Privacy Law Commons^™

Let's Not Kill All The Privacy Laws (And Lawyers), Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Christopher Millard, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Moving Forward Together, Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Christopher Millard, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Privacy Implications Of Smart Meters, Cheryl Dancey Balough

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Many people worry about the erosion of privacy in our society given developments in technology, but that loss of privacy may take a quantum leap as electric "smart meters" make it possible for strangers to know on a real-time basis what is occurring in our houses and apartments. Perhaps the greatest concern is that current laws and regulations do not fully protect us from this unprecedented threat to two of our most basic rights—to be left alone in our own homes and to control personal information. Utility companies across the country are replacing conventional electric meters with smart meters designed …

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 …

Location-Based Services: Time For A Privacy Check-In, Chris Conley, Nicole Ozer, Hari O'Connell, Ellen Ginsburg, Tamar Gubins

Faculty Scholarship

Need to get directions when you are lost? Want to know if your friends are in the neighborhood? Location-based services – applications and websites that provide services based on your current location – can put this information and more in the palm of your hand.

But outdated privacy laws and varying corporate practices could mean that sensitive information about who you are, where you go, what you do, and who you know end up being shared, sold, or turned over to the government.

Can location-based services protect your privacy? Do they? And what can we do to improve the situation? …

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

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Right to Privacy' and his dissent in Olmstead v. United States. In The Right to Privacy, Brandeis and Samuel Warren argued that intrusion into and public disclosure of private affairs by the press was deeply hurtful, and that the common law should be read to recognize a tort remedy for such violations. Their short article is considered by scholars to have established not just the privacy torts but the field of privacy law itself. Brandeis is also famous (though less so) for his Olmstead dissent-a document which introduced modern concepts of privacy into constitutional law, and ultimately led not …

The Admissibility Of Electronic Business Records, Ken Chasse

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The business record provisions of the Evidence Acts determine a record’s admissibility by evidence of its history, which must be the product of “the usual and ordinary course of business” (or comparable “business activity” wording). The electronic record provisions determine a record’s admissibility by the, “integrity of the electronic records system in which it is recorded or stored.” The difference is, records management (RM) based on “paper records concepts” versus “electronic records systems concepts.” The former is subjective — each business determines its own “usual and ordinary course of business”; the latter, objective — in accor- dance with authoritative standards …

Personalization, Analytics, And Sponsored Services: The Challenges Of Applying Pipeda To Online Tracking And Profiling Activities, Eloïse Gratton

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2008, the online advertising industry was found to be worth 27 billion dollars, a figure that was projected to double over the subsequent four years.1 The reason for this extraordinary market growth can be explained by two factors. To begin with, current technology now makes it possible to gather a great variety of information associated with a particular device or individual, including browsing history, which can be used to create a profile specific to that device or individual. This practice facilitates more personalized advertising, tailored to the interests and tastes of the consumer. Secondly, many online services, in the …

Interpreting Copyright Law And Internet Facts, Cameron Hutchison

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper probes interpretation issues elicited by the impact of digital technologies and the Internet on copyright law. The purpose of the paper is to instill a coherent framework for analyzing copyright law when it encounters Internet or digital facts. In part one, I propose a methodology of statutory interpretation that helps suitably adapt statutory language to technological developments. In essence it is this: courts should examine the language of the operative provision in its statutory context and in light of its purpose. A contextual interpretation of a broadly conceived rule can reveal a legislative intention that certain kinds of …

Known And Unknown, Property And Contract: Comments On Hoofnagle And Moringiello, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In addition to gerund-noun-noun titles and a concern with the misaligned incentives of businesses that handle consumers' financial data, Chris Hoofnagle's Internalizing Identity Theft and Juliet Moringiello's Warranting Data Security share something else: hidden themes. Hoofnagle's paper is officially about an empirical study of identity theft, but behind the scenes it's also an exploration of where we draw the line between public information shared freely and secret information used to authenticate individuals. Moringiello's paper is officially a proposal for a new warranty of secure handling of payment information, but under the surface, it invites us to think about the relationship …

Location Surveillance By Gps: Balancing An Employer's Business Interest With Employee Privacy, Kendra Rosenberg

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Employers are increasingly using GPS tracking devices as business tools to monitor employee movements. Recent judicial decisions have found an employer’s interest in using location surveillance on employer-owned property generally trumps an employee’s privacy interests. However, employers deciding to use GPS should be aware of the potential limitations on tracking an employee based on state constitutional, statutory, and common law rights to privacy. This Article focuses on the permissible scope of an employer’s use of GPS to track employees in the workplace.

Approval Of New Pharmacogenomic Tests: Is The Canadian Regulatory Process Adequate?, Yann Joly, Emma Ramos-Paque

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In the first part of our analysis, we will examine the impact which pharmacogenomics is expected to have on drug research and development, on the drug approval process and on post-marketing surveillance and clinical practice. This will allow us to show how pharmacogenomic testing could be beneficial to drug companies, regulatory bodies, and patients. The second part of our analysis will focus on the regulatory framework applicable to the approval of pharmacoge- nomic tests in Canada, although we are aware of the fact that most manufacturers decide to approve their tests outside of Canada. As mentioned, the applicable regu- lations …

The Regulation Of Personal Health Record Systems In Canada, James Williams, Jens H. Weber-Jahnke

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper analyzes the regulatory regime for PHR systems in Canada. The first part of the paper consists of an introduction to some of the major issues associ- ated with these applications, with a focus on privacy, security, data quality, and interoperability. Following this preliminary discussion, the bulk of the analysis deals with the legal instruments that apply to PHR products developed by private sector organizations. Due to space constraints, the paper concentrates on legislative and regulatory instruments, deferring a discussion of the possible impacts of tort, product liability, and contract law on PHR systems. Despite this omission, it is …

Canada's Digital Economy Strategy: Toward An Openness Framework, Michael Geist

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This essay is an expanded version of my submission to the digital economy consultation. It opens with general issues such as digital policy leadership, cost issues, and emphasizes the need for a principle-based strategy that embraces the benefits associated with “open,” whether open access, open spectrum or open data. It then provides specific recommendations on a wide range of issues including tele- communications policy, privacy, and copyright.

Taking Out The Context: A Critical Analysis Of Associated Press V. Canterbury, Kevin Gillen

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dying For Privacy: Pitting Public Access Against Familial Interests In The Era Of The Internet, Clay Calvert

NULR Online

“I just killed my two kids. . . . I drowned them. . . . They are 2 and 4. . . . I just shot myself. . . . with a gun. . . . Please hurry.”

That was the dying declaration of 21-year-old Julia Murray on February 16, 2010, preserved for all of posterity on a 911 emergency telephone recording and available to anyone and everyone in Florida—from journalists and police to even voyeurs and perverts—under that state’s open records laws. Murray and one of her three children are gone (the second child survived the drowning …

Google Analytics: Analyzing The Latest Wave Of Legal Concerns For Google In The U.S. And The E.U., Raizel Liebler, Keidra Chaney

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Personal Autonomy: Towards A New Taxonomy For Privacy Law, Yvonne F. Lindgren

Faculty Works

In 1965 the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut protected the right of married couples to receive contraceptives as a right of privacy. Since that time, scholarship in the area of privacy law has coalesced around two main themes: First, commentators have classified privacy cases to present a unified concept broad enough to encompass many contexts — from tort, to Fourth and Fifth Amendment search and seizure, to decisional autonomy case law. Second, there is vigorous debate whether decisional autonomy is properly sourced in privacy law. These inquiries leave unanswered an important question: What, if anything, has been the lasting …

From Scanning To Sexting: The Scope Of Protection Of Dignity-Based Privacy In Canadian Child Pornography Law, Andrea Slane

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Canadian approach to privacy rights in one's body is embedded in the relationship between interests in privacy, bodily integrity, and human dignity. Clarifying these interests is complicated by Canada's middle-ground stance between the European "dignity-based" approach to privacy and the US "liberty-based" orientation. The Canadian approach is closer to the European model when intrusions upon the body are conceived as wholly or mostly non-consensual (e.g., strip searches, voyeurism, and most child pornography). However, once consent plays a potentially determinative rote, the US liberty-based approach gains ground. This reluctance to fully align dignity with privacy results in confusion about the …

Data Protection: The Challenges Facing Social Networking, Daniel B. Garrie, Maureen Duffy-Lewis, Rebecca Wong, Richard L. Gillespie

Brigham Young University International Law & Management Review

No abstract provided.