Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: The Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Call Registry, a government-created protection for privacy, is a stellar success. With over 80 million numbers enrolled, Americans now have a easy to use and effective shield against telemarketing. The government’s creation quickly superceded and made irrelevant self-regulatory solutions, which were difficult to use, […]
Privacy Self Regulation: A Decade of Disappointment
What Californians Understand about Privacy Online
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: The volume of online commerce grows every year, in absence of a federal law setting baseline protections for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. Instead, information collected by websites are governed by individual privacy policies. In order to gauge Californians’ understanding of privacy policies and default […]
Research Report: What Californians Understand About Privacy Offline
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: Many online privacy problems are rooted in the offline world, where businesses are free to sell consumers’ personal information unless they voluntarily agree not to or where a specific law prohibits the practice. In order to gauge Californians’ understanding of business practices with respect to the selling of […]
Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks (Version 1.5)
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: There is no reliable way for consumers, regulators, and businesses to assess the relative rates of identity fraud at major financial institutions. This lack of information prevents a consumer market for bank safety from emerging. As part of a multiple strategy approach to obtaining more actionable data on […]
Taking the ‘Long View’ on the Fourth Amendment: Stored Records and the Sanctity of the Home
Author(s): Deirdre K. Mulligan Year: 2008 Abstract: In the wake of the California energy crisis of 2000-2001, the California Energy Commission and California Public Utilities Commission are aggressively pursuing “demand response” energy programs aimed at reducing peak energy demand. Demand response systems convey information about market conditions through pricing or reliability signals to customers, who […]
Privacy and Democracy in Cyberspace
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2000 Abstract: In this Article, Professor Schwartz depicts the widespread, silent collection of personal information in cyberspace. At present, it is impossible to know the fate of the personal data that one generates online. Professor Schwartz argues that this state of affairs degrades the health of a deliberative democracy; it […]
Beyond Lessig’s Code for Internet Privacy: Cyberspace Filters, Privacy Control and Fair Information Practices
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2001 Abstract: In Code, the most influential book yet written about law and cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig makes an intriguing proposal for shaping privacy on the Internet: (1) the legal assignment to every individual of a property interest in her own personal information, and (2) the employment of software transmission protocols, […]
Notification of Data Security Breaches
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2006 Abstract: The law increasingly mandates that private companies disclose information for the benefit of consumers. The latest example of such regulation through disclosure is a requirement that companies notify individuals of data security incidents involving their personal information. In the wake of highly publicized data spills, numerous states have […]
Property, Privacy, and Personal Data
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2005 Abstract: Modern computing technologies and the Internet have generated the capacity to gather, manipulate, and share massive quantities of data; this capacity, in turn, has spawned a booming trade in personal information. Even as it promises new avenues for the creation of wealth, this controversial new market also raises […]
German and U.S. Telecommunications Privacy Law: Legal Regulation of Domestic Law Enforcement Surveillance
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2003 Abstract: The legal systems of Germany and the United States contain detailed rules that regulate the surveillance of telecommunications by domestic law enforcement agencies. An initial question about this surveillance concerns the relative levels of such activity in Germany and the United States. This Article demonstrates, however, that the […]