Privacy Law Commons^™

Domestic Asset Tracing And Recovery Of Hidden Assets And The Spoils Of Financial Crime, Nathan Wadlinger, Carl Pacini, Nicole Stowell, William Hopwood, Debra Sinclair

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

A Status Update For Texas Voir Dire: Advocating For Pre-Trial Internet Investigation Of Prospective Jurors, Luke A. Harle

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Internet provides trial attorneys an additional tool to investigate the backgrounds of prospective jurors during voir dire. Online searches of a person’s name and social media accounts can reveal information that could be used as grounds for a challenge for cause or to facilitate intelligent use of peremptory strikes. Texas lawmakers have not yet provided any official guidance as to whether attorneys can investigate prospective jurors online or how they might do so, should it be allowed. Texas’s current voir dire structure, judicial opinions, and ethics opinions, together, support the notion that Texas trial attorneys should be given opportunities …

Things Invisible To See: State Action & Private Property, Joseph William Singer, Isaac Saidel-Goley

Texas A&M Law Review

This Article revisits the state action doctrine, a judicial invention that shields “private” or “non-governmental” discrimination from constitutional scrutiny. Traditionally, this doctrine has applied to discrimination even in places of public accommodation, like restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores. Born of overt racial discrimination, the doctrine has inflicted substantial injustice throughout its inglorious history, and courts have continuously struggled in vain to coherently apply the doctrine. Yet, the United States Supreme Court has not fully insulated “private” or “horizontal” relations among persons from constitutional scrutiny. The cases in which it has applied constitutional norms to non-governmental actors should be celebrated rather …

Bulk Biometric Metadata Collection, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

Smart police body cameras and smart glasses worn by law enforcement increasingly reflect state-of-the-art surveillance technology, such as the integration of live-streaming video with facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools, including automated analytics. This Article explores how these emerging cybersurveillance technologies risk the potential for bulk biometric metadata collection. Such collection is likely to fall outside the scope of the types of bulk metadata collection protections regulated by the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015. The USA FREEDOM Act was intended to bring the practice of bulk telephony metadata collection conducted by the National Security Agency (“NSA”) under tighter regulation. In …

Bounded By The Constitution: Resolving The Private Search Doctrine Circuit Split, Mark Kifarkis

Concordia Law Review

This Article analyzes the private search doctrine exception to the Fourth Amendment and the exception's application to smart phones and computers. The private search doctrine allows governmental authorities to replicate a private individual's search without obtaining a warrant. This Article proposes a standard for court's to use to resolve the circuit split on how to apply the exception to today's technology. Presently, there are two standards used by courts. The Article names one standard as the "boundless search approach" that is used by the Fifth and Seventh Circuits. The Article names the other standard as "bounded search approach" that is …

Big Brother Is Listening To You: Digital Eavesdropping In The Advertising Industry, Dacia Green

Duke Law & Technology Review

In the Digital Age, information is more accessible than ever. Unfortunately, that accessibility has come at the expense of privacy. Now, more and more personal information is in the hands of corporations and governments, for uses not known to the average consumer. Although these entities have long been able to keep tabs on individuals, with the advent of virtual assistants and “always-listening” technologies, the ease by which a third party may extract information from a consumer has only increased. The stark reality is that lawmakers have left the American public behind. While other countries have enacted consumer privacy protections, the …

Against Notice And Choice: The Manifest Failure Of The Proceduralist Paradigm To Protect Privacy Online (Or Anywhere Else), John A. Rothchild

Cleveland State Law Review

Notice and choice are the foundational principles underlying the regulation of privacy in online transactions and in most other situations in which individuals interact with the government and commercial interests. These principles mean that before collecting personally identifiable information (PII) from an individual, the collector must provide the individual with a disclosure (notice) of what PII it proposes to collect and how it proposes to use that information. That knowledge enables the individual to make a rational decision (choice) about whether to allow that collection of information, generally by declining to enter into the transaction or, in some situations, by …

Biometric Data Collection In An Unprotected World: Exploring The Need For Federal Legislation Protecting Biometric Data, Carra Pope

Journal of Law and Policy

Currently, there are no federal statutes which protect or regulate the collection of biometric information. Because biometric identifiers cannot be changed if compromised, it is increasingly crucial that this data be protected by law. This note examines the barriers to federal legislation which would protect and regulate biometric data, as well as the steps that should be taken to enact federal biometric legislation in the future.

A Statistical Analysis Of Privacy Policy Design, Ari E. Waldman

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

This Essay takes a further step in a developing research agenda on the design of privacy policies. As described in more detail in Part II, I created an online survey in which respondents were asked to choose one of two websites that would better protect their privacy given images of segments of their privacy policies. Some of the questions paired notices with, on the one hand, privacy protective practices displayed in difficult-to-read designs, and, on the other hand, invasive data use practices displayed in graphical, aesthetically pleasing ways. Many survey respondents seemed to make their privacy decisions based on design …

Big Brother Is Watching: When Should Georgia Get Involved In Issues Of Family Privacy To Protect Children’S Liberties?, Michelle Wilco

Georgia State University Law Review

Alecia Faith Pennington (Faith) did not officially exist until she was nineteen. Faith’s conservative, religious parents, Lisa and James, raised their nine children on the family farm just outside Kerrville, Texas, and kept their family as self-sufficient and separate from the rest of the world as possible.

The family was very insular; the parents home schooled all of the children, and the family rarely left their home, with the rare exception of going to church. Lisa and James also prohibited their children from using the Internet until they were eighteen, at which point they were only allowed limited access to …

The New Utilities: Private Power, Social Infrastructure, And The Revival Of The Public Utility Concept, K. Sabeel Rahman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Pregnant: The Jurisprudence Of Abortion Exceptionalism In Garza V. Hargan, Kaytlin L. Roholt

Texas A&M Law Review

Since a majority of Supreme Court justices created the abortion right in 1973, a troubling pattern has emerged: The Supreme Court has come to ignore—and even nullify—longstanding precedent and legal doctrines in the name of preserving and expanding the abortion right. And with a Supreme Court majority that is blithe to manipulate any doctrine or principle—no matter how deeply rooted in U.S. legal tradition—in the name of expansive abortion rights, it should come as no surprise that lower courts are following suit. Most recently, the D.C. Circuit fired up the “ad hoc nullification machine,” but this time, its victim of …

Drawing The Line: The Jurisprudence Of Non-Consensual Pornography And The Implications Of Kanye West’S Famous Music Video, Karla Utset

University of Miami Law Review

In June 2016, American rapper Kanye West premiered the music video for Famous from his seventh studio album “The Life of Pablo.” West’s Famous music video, inspired by Vincent Desiderio’s painting Sleep, features nude replications of several celebrities lying together on a bed. The cinematography is voyeuristic, with one journalist describing the video as “predatory.” In making and publicizing the infamous music video, West failed to seek and acquire the consent of several of the individuals featured. The production received both considerable praise and backlash from artists, critics, and the celebrities depicted.

This Note discusses the jurisprudence of non-consensual pornography, …

The Struggle To Define Privacy Rights And Liabilities In A Digital World And The Unfortunate Role Of Constitutional Standing, Juan Olano

University of Miami Law Review

Today’s world runs on data. The creation and improvement of technological products and services depend on the exchange of data between people and companies. As people’s lives become more digitized, companies can collect, store, and analyze more data, and in turn, create better technology. But, because consumer data can be very sensitive (think Social Security numbers, GPS location, fingerprint recognition, etc.) this cyclical exchange comes with serious privacy risks; especially in light of more frequent and sophisticated cyberattacks. This creates a face-off between technological growth and privacy rights. While it makes sense that people should be willing to subside some …

Harmonizing The Tension Between The First Amendment And Publicity Rights And Finding The Right Balance: Discerning How Much Freedom Is Warranted And What Needs Protection, William Buchsbaum

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

This paper examines the tension between the First Amendment and Publicity Rights considering why and how friction is emerging, the legal underpinnings and theories behind the development of publicity rights and how to reconcile this with values raised in support of the First Amendment. This collision course of rights occurs where property interests have vested in human identity itself which brings us face to face with the outer limits of free speech and expression under the First Amendment and evens tests the notion of how we define speech. The paper takes a dive into some of the currently arising issues …

Information And The Regulatory Landscape: A Growing Need To Reconsider Existing Legal Frameworks, Anjanette H. Raymond

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

The Fight Over Encryption: Reasons Why Congress Must Block The Government From Compelling Technology Companies To Create Backdoors Into Their Devices, Shannon Lear

Cleveland State Law Review

Advances in technology in the past decade have blurred the line between individuals’ privacy rights and the government’s ability to access information. How should this issue be handled in a manner that balances the privacy rights of individuals and the government’s access to information in the interest of national security?

This Note proposes a bright-line rule that would continue to allow the government to obtain specific information from a data service provider without forcing the company to circumvent its own security features. Under this rule, a company shall relinquish specific information in its control or possession only by court order …

Jurisdiction, The Internet, And The Good Faith Exception: Controversy Over The Government’S Use Of Network Investigative Techniques, Maureen Weidman

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In February 2015, the FBI discovered a website dedicated to child pornography located on the Tor Network, a network designed to protect its users’ identities on the Internet. Due to the structure of the Tor Network, the FBI could not take down the website and identify users who previously accessed the website. Instead, the FBI kept the website operational for 30 days and applied for a search warrant in the Eastern District of Virginia to use a device called a Network Investigative Technique (“NIT”). This device operated similarly to malware and “attached” to computers accessing the website, allowing the government …

الطعن في الأعمال الصادرة عن قاضي التنفيذ وفقا لقانون الإجراءات المدنية الإماراتي, سعيد سالم محمد الهنائي

Private Law Theses

The aim of this study is to highlight the method of appeal or appeal against judgments issued by the execution judge in accordance with UAE Civil Procedure Law. Where the executive judge in the UAE is characterized by the variety of actions that result from it: there are judicial acts in the form of judicial decisions issued in substantive disputes and temporary disputes, and the work of the state is in the form of a petition on a petition, and administrative work is the issuance of administrative decisions on the occasion of supervision of Implementation. The results of the study …

Techno-Policing, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Surveillance Gap: The Harms Of Extreme Privacy And Data Marginalization, Michele Gilman, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

We live in an age of unprecedented surveillance, enhanced by modern technology, prompting some to suggest that privacy is dead. Previous scholarship suggests that no subset of the population feels this phenomenon more than marginalized communities. Those who rely on public benefits, for example, must turn over personal information and submit to government surveillance far more routinely than wealthier citizens who enjoy greater opportunity to protect their privacy and the ready funds to secure it. This article illuminates the other end of the spectrum, arguing that many individuals who may value government and nonprofit services and legal protections fail to …

بيع العقار على الخارطة وَفق قوانين دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة دراسة مقارنة, موزة سويد سالم السعيدي

Private Law Theses

تهدف هذه الدراسة الي تسليط الضوء علي بيع عقار ما لا زال رسما هندسي ا تحت الانشاء سواء تم البدء فيه ولم يكتمل او لم يتم الشروع في بناءه، ومعرفة طبيعة العقد المبرم و مراحل تكوينه، و الوقوف علي حقوق اطراف العقد و الالتزامات الملقاه علي عاتقهما، للتقليل من مخاطر التعامل بمثل هذه العقود لعدم وجود الشئ المبيع وقت التعاقد، و هو علي خلاف العقود الاخري التي يقل فيها حدوث مثل هذه الاشكاليات لوجود الشئ المبيع وقت ابرام العقد، و ابراز اهمية البيع علي الخارطة و حاجه الانسان الي المأوي نظرا لقلة المعروض وما يتبعه من زيادة الطلب علي الوحدات …

The Language-Game Of Privacy, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Michigan Law Review

A review of Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr., Privacy Revisited: A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone.

Humans Forget, Machines Remember: Artificial Intelligence And The Right To Be Forgotten, Eduard Fosch Villaronga, Peter Kieseberg, Tiffany Li

Faculty Scholarship

To understand the Right to be Forgotten in context of artificial intelligence, it is necessary to first delve into an overview of the concepts of human and AI memory and forgetting. Our current law appears to treat human and machine memory alike – supporting a fictitious understanding of memory and forgetting that does not comport with reality. (Some authors have already highlighted the concerns on the perfect remembering.) This Article will examine the problem of AI memory and the Right to be Forgotten, using this example as a model for understanding the failures of current privacy law to reflect the …

Pii In Context: Video Privacy And A Factor-Based Test For Assessing Personal Information, Daniel L. Macioce Jr.

Pepperdine Law Review

As a central concept in American information privacy law, personally identifiable information (PII) plays a critical role in determining whether a privacy violation has occurred. Under the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA), PII “includes information which identifies a person as having requested or obtained specific video materials or services.” Despite the clarity that these words may have when the Statute was enacted, the line separating PII from non-PII in the context of streaming video is not easily drawn, in part due to the prevalence of behavior tracking technologies and the emergence of “big data” analytics. The First Circuit, …

These Walls Can Talk! Securing Digital Privacy In The Smart Home Under The Fourth Amendment, Stefan Ducich

Duke Law & Technology Review

Privacy law in the United States has not kept pace with the realities of technological development, nor the growing reliance on the Internet of Things (IoT). As of now, the law has not adequately secured the “smart” home from intrusion by the state, and the Supreme Court further eroded digital privacy by conflating the common law concepts of trespass and exclusion in United States v. Jones. This article argues that the Court must correct this misstep by explicitly recognizing the method by which the Founding Fathers sought to “secure” houses and effects under the Fourth Amendment. Namely, the Court must …

Breach Of Faith: A Lack Of Policy For Responding To Data Breaches And What The Government Should Do About It, Jared Burns

Florida Law Review

One data breach in the summer of 2015 against the United States government cost taxpayers more than $350 million. Since 2005, the U.S. government has lost more than 183 million personnel records and countless files containing sensitive information. Despite all of this, the government has failed to create a policy for responding to data breaches. As proof of a lack of any clear policy, this Note analyzes two recent breaches against the government and explains how the responses, or lack thereof, are at opposite ends of the response continuum.

This Note creates a policy for government response to data breaches. …

Privacy, Mass Intrusion And The Modern Data Breach, Jon L. Mills, Kelsey Harclerode

Florida Law Review

Massive data breaches have practically become a daily occurrence. These breaches reveal intrusive private information about individuals, as well as priceless corporate secrets. Ashley Madison’s breach ruined lives and resulted in suicides. The HSBC breach, accomplished by one of their own, revealed valuable commercial information about the bank and personal information about HSBC customers. The employee responsible for the breach has since been convicted of aggravated personal espionage, while third-party news outlets have been free to republish the hacked information.

Some information disclosed in data breaches can serve a public purpose. The Snowden disclosures, for example, revealed sensitive government information …

Survey Of (Mostly Outdated And Often Ineffective) Laws Affecting Work-Related Monitoring, Robert Sprague

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article reviews various laws that affect work-related monitoring. It reveals that most of our privacy laws were adopted well before smartphones and the Internet became ubiquitous; they still hunt for physical secluded locations; and, because they are based on reasonable expectations of privacy, they can easily be circumvented by employer policies that eliminate that expectation by informing workers they have no right to privacy in the workplace. This article concludes that the future—indeed the present—does not bode well for worker privacy.

Privacy And The Right To One’S Image: A Cultural And Legal History, Samantha Barbas

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 9 in Injury and Injustice: The Cultural Politics of Harm and Redress, Anne Bloom, David M. Engel & Michael McCann, eds.