confidentiality, Neil M. Richards, Daniel J. Solove

Scholarship@WashULaw

The familiar legend of privacy law holds that Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis invented the right to privacy in 1890, and that William Prosser aided its development by recognizing four privacy torts in 1960. In this article, Professors Richards and Solove contend that Warren, Brandeis, and Prosser did not invent privacy law, but took it down a new path. Well before 1890, a considerable body of Anglo-American law protected confidentiality, which safeguards the information people share with others. Warren, Brandeis, and later Prosser turned away from the law of confidentiality to create a new conception of privacy based on the …

Revisiting The American Action For Public Disclosure Of Facts, In New Dimensions In Privacy Law: International And Comparative Perspectives (Andrew T. Kenyon & Megan Richardson Eds., 2006), Brian C. Murchison

Books and Chapters

Although the public disclosure tort has had an unpromising past, it appeals to what Anthony Lewis suggests is a sense of basic fairness to ‘those who have not sought power’ but have become illustrations of public issues. The tort’s weakness may be a function of cultural indifference or constitutional qualms, although the most likely explanation is institutional: until recently, the Supreme Court offered no illumination of a core interest. Libel law had reserved the obvious candidate, dignity, for civic contexts. Now, with the court’s decision in Bartnicki and the insights of a number of contemporary thinkers, it may be time …

Small Hope Floats: How The Lower Courts Have Sunk The Right Of Privacy, Stephanie D. Taylor

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lessons For The Hague: Internet Jurisdiction In Contract And Tort Cases In The European Community And The United States, 23 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 1 (2004), Moritz Keller

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

With the increasing use of the Internet, all on-line users, web site owners, e-commerce companies and consumers alike, feel the need to be able to rely on clear standards for a potential contract or tort lawsuit following the Internet presence that could lead to multinational litigation. This goal could be achieved if the negotiations of the Hague Convention on international jurisdiction and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters succeed in harmonizing the rules of the different legal systems around the globe, or at least create a minimum standard for legal cases which would benefit greatly e-commerce and …

The New Privacy, Paul M. Schwartz, William M. Treanor

Michigan Law Review

In 1964, as the welfare state emerged in full force in the United States, Charles Reich published The New Property, one of the most influential articles ever to appear in a law review. Reich argued that in order to protect individual autonomy in an "age of governmental largess," a new property right in governmental benefits had to be recognized. He called this form of property the "new property." In retrospect, Reich, rather than anticipating trends, was swimming against the tide of history. In the past forty years, formal claims to government benefits have become more tenuous rather than more secure. …

Snake-Oil Security Claims The Systematic Misrepresentation Of Product Security In The E-Commerce Arena, John R. Michener, Steven D. Mohan, James B. Astrachan, David R. Hale

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The modern commercial systems and software industry in the United States have grown up in a snake-oil salesman's paradise. The largest sector of this industry by far is composed of standard commercial systems that are marketed to provide specified functionality (e.g. Internet web server, firewall, router, etc.) Such products are generally provided with a blanket disclaimer stating that the purchaser must evaluate the suitability of the product for use, and that the user assumes all liability for product behavior. In general, users cannot evaluate and cannot be expected to evaluate the security claims of a product. The ability to analyze …

The Ninth Circuit’S Invasion Of The Tort Of Invasion Of Privacy, Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

The tort of invasion of privacy has had a short but tortuous development made even more tortuous by a number of recent rulings by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This common law tort does not begin with the normal judicial iterations that created and sculpted other torts. Rather, it began life as a law review article prompted by personal pique.

Arkansas Surfers And Their Privacy, Or Lack Thereof: Does The Common Law Invasion Of Privacy Tort Prohibit E-Tailers' Use Of "Cookies"?, Bryan T. Mckinney, Dwayne Whitten

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accounting For The Slow Growth Of American Privacy Law, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Accounting For The Slow Growth Of American Privacy Law, Rodney A. Smolla

Law Faculty Publications

American privacy law is surprisingly weak. If privacy law were a stock, its performance over the last century would not be deemed impressive.  It has been a consistently poor achiever, barely keeping up with inflation. I speak here of privacy law in the tort sense, and the four torts that are classically understood to comprise invasion of privacy: 1) false light; 2) publication of private facts; 3) intrusion; and 4) appropriation. Of these four torts, only appropriation (or "the right of publicity") has been a ripping success for plaintiffs, a genuine high-return stock, and a species of intellectual property, even …

What's In A Name? Law's Identity Under The Tort Of Appropriation, Jonathan Kahn

Faculty Scholarship

This article is divided into three parts. In Part I, the article explores the notion that under the tort of appropriation, a person’s name is understood to implicate critical aspects of her identity. This notion is explored in relation to specific historical cases raising the issues of whether a woman who adopts her husband’s name has a property right in that name and whether a person who adopts a professional or stage name has separate rights in that name apart from his legal name. Second, Part II focuses on a person’s right to maintain the integrity of his physical image. …

The Doors Are Locked But The Thieves And Vandals Are Still Getting In: A Proposal In Tort To Alleviate Corporate America's Cyber-Crime Problem, 16 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 167 (1997), David L. Gripman

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article addresses the problem of computer hackers, breaking into the computer systems of businesses, and the third party injuries that are ultimately caused by such acts. This is a multimillion dollar problem for the business community. The article discusses the current methods companies use to protect against hackers, and then the author makes some suggestions for protection that include the latest technology available. However, the paper's main focus is on ways to put pressure on businesses to ensure that its computers are protected against hackers to avoid third party injuries. The author looks to tort law to do just …

The Scientological Defenestration Of Choice-Of-Law Doctrines For Publication Torts On The Internet, 15 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 361 (1997), Christopher P. Beall

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Two major doctrines exist for choosing which state's law applies to an interstate tort: the "lex loci deliciti" (the law of the place of the wrong) approach and the "most significant relationship" approach. In the context of the Internet, the "lex loci deliciti" approach has been criticized for its harshness. For example, it is possible for an e-mail posting to be non-actionable where written, but actionable where read. Likewise, the "most significant relationship" approach has been criticized for its indeterminacy and lack of predictability because the outcome as to the extent of liability for a publication tort on the Internet …