Internet Law Commons^™

Transportation Security Administration Use Of Facial Recognition Technology: Turbulence Surrounding Traveler Rights, Mckenly Redmon

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Facial recognition technology has been employed by law enforcement agencies and private companies for decades. This technology promises safer and more efficient processes to identify individuals in the name of safety. However, not everyone approves of their biometric data being collected. This Article provides an overview of the current use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in airport security checkpoints. It begins by explaining the underlying technology behind facial recognition and explores the safety and security concerns behind it. Building on this foundation, this Article then evaluates how the TSA’s use of facial recognition influences science …

The Sky’S Not The Limit: Navigating Starlink’S Impact On Global Connectivity And Regulation, Michael N. Hillebrand

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This case note examines the governance implications arising from the onset of accelerated satellite internet expansion and explores potential regulatory solutions for effective governmental oversight. Due to the interconnected nature of the internet and its global network, international organizations and treaties play a crucial role in content and data regulation, and rapid technological evolution presents increasing difficulties for these regulatory frameworks to keep pace. These challenges are particularly evident in satellite-based broadband internet services, with SpaceX’s Starlink emerging as the most prominent and currently relevant service in this domain. Proponents of this technology emphasize its ability to provide internet access …

The Contractarian Joint Venture, Carla L. Reyes, Christine Hurt

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In 2015, a group of entrepreneurs pooled their money together for the purpose of investing in other businesses. The entrepreneurs could have undertaken this activity through a traditional venture capital firm, but they wanted to cut out the middle-man, reduce fees, and retain more control over their capital, so they chose to undertake their investing on their own. The group of entrepreneurs chose not to form an entity. Instead, they attempted to limit their business and liability risk by conducting their activity entirely via software. Unfortunately, the software contained a bug, and an insider siphoned off millions of dollars belonging …

The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping And Privacy, Daniel J. Solove, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems depend on massive quantities of data, often gathered by “scraping”—the automated extraction of large amounts of data from the internet. A great deal of scraped data contains people’s personal information. This personal data provides the grist for AI tools such as facial recognition, deep fakes, and generative AI. Although scraping enables web searching, archiving of records, and meaningful scientific research, scraping for AI can also be objectionable and even harmful to individuals and society.

Organizations are scraping at an escalating pace and scale, even though many privacy laws are seemingly incongruous with the practice. In this …

Gig Work At What Cost? Exploring Privacy Risks Of Gig Work Platform Participation In The U.S., Amogh Pradeep, Johanna Gunawan, Álvaro Feal, Woodrow Hartzog, David Choffnes

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, "gig work" platforms have gained popularity as a way for individuals to earn money; as of 2021, 16% of Americans have at some point earned money from such platforms. Despite their popularity and their history of unfair data collection practices and worker safety, little is known about the data collected from workers (and users) by gig platforms and about the privacy dark pattern designs present in their apps.

This paper presents an empirical measurement of 16 gig work platforms' data practices in the U.S. We analyze what data is collected by these platforms, and how it is …

Consumer Agents, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

In the twenty-first century economy, individuals need market help that they are not getting. The technology has long existed for a browser plug-in that would filter out toxic social media content or a virtual shopping assistant that would find and even purchase the best deals online without having to go to many different websites and product pages. Yet tech platforms have used lawsuits and data control to stifle such tools. The lack of digital helpers has potentially profound consequences. Social media use is linked to alarming increases in teenage depression and anxiety. Businesses’ ability to manipulate consumers into paying higher …

Normalizing Facial Recognition Technology And The End Of Obscurity, Woodrow Hartzog, Evan Selinger, Judy Hyojoo Rhee

Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that facial recognition technology is the most dangerous surveillance tool ever invented. Given the unique threats this morally suspect tool poses to privacy, civil liberties, human flourishing, and democracy, the only appropriate response is a ban. To justify our position, we explain why facial recognition is distinctive among biometrics, clarify how even seemingly benign and positive uses of the technology can trigger dangerous normalization dynamics, and pinpoint why current United States laws (with reverberations in the EU’s AI Act) are designed to accelerate a slippery slope that makes mass surveillance nearly inevitable. Our most fundamental contribution lies …

Mechanisms For Including Publics In Administrative Governance, Nina-Simone Edwards

Library Scholarship

This project’s fourth concept paper rethinks public participation in administrative processes. Although participation mechanisms are theoretically designed to enable those affected by regulations to influence their development, it is often extremely difficult for members of the public to meaningfully engage with agencies. After discussing institutional failures of current participation mechanisms, this report develops a set of principles to guide the redesign of public participation mechanisms. These include involving publics earlier in the process, building both public and regulatory capacity for meaningful, two-way communication, and reframing expertise as a public good.

The paper then proposes specific mechanisms to optimize communication between …

Designing Policymaking Mechanisms For Regulatory Dynamism, Nina-Simone Edwards

Library Scholarship

The project’s third concept paper focuses on the design of regulatory policymaking mechanisms that translate decisions about public values–such as “avoid deceiving consumers”–into operationalized forms that support iteration and experimentation. It outlines a set of foundational principles for a dynamic, effective regulatory toolkit that empowers regulators to act sooner, experiment, create governance seams, mandate beneficial friction, and extend regulatory authority in ways that mirror the scale and interdependence of digital supply chains.

To support this expanded regulatory toolkit, the paper recommends empowering regulators to mandate data flow restrictions, to develop design requirements for both user-facing and technical interfaces, to require …

Dekolonisasi Hukum Perdata Indonesia: Kritik Terhadap Warisan Kolonial Dan Implikasinya Terhadap Pembangunan Hukum Berkeadilan, R. Mustar Lofi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Hukum perdata Indonesia hingga kini masih berada di bawah bayang-bayang warisan kolonial, terutama melalui keberlakuan Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW) 1848 yang diwarisi dari Belanda. Meskipun berbagai peraturan baru telah diundangkan, fondasi utama hukum perdata belum sepenuhnya lepas dari struktur, nilai, dan cara pandang kolonial. Artikel ini mengkaji secara kritis bagaimana dominasi hukum kolonial masih berpengaruh dalam pembentukan dan penegakan hukum perdata di Indonesia, serta mengapa dekolonisasi menjadi penting dalam pembangunan sistem hukum yang berkeadilan. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan yuridis-normatif dan analisis interdisipliner dari perspektif sosiologis hukum dan filsafat hukum, tulisan ini menelusuri bagaimana warisan hukum kolonial menciptakan ketimpangan, terutama dalam hal akses …

Copyright Doctrine Before The Tribunal Of Science: A Response To Professor Silbey, Mateusz Blaszczyk

Scholarly Works

In an important new Article, titled A Matter of Facts: The Evolution of the Copyright Fact-Exclusion and Its Implications for Disinformation and Democracy, Professor Jessica Silbey argues provocatively that we “‘only” know that facts are excluded from copyright protection because Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service “says so.” She argues that both the nature and importance of facts has been underdefined and is in flux, nonetheless tracing it to the foundational cases of United States (U.S.) copyright law, and argues for a stronger exclusion of facts, which are publici juris, and belong in the public domain. This central …

Harmful Connections: How Tort Law Can Address Algorithmic Account Recommendation Harms And Protect Youth Social Media Users, Francesca Kennedy

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In 2023, the United States Surgeon General published an advisory to bring an urgent public health issue affecting America’s youth to the nation’s attention. The urgent public health issue was the ongoing negative impact of social media on children and adolescents. The report revealed that ninety-five percent of youths aged thirteen to seventeen use social media. Exposure to harmful content poses a risk to their mental health, including body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, depression, and, in extreme cases, death. Their mental health is also harmed by predatory behaviors and interactions with malicious adults that target and exploit minors on internet platforms. …

Between Pixels And Predators: The Landscape Of Sexual Assault And Rape In The Metaverse, Natalia Rydzewski

FIU Law Review

This article explores the potential expansion of criminal prosecution in virtual reality spaces as it relates to sexual assault.

Digital Sovereignty And Ai: New Threats To Corporate Participation In Internet Governance?, Michael J. Kelly, David E. Satola

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Authoritarian regimes have long challenged the multistakeholder model of Internet governance in pursuit of more state-centered controls. Recent assertions of digital sovereignty, coupled with dramatic advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), present twin threats that those regimes may now deploy to advance that challenge. This Article argues that corporations, which currently have a seat at the governance table, must engage with this debate on the side of Western liberal democracy and Internet human rights or risk losing those seats. (Abstract from authors.)

Cyberbullying As A Contemporary Human Rights Violation Of Youth In Digital Media: A Study Of India, Brazil, And South Africa, Laura Ferla Tuma

American University International Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic facilitated a technological migration not only among adults but also among children and adolescents. Digital media became the alternative for young individuals to maintain their activities, especially school-related ones. They shared virtual classrooms, used the internet for entertainment, and were forced to socialize exclusively in digital environments for months. Connected time increased, and the world witnessed a new phenomenon: hyperconnectivity.

On Blockchain As A Tool Against Corporate Corruption, Yannis Normand

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Over the last decades domestic and international legal frameworks have successfully coalesced to limit corrupt behavior worldwide. However, despite their success, current regulatory tools are not sufficiently well-equipped to address corruption in modern economic settings. These mechanisms can often be too costly to implement, too cumbersome to induce compliance, politically manipulatable, and may disincentivize foreign investment and internal corporate monitoring efforts. To address such drawbacks, policymakers should consider the introduction of blockchain-based tools in developing future anti-corruption efforts.

Blockchain can serve as a foundation for structures that can make it more attractive, easier and cost-efficient to monitor economic transactions, to …

Scientific Educations Among U.S. Judges, Christa J. Laser

American University Law Review

Should more judges have technical and scientific educations than are currently prevalent in the federal judiciary? This empirical study of the educational background of federal judges reports the undergraduate and graduate majors of active U.S. federal Article III judges. Information on the subject area of study is largely not publicly available, especially for judges appointed decades ago. This is the first and only publicly available research study of the subject areas of study of U.S. judges, collected via phone and email surveys to U.S. judges. The results of this study show that only 7.35% of federal judges have majors in …

Regenerating Justice: Chatgpt And The Legal Minefield Of Generative Ai, Katie Szilagyi

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper adopts an automation bias lens to cast doubt on the growing claims that GenAI is a transformational tool for legal industry. In this context, automation bias refers to the well-known psychological phenomenon in which human decision-makers unwittingly defer to automated processes, flowing from overreliance on the accuracy of the automation. Even well-meaning individuals aiming to keep a “human-in-the-loop” of any automated decision can fall prey to this well-documented phenomenon, trusting the technology more than it deserves to be trusted. Champions for current GenAI technologies often do acknowledge limitations within the existing landscape of tools, like GenAI’s tendency to …

Like It Or Not: Recognizing A Special Relationship Between Social Media Companies And Their Users, Alexandra Tran

Fordham Law Review

When the internet plays a role in a plaintiff’s injury, there can be considerable roadblocks barring recovery. At the heart of the dispute over how social media should be legally addressed is the balance between maintaining freedom of expression on the open internet and imposing regulations on social media companies to ensure online safety. When plaintiffs allege that a social media company had a duty to warn them about dangers on its site, courts are generally reluctant to extend the special relationship doctrine to encompass the social media-user relationship. In addition to the high bar set by courts, different jurisdictions …

Penggunaan Unconventional Weapons Dalam Konflik Bersenjata Modern, Fadhillah Wahid Pramudya Aldiansyach

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The use of unconventional weapons such as cluster munitions, white phosphorus, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence-based autonomous systems (AI/LAWS), and military neurotechnology is increasingly dominating modern armed conflicts. The characteristics of these weapons, particularly their widespread effects, uncertainty of control, and potential for automatic escalation, can pose serious challenges to the application of the principles of distinction and proportionality in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), especially when used in densely populated areas. The modernization of nuclear systems, the accelerated integration of AI into military command, and the emergence of neurotechnology indicate a regulatory gap that could potentially undermine humanitarian protection. This study …