Dark patterns are starting to receive increased regulatory attention, which is a welcome development in the evolution of privacy law. Here’s a dark patterns resource and reading list. What Are “Dark Patterns”? Harry Brignull coined the term “dark pattern” in 2010, defining it as “a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users […]
This cartoon is about “data ethics,” a term for when companies make an effort to review the ethical ramifications of their activities involving personal data. I generally applaud looking at ethics broadly because it avoids being unduly constrained in its focus by narrow conceptions of privacy. But there often isn’t sufficient rigor in the analysis […]
The TeachPrivacy Data Privacy Law Fellowship is a part-time fellowship for recent law school graduates. The Fellowship is virtual, so fellows can work from any location. Data Privacy Law Fellows help Professor Daniel Solove research, draft, and update scripts for training courses and do research for resources, guides, and other materials. TeachPrivacy has 150+ courses […]
This cartoon focuses on video recording – how people readily whip out their phones to record events involving people in distress. The “bystander effect” is often invoked to describe the phenomenon of why people watch an emergency unfold without trying to help the victim. Perhaps there should be a modern update to the “bystander effect” […]
This cartoon is about the HIPAA right to access medical records. Obtaining access to one’s medical records is currently like a scavenger hunt. Patients have to call and call again, wait seemingly forever to get records, and receive them via ancient means like mail and fax. There have been several articles (here, here, and here) […]
The global pandemic has affected everything. COVID-19 is not just grinding trials to a halt and foreclosing live, in-person judicial proceedings, it has changed the class action litigation landscape, including data breach class actions. I recently had the opportunity to discuss the pandemic’s impact on data breach class actions with Daniel Raymond, a cyber & tech claims manager […]
Recently, Professor Scott Skinner-Thompson (Colorado Law) published an excellent thought-provoking book, Privacy at the Margins (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which explores the important role that privacy plays for marginalized groups. The book is superb, and it is receiving the highest praise from leading scholars. For example, Dean Erwin Chemerinksy (Berkeley Law) proclaims that the book […]
In a recent case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit weighed in on an issue that has continued to confound courts: Is there an injury caused by a data breach when victims don’t immediately suffer financial fraud? I wrote on this issue in an article with Professor Danielle Citron in 2018, Risk and Anxiety: […]
Professor Danielle Keats Citron (University of Virginia School of Law) and I have just posted a draft of our new article, Privacy Harms, on SSRN (free download). Here’s the abstract: Privacy harms have become one of the largest impediments in privacy law enforcement. In most tort and contract cases, plaintiffs must establish that they have […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit just issued a blistering attack on HIPAA enforcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer v. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 19-60226, Jan. 14, 2021), the 5th Circuit struck down a fine and enforcement […]