All posts in Advice

A Guide to Grading Exams

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
May 9, 2017

 

This post is a reprise of a post I wrote many years ago that has remained popular.  I thought I’d repost it now, during exam grading season, to help professors who want to learn the science and art of grading exams. 

It’s that time of year again. Students have taken their finals, and now it is time to grade them. It is something professors have been looking forward to all semester. Exactness in grading is a well-honed skill, taking considerable expertise and years of practice to master. The purpose of this post is to serve as a guide to young professors about how to perfect their grading skills and as a way for students to learn the mysterious science of how their grades are determined.

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May 9, 2017 / Category: Advice, Humor / Tags: /

The Funniest Password Recovery Questions and Why Even These Don’t Work

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
October 3, 2016

Passwords

 

A recent article in Wired argues that it is time to kill password recovery questions. Password recovery questions are those questions that you set up in case you forget your password. Common questions are:

In what city were you born?

What is your mother’s maiden name?

Where did you go to high school?

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October 3, 2016 / Category: Advice, Cartoons, Cybersecurity, Data Security, Encryption, Humor, Passwords / Tags: , , , , /

HIPAA’s Failure to Provide Enough Patient Control Over Medical Records

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
September 7, 2016

HIPAA Privacy Rule

 

A Not-So-Far-Fetched Seinfeld Episode

In a Seinfeld episode called “The Package” from 1996 (click here to see the scene), airing just months after HIPAA was passed,  Elaine goes to see a doctor for a rash.

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September 7, 2016 / Category: Advice, Health Privacy, HIPAA, Training, Training: HIPAA / Tags: , , , /

An Updated List of Privacy Law Fellowships

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
September 6, 2016

Fellowships can be a great way to kick start a career in privacy law.  I have added new fellowships the list I published in February 2016, as well as updated deadlines and other relevant information.  Click here to see the fully updated list of privacy fellowships.  If you know of others I should add, please email me.

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September 6, 2016 / Category: Advice, Careers in Privacy, Chief Privacy Officers, Privacy / Tags: , , , /

The Triumph of the Privacy Profession: An Interview with Bamberger and Mulligan

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
March 23, 2016

Woman in space

The past 20 years have seen the remarkable emergence of the privacy profession. Starting from nothing, this profession originally included a handful of people called Chief Privacy Officers (CPOs). Nobody grew up saying they wanted to be a CPO. Nobody knew what CPOs did.

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March 23, 2016 / Category: Advice, Careers in Privacy, Interviews, Privacy, Training / Tags: , , , , , /

The 5 Things Every Privacy Lawyer Needs to Know about the FTC: An Interview with Chris Hoofnagle

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
March 2, 2016

Privacy and Security Training

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has become the leading federal agency to regulate privacy and data security. The scope of its power is vast – it covers the majority of commercial activity – and it has been enforcing these issues for decades. An FTC civil investigative demand (CID) will send shivers down the spine of even the largest of companies, as the FTC requires a 20-year period of assessments to settle the score. Continue Reading

March 2, 2016 / Category: Advice, Books, FTC, Interviews, Privacy, Privacy and Security, Privacy Laws, Scholarship / Tags: , , , /

A List of Privacy Law Fellowships

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
February 12, 2016

Opportunity Business Fotolia_66071917_S 03

One way to enter the privacy profession is to do a fellowship, and fortunately, an increasing number of fellowship opportunities are emerging.

I have written about the challenges of breaking in to the privacy law profession, especially the challenges that recent law school graduates will face.  There are no established career paths in this field yet, so it takes some effort to get started.  Once you’re in the club, you’ll be in big demand, but there’s a bottleneck at the entrance.  This is why fellowships can be a great way to kick start a career in privacy law.

Here are a few fellowships related to privacy that I’m aware of.  If you know of others I should add to the list, please email me.

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February 12, 2016 / Category: Advice, Careers in Privacy, Chief Privacy Officers, Privacy / Tags: , , , /

What Can We Learn From Bad Passwords?

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
February 2, 2016

Title

By Daniel J. Solove

The SplashData annual list of the 25 most widely used bad passwords recently was posted for passwords used in 2015.  The list is compiled annually by examining passwords leaked during a particular year.  Here is the list of passwords for 2015, and below it, I have some thoughts and reactions to the list.

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February 2, 2016 / Category: Advice, Cybersecurity, Data Security, Humor, Passwords, Privacy and Security / Tags: , , , /

Teaching Information Privacy Law

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
January 15, 2016

Eyes Privacy 01

I originally posted a version of this post more than 10 years ago, in 2005.  I think it is important to re-post it, with a few updates.

I strongly recommend teaching information privacy law in law schools.  I have authored several textbooks in the field, and I know that this might seem like a self-plug.  But I really am a big believer that all law schools should have not just one course on information privacy law, but several — no matter what textbooks are used!

Information privacy law remains a fairly new field, and it has yet to take hold as a course taught consistently in most law schools.  Last year, I wrote a post complaining about the fact that only about 25% of law schools have a course on privacy law. I’m hoping to change all that.

Privacy Law

So if you’re an academic interested in exploring issues involving information technology, criminal procedure, or free speech, you should consider adding information privacy law to your course package.  If you’re a practitioner, consider teaching an information privacy law course as an adjunct.

Here are some reasons to teach the course:

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January 15, 2016 / Category: Advice, Careers in Privacy, Privacy, Scholarship / Tags: , , , /

Green Eggs and Ham: How Not to Market and Invade Privacy

Daniel Solove
Daniel Solove @danielsolove
Founder of TeachPrivacy
June 11, 2015

title image

By Daniel J. Solove

Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham is a timeless classic that is read to millions of children. At first the simple rhymes and cute drawings are alluring. But parents will soon discover the book’s terrifying equation: The tiresome repetition of the book multiplied by the number of times a child will want the book read. The result is mind-numbing and will make parents curse the day they decided to make the book part of their child’s library.

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June 11, 2015 / Category: Advice, Behavioral Advertising, Big Data, Books, Data Security, Harm, Humor, Privacy, Privacy and Security / Tags: , , , , /