Category Archives: Privacy

CNN.com Op-Ed:Congress should follow California’s lead in protecting consumers

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 […]

Holding Facebook Accountable

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 […]

Tsesis Article: Marketplace of Ideas, Privacy, and Digital Audiences

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 […]

A Year After the Equifax Breach, Little Has Changed

by Jeff Sovern Remember all the posturing in the congressional hearings and elsewhere after the Equifax breach that affected more than 140 million consumers?  But a year later, little has changed, at least in Washington (litigation is still pending).  Wouldn't it be nice if the members of Congress who expressed outrage actually did something to […]

McGeveran Article: The Duty of Data Security

William McGeveran of Minnesota has written The Duty of Data Security, 102 Minnesota Law Review (2018, Forthcoming).  Here is the abstract: As data breaches become larger and more frequent, the question naturally arises: what precautions does the law require of the data custodians who hold our personal information in their digital files? What is the legal duty of […]

Paper Explores How Big Data Could Lead to Personalized Disclosures

Christoph Busch of the University of Osnabrück – European Legal Studies Institute has written Implementing Personalized Law: Personalized Disclosures in Consumer Law and Privacy Law, forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review.  Here's the abstract: This Article explores how the rise of Big Data and algorithm-based regulation could fundamentally change the design and structure of disclosure mandates […]

Matt Bruckner Article on FinTech and Big Data

Matthew A. Bruckner of Howard has written The Promise and Perils of Algorithmic Lenders' Use of Big Data, 93 Chicago-Kent Law Review (2018). Here's the abstract: Like many new technologies, algorithmic lenders’ use of Big Data holds great promise but may also be perilous. At the most basic level, Big Data is simply a toolkit for “creating, […]

Hyman & Kovacic Article on Who Should Do What on Privacy

David A. Hyman of Georgetown and William E. Kovacic of GW and , King's College London – The Dickson Poon School of Law have written Implementing Privacy Policy: Who Should Do What?. Here's the abstract: Academic scholarship on privacy has focused on the substantive rules and policies governing the protection of personal data. An extensive literature […]

Will We Ever Learn Who Was Behind the Equifax Breach?

by Jeff Sovern During a recent hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Information Privacy Center and an adjunct at Georgetown, pointed out that we still didn't know who was behind the Equifax breach.  He noted that people would have been deeply upset […]