PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

The Tyranny of Algorithms

We live today increasingly under the tyranny of algorithms. They rule over us. They shape what we say and how we interact with each other. They shape behavior. They affect whether people get jobs and other essential things in life. And algorithms kill people. Algorithms work behind the curtains, cloaked in secrecy, often unaccountable. Algorithmic […]

Digital Dossiers and the Aggregation Effect

Digital Person 03

This year is the 20th anniversary of my first book, The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy In the Information Age (NYU Press 2004) (Amazon) (free digital copy on SSRN). I thought that it would be a great opportunity to engage in a reflection on some of the points I discussed in the book.  Apologies for […]

My Forthcoming Book, ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY, Available for Pre-Order

On Privacy and Technology - Solove 04

I am excited to announce that my forthcoming book, ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY (Oxford University Press) is now available for pre-order. It will be in print in January 2025. From the book jacket: Succinct and eloquent, On Privacy and Technology is an essential primer on how to face the threats to privacy in today’s age of […]

AI’s Fishy Branding

AI Fishy Branding 01

One can learn a lot about AI from fish. The 1990s were a terrible time for the toothfish. An ugly fish inhabiting the deep seas, the toothfish (pictured above) was long considered a “trash fish,” undesirable to eat, a worthless catch. The toothfish’s fate was fine until overfishing decimated the stocks of the long-popular fish, […]

The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy

The Great Scrape - The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy

I’m posting a new article draft with Professor Woodrow Hartzog (BU Law), The Great Scrape: The Clash Between Scraping and Privacy. We argue that “scraping” – the automated extraction of large amounts of data from the internet – is in fundamental tension with privacy. Scraping is generally anathema to the core principles of privacy that […]

Kafka in the Age of AI and the Futility of Privacy as Control

Kafka in the Age of AI - an essay by Professors Daniel Solove and Woodrow Hartzog

I’m posting the final published version of my essay with Professor Woodrow Hartzog (BU Law), Kafka in the Age of AI and the Futility of Privacy as Control, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 1021 (2024). It’s a short engaging read – just 20 pages!  We argue that although Kafka shows us the plight of the disempowered […]