by Jeff Sovern That's the title of my latest essay for The Conversation, about how preemption of state privacy laws could harm consumers. Here's an excerpt: [R]ather than circumventing state laws, a federal privacy law should work in partnership with them – just as federal laws regulating auto safety such as airbag requirements operate in […]
Category Archives: Privacy
Joel R. Reidenberg of Fordham, together with four co-authors, has written Trustworthy Privacy Indicators: Grades, Labels, Certifications and Dashboards, 96 Washington University Law Review (2019). Here's the abstract: Despite numerous groups’ efforts to score, grade, label, and rate the privacy of websites, apps, and network-connected devices, these attempts at privacy indicators have, thus far, not been […]
Here, in The Hill.
Earlier this week, we posted a link to a John Oliver segment on robocalls. Eric J. Troutman fact checks Oliver here. Excerpt: Assertion 5: Robocall Volume Exploded After A Court Decision Overturned the FCC’s Rules Expanding the TCPA TCPAworld. com Accuracy Score: Liar liar pants on fire This was the worst part of the bit. Oliver […]
Or click here.
by Jeff Sovern The next edition of our casebook will have a lot more about robocalls. According to a letter from the attorneys general of all 50 states dated yesterday, robocalls and telemarketing calls are the top source of consumer complaints at many AG's offices. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which outlaws some robocalls, also […]
Can a consumer sue if a company took that consumer’s biometric information without first getting the consumer’s informed consent? Yes, said the Illinois Supreme Court in a January 25, 2019 unanimous opinion in Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. This decision is a clear win for consumer privacy. (Disclosure: I served as co-counsel on an […]
by Jeff Sovern My latest, here. The conclusion: When it comes to these varied privacy problems, Congress has somehow managed to be both comatose and angry. Given its inability to respond nimbly in the rapidly shifting privacy arena, Congress should avoid hamstringing those who can. Any federal privacy law should preserve the power of states to […]
According to a recent story from Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin at the Washington Post, “U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook” for violating a 2011 consent decree that settled charges that Facebook deceived consumers with regard to its privacy policies and practices. In March 2018, the Federal Trade Commission […]
Alexander Tsesis of Loyola of Chicago has written Marketplace of Ideas, Privacy, and Digital Audiences, forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review. Here's the abstract: The availability of almost limitless sets of digital information has opened a vast marketplace of ideas. Information service providers like Facebook and Twitter provide users with an array of personal […]