PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

10 Reasons Why Privacy Matters

by Daniel J. Solove Why does privacy matter? Often courts and commentators struggle to articulate why privacy is valuable. They see privacy violations as often slight annoyances. But privacy matters a lot more than that. Here are 10 reasons why privacy matters. 1. Limit on Power Privacy is a limit on government power, as well […]

The Year in Privacy 2013 and the Year to Come

by Daniel J. Solove 2013 was a remarkable year in privacy developments. Here are four main trends I saw occurring this year: 1. The heat on the NSA for its broad surveillance programs has been sustained and productive. The Edward Snowden leaks revealed massive NSA surveillance efforts. What is most interesting in the aftermath of […]

NSA Metadata Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment

by Daniel J. Solove A U.S. District Court recently held that the NSA surveillance of telephone metadata likely violates the Fourth Amendment. The case is Klayman v. Obama. The NSA surveillance program involves an incredibly broad gathering of metadata about people’s conversations. Metadata doesn’t include the conversations themselves, just data about when and to whom […]

Why Schools Are Flunking Privacy and How They Can Improve

by Daniel J. Solove Fordham School of Law’s Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP), headed by Joel Reidenberg, has released an eye-opening and sobering study of how public schools are handling privacy issues with regard to cloud computing. The study is called Privacy and Cloud Computing in Public Schools, and it is well worth […]

Why Metadata Matters: The NSA and the Future of Privacy

 by Daniel J. Solove Over at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick and Steve Vladeck have a great piece about why “metadata” matters. It is very much worth reading. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter. Several National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs involve gathering metadata about our communications (the numbers we call or the email […]

Privacy and Data Security in Higher Education

by Daniel J. Solove I was recently interviewed in HR Horizons, the magazine of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) on the topic of privacy and data security in higher education. Here are a few excerpts: What is the difference between data security and data privacy, and what risks do each […]

Is Privacy Law Constitutional? Is Personal Data Speech?

by Daniel J. Solove Professor Neil M. Richards (Washington University School of Law) has posted a draft chapter of his forthcoming book about privacy law and free speech. It is a fascinating piece — very accessible and engaging. It’s called Why Data Privacy Law is (Mostly) Constitutional. Eyebrows were raised a few years ago when […]

Data Security: The Greatest Threat Is Internal

by Daniel J. Solove A PC World article discusses a new study by Forrester that reveals that internal threats are the “leading cause” of data breaches. The survey involved companies in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US. The study revealed that 36% of breaches involve “inadvertent misuse of data by employees.” According to […]

A List of Privacy Training and Data Security Training Requirements in Laws, Regulations, and Industry Codes

by Daniel J. Solove I was recently asked whether I had a list of the various laws, regulations, and industry codes that require privacy and/or data security training.  I know about a number of training requirements, but didn’t have a formal list.  I realized that such a list would be useful, so I created one […]