Internet Law Commons^™

Verification Dilemmas In Law And The Promise Of Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Kenneth A. Bamberger, Ron Canetti, Shafi Goldwasser, Evan J. Zimmerman

Faculty Scholarship

Individuals who wish to access a website or qualify for a loan are expected to expose personally identifying information, undermining their privacy and security. Firms share proprietary information in dealmaking negotiations which, if the deal fails, may be used by the negotiating partner for a competitive advantage. Regulators are expected to disclose their algorithmic tools to comply with public transparency and oversight requirements, a practice that risks rendering these tools circumventable and ineffective. Litigants might have to reveal trade secrets in court proceedings to prove a claim or defense. Such “verification dilemmas” — costly choices between opportunities that require the …

Game Theory Optimized Fraud: How The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Created A Virtually Riskless Environment For White Collar Crime In Online Poker, Jeffrey Woolf

Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A Proportionality-Based Framework For Government Regulation Of Digital Tracing Apps In Times Of Emergency, Sharon Bassan

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Times of emergency present an inherent conflict between the public interest and the preservation of individual rights. Such times require granting emergency powers to the government on behalf of the public interest and relaxing safeguards against government actions that infringe rights. The lack of theoretical framework to assess governmental decisions in times of emergency leads to a polarized and politicized discourse about potential policies, and often, to public distrust and lack of compliance.

Such a discourse was evident regarding Digital Tracing Apps (“DTAs”), which are apps installed on cellular phones to alert users that they were exposed to people who …

Incessant Influence: Social Networking Sites Are Utilizing Patented Technology To Commandeer Human Emotion And Behavior, Mirna N. Bazi

Marquette Intellectual Property & Innovation Law Review

None

Death By A Thousand Duck Bites In A No-Man’S Land: Navigating Section 230’S Scope And Impact In A Changing Internet And World, Val Rigodon

City University of New York Law Review

Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code, colloquially known as Section 230, is hailed by many as the law that created the internet. It was conceived to promote the growth of the internet by protecting internet platforms from liability for third-party speech that was out of their control. However, while the internet has changed and grown more intrusive in everyday life, Section 230 has not grown to reflect that. It has been broadened in a way that allows internet platforms to escape liability. People are not generally able to hold internet platforms accountable for harms that were …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Legislating Data Loyalty, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog

Scholarship@WashULaw

Lawmakers looking to embolden privacy law have begun to consider imposing duties of loyalty on organizations trusted with people’s data and online experiences. The idea behind loyalty is simple: organizations should not process data or design technologies that conflict with the best interests of trusting parties. But the logistics and implementation of data loyalty need to be developed if the concept is going to be capable of moving privacy law beyond its “notice and consent” roots to confront people’s vulnerabilities in their relationship with powerful data collectors.

In this short Essay, we propose a model for legislating data loyalty. Our …

Understanding American Privacy, Neil M. Richards, Andrew B. Serwin, Tyler Blake

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article is an explanation of some of the key features of American privacy law for a general audience. In particular, it tries to explain American privacy law against the critique that because the US currently lacks a European-style privacy law, the United States lacks much in the way of privacy law. We argue that the lack of a European-style data protection law in the United States is not the end of the analysis. This article therefore offers a basic roadmap to American privacy law for the uninitiated. In order to understand American privacy, we believe that it is important …

The Surprising Virtues Of Data Loyalty, Neil M. Richards, Woodrow Hartzog

Scholarship@WashULaw

Lawmakers in the United States and Europe are seriously considering imposing duties of data loyalty that implement ideas from privacy law scholarship, but critics claim such duties are unnecessary, unworkable, overly individualistic, and indeterminately vague. This paper takes those criticisms seriously, and its analysis of them reveals that duties of data loyalty have surprising virtues. Loyalty, it turns out, can support collective well-being by embracing privacy’s relational turn; it can be a powerful state of mind for reenergizing privacy reform; it prioritizes human values rather than potentially empty formalism; and it offers solutions that are flexible and clear rather than …

Representation Without Elections: Civil Society Participation As A Remedy For The Democratic Deficits Of Online Speech Governance, Brenda Dvoskin

Scholarship@WashULaw

Giant social media companies wield oversized power over what gets communicated online. Yet, it remains unclear how to hold that power accountable to the public. In democracies, governments are limited in how much they can regulate speech directly, creating an obstacle for efforts to make online speech governance more democratic. Corporations are touting civil society consultations to try to regain trust in how they write their rules. Scholars and lawmakers, too, are looking to mandate increased reliance on civil society participation as a means to democratize private governance without involving governmental bodies.

These proposals often make two assumptions. One is …

The Rise And Fall Of Cryptocurrency: The Three Paths Forward, Joel Seligman

Scholarship@WashULaw

In a crash reminiscent of the 1929-1933 Stock Market crash in which prices on the New York Stock Exchange fell 83 percent between September 1929 and July 1932 or the 2007-2009 Financial Debacle in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 54 percent between October 9, 2007 and March 9, 2009, crypto market capitalization fell 61 percent between November 2021 and May 2022, collapsing from an aggregate value of $2.9 trillion to $1.24 trillion. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency which in late 2021 traded near $68,000 in November 2021 traded as low as $25,402 on May 10, 2022 (a decline of …

Race-Aware Algorithms: Fairness, Nondiscrimination And Affirmative Action, Pauline T. Kim

Scholarship@WashULaw

The growing use of predictive algorithms is increasing concerns that they may discriminate, but mitigating or removing bias requires designers to be aware of protected characteristics and take them into account. If they do so, however, will those efforts be considered a form of discrimination? Put concretely, if model-builders take race into account to prevent racial bias against Black people, have they then engaged in discrimination against white people? Some scholars assume so and seek to justify those practices under existing affirmative action doctrine. By invoking the Court’s affirmative action jurisprudence, however, they implicitly assume that these practices entail discrimination …

Implementing Data Protection By Design In The Ed Tech Context: What Is The Role Of Technology Providers?, Liane Colonna

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

This article explores the specific roles and responsibilities of technology providers when it comes to implementing Data Protection by Design (“DPbD”) and Data Protection by Default (“DPbDf”). As an example, it looks at the Education Technology (“Ed Tech”) sector and the complexities of the supply chains that exist therein to highlight that, in addition to the Higher Education (“HE”) institutions that procure products and services for advancing teaching and learning, Ed Tech vendors may also have responsibility and liability for the processing of student’s personal data. Ultimately, this paper asks whether there are any legal gaps, ambiguities, or normative conflicts …

Remedying Online Shaming, Miriam Marcowitz-Bitton, Hillel Sommer

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

Shaming is an act of subjecting someone publicly to shame, disgrace, humiliation, or disrepute.1 This act has challenged many existing legal regimes. Its effects are devastating, and efforts to cope with it within the current legal framework have been largely unsuccessful, mainly due to the challenges posed by anonymous, online shaming. This article rethinks the remedies currently available to handle shaming. It touches upon both civil and criminal remedies and penalties, considering the role that the right to be forgotten can play in handling shaming effectively. The article argues that only by complementing existing remedies with victims' rights can we …

Crying Cda Immunity: Tech Companies' Knee-Jerk Defense To Child Sexual Exploitation & Product Liability Claims, Carrie Goldberg, Naomi Leeds

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article argues that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is being misapplied by tech companies like Omegle to avoid liability in cases involving child sexual exploitation and product liability. It contends that Section 230 immunity should not shield companies when claims pertain to product design flaws and trafficking, emphasizing the need for courts to recognize the distinction between content moderation and product-related harms.

Panel 1: Sexual Exploitation, Sex Workers, And Section 230, Mary Graw Leary, Kendra Albert, Carrie Goldberg, Felix Wu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The article examines the implications of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, focusing on its impact on sexual exploitation, sex workers, and online speech. Panelists discuss the unintended consequences of legislative changes like FOSTA-SESTA and propose reforms such as the EARN IT Act to address child sexual abuse material (CSAM). They emphasize the need to balance protecting victims with safeguarding legitimate speech, particularly for marginalized communities, and advocate for comprehensive reforms rather than piecemeal changes.

Will Nfts Solve Some Of The Age-Old Problems In Art Law?, Ursula Von Schlenhenried

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are digital assets based on blockchain technology and are steadily growing in popularity in the art market. The technology has created a novel way of establishing ownership through tamper-resistant cryptographic records. A majority of NFTs are created via the Ethereum protocol and are most notably associated with other assets, such as digital art. Even prominent auction houses, like Christie’s, have joined the action. NFTs offer a whole host of new and interesting legal concerns, including questions surrounding smart contracts. The concerns surrounding traditional art, however, are long-standing and include (but are not limited to) provenance, authenticity, …

Cryptocurrency And Security Issues: The Tide Awaiting Ripple’S Decision, Robel Tsegu

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Bitcoin passed the test. Ethereum passed the test. Now, it is XRP’s turn. At the time of this writing, the SEC has the opportunity, through common law, to determine how to regulate the unregulated cryptocurrency world. This is a unique moment because guidance on SEC violations is usually promulgated through statutes, no-action letters, and quotes from SEC Commissioners, rather than common law. Therefore, the decision in SEC v. Ripple will pivot the direction on how cryptocurrencies and digital assets forever be used. Will this pivot be a “hard” or “soft” fork in how we use cryptocurrencies?

This Case Note argues …

With Great (Computing) Power Comes Great (Human Rights) Responsibility: Cloud Computing And Human Rights, Vivek Krishnamurthy

Publications

Cloud computing underlies many of the most powerful and controversial technologies of our day - from large-scale data processing to face recognition systems - yet the human rights impacts of cloud computing have received little scrutiny. This article explains what cloud computing is, how it works, and what some of its most significant human rights impacts are through three case studies. It offers some initial thoughts on the human rights responsibilities of cloud computing providers under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and concludes by suggesting directions for future research.

Platforms As Blackacres, Thomas E. Kadri

Articles

While writing this Article, I interviewed a journalist who writes stories about harmful technologies. To do this work, he gathers information from websites to reveal trends that online platforms would prefer to hide. His team has exposed how Facebook threatens people's privacy and safety, how Amazon hides cheaper deals from consumers, and how Google diverts political speech from our inboxes. You'd think the journalist might want credit for telling these important stories, but he instead insisted on anonymity when we talked because his lawyer was worried he'd be confessing to breaking the law-to committing the crime and tort of cyber-trespass. …