Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2009 Abstract: This is a pilot study of the use of ‘Flash cookies’ by popular websites. We find that more than 50% of the sites in our sample are using flash cookies to store information about the user. Some are using it to ‘respawn’ or re-instantiate HTTP cookies deleted by […]
Flash Cookies and Privacy
Denialists’ Deck of Cards: An Illustrated Taxonomy of Rhetoric Used to Frustrate Consumer Protection Efforts
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2007 Abstract: The Denalists’ Deck of Cards is a humorous illustration of how libertarian policy groups use denialism. In this context, denialism is the use of rhetorical techniques and predictable tactics to erect barriers to debate and consideration of any type of reform, regardless of the facts. Giveupblog.com has identified […]
A Model Regime of Privacy Protection (Version 3.0)
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: A series of major security breaches at companies with sensitive personal information has sparked significant attention to the problems with privacy protection in the United States. Currently, the privacy protections in the United States are riddled with gaps and weak spots. Although most industrialized nations have comprehensive data […]
Consumer Information Sharing: Where the Sun Still Don’t Shine
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2008 Abstract: In late 2007, the popular social networking site Facebook.com adopted “Beacon,” an application that informs Facebook users’ friends about purchases made and activities on other websites. For example, if a Facebook user bought a movie ticket on Fandango.com, that user’s friends would be informed of that fact through […]
Privacy Practices Below the Lowest Common Denominator: The Federal Trade Commission’s Initial Application of Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Authority to Protect Consumer Privacy (1997-2000)
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2001 Abstract: In this paper, the author reviews the first six actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to safeguard consumers’ privacy under the agency’s authority to prosecute unfair or deceptive trade practices. Six conclusions can be made from these cases: First, the FTC has chosen to take enforcement […]
Privacy Decisionmaking in Administrative Agencies
Author(s): Kenneth A. Bamberger and Deirdre K. Mulligan Year: 2008 Abstract: Administrative agencies increasingly rely on technology to achieve substantive goals. Often this technology is employed to collect, exchange, manipulate and store personally identifiable information, raising serious concerns about the erosion of personal privacy. Congress has recognized this problem. In the E-Government Act of 2002, […]
Anonymous Disclosure of Security Breaches, in Securing Privacy in the Internet Age
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2008 Abstract: Reputational sanctions are often offered as a substitute for law. Robert Ellickson has shown how social norms and gossip allow Shasta County ranchers to order theirs affairs and resolve disputes without resort to, or regard for, legal sanctions.[1] In business regulation, particularly in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, disclosure is […]
The New Privacy
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2003 Abstract: In 1964, as the welfare state emerged in full force in the United States, Charles Reich published The New Property, one of the most influential articles ever to appear in a law review. Reich argued that in order to protect individual autonomy in an “age of governmental largess,” […]
Free Speech vs. Information Privacy: Eugene Volokh’s First Amendment Jurisprudence
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2001 Abstract: Free Speech versus Informational Privacy, 52 Stanford Law Review 1559 (2000), discusses and critiques Eugene Volokh’s recent article, Freedom of Speech and Information Privacy, 52 Stanford Law Review 1049 (2000). In his article, Volokh contends that the government’s safeguarding of information privacy endangers a wide range of speech […]
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Information Privacy, and the Limits of Default Rules
Author(s): Paul M. Schwartz Year: 2002 Abstract: The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) of 1999 sought to provide new rules for financial privacy. Only a few years after the GLB Act’s enactment, however, it appears to have failed as far as privacy protection is concerned. The Act has pleased neither privacy advocates nor the financial industry. […]