Category Archives: Privacy

Solove & Hertzog on the FTC and Privacy and Security Duties for the Cloud

Daniel J. Solove of George Washington and Woodrow Hartzog of Samford's Cumberland Law School and Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society have written The FTC and Privacy and Security Duties for the Cloud, 13 BNA Privacy & Security Law Report 577 (2014). Here's the abstract: Increasingly, companies, hospitals, schools, and other organizations are […]

George Mason Policy Conference on the Future of Privacy and Data Security

The Law & Economics Center's Henry G. Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies will present its Public Policy Conference on the Future of Privacy and Data Security Regulation at George Mason University School of Law, Wednesday, May 14, 2014 from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. PANEL 1: Section 5 and the FTC's Proper Role […]

Regulating Data Brokers

by Jeff Sovern In a column last week, The Wild West of Privacy, Times columnist Joe Nocera called for, among other things, regulating data brokers.  In response, I wrote a letter to the Times, which they ran here.  Here's what I said: Joe Nocera argues that data brokers should be obliged to tell consumers what […]

Dennis Hirsch Article Proposes Sectoral Global Privacy Rules

Dennis D. Hirsch of Capital has written In Search of the Holy Grail: Achieving Global Privacy Rules Through Sector-Based Codes of Conduct, 74 Ohio St. L.J. (2013). Here is the abstract: The movement of personal data across national borders is fundamental to the Internet economy. Yet the laws that govern such data flows remain national […]

American Banker: Cordray Loses Cool After House GOP Attacks

by Jeff Sovern Here (behind a paywall). Cordray was testifying before the House Financial Services Committee and, according to the article, was subject to some attacks that seem absurd, at least to me. Excerpt: [Rep. Stevan Pearce, R-N.M] suggested that data collection undertaken by the CFPB could be passed onto political campaigns. "But I will […]

Call for Papers: Legal and Ethical Issues in Predictive Data (Including Consumer Protection Issues)

RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM: CALL FOR PAPERS LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN PREDICTIVE DATA ANALYTICS June 19 & 20, 2014 Blacksburg, Va. Abstract Submission Deadline: March 3, 2014 A research colloquium, “Legal and Ethical Issues in Predictive Data Analytics,” hosted by Professor Janine Hiller of Virginia Tech and co-organized by Professor Tonia Hap Murphy of the University […]

Paper Explores How the Amount of Privacy Affects Industry Profits, Consumer Welfare, and Total Welfare

Oz Shy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Rune Stenbacka of the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration have written Customer Privacy and Competition.  Here is the abstract: We analyze how different degrees of privacy protection affect industry profits, consumer welfare and total  welfare. Firms earn higher profits under weak privacy protection […]

Paper Explores How Much Consumers Value Privacy

Scott  Savage and Donald M. Waldman , both of the University of Colorado at Boulder – Department of Economics, have written The Value of Online Privacy. Here is the abstract: We estimate the value of online privacy with a differentiated products model of the demand for Smartphone apps. We study the apps market because it […]

Jeff Gelles Column: A Victory in the Fight Against Robocalls

Here.  An interesting report on a third circuit case on whether consumers can revoke their consent to receive automated calls.  The case arose in the debt collection context and given the steep penalties under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act–$500 per call and $1500 for willful violations–could lead to a lot of litigation.