Here’s a cartoon about individual privacy rights. As I argued in my article, The Limitations of Privacy Rights, 98 Notre Dame Law Review 975 (2023), privacy law puts far to much onus on individuals to protect their privacy through exercising privacy rights such as rights to access, correct, object, or delete. These rights are time-consuming to use and do not scale given the number of companies that collect and use personal data. People just don’t know enough information to exercise rights in a meaningful way.
Resources on Privacy Law Careers
The field of privacy is expanding rapidly, yet breaking into it can be challenging. Today I will share some essential resources I developed to kickstart or enhance your career in the privacy field.
My full collection of resources is here on this master page.
Privacy Law Job Listings
Head over here to see a listing of privacy jobs. I update this weekly.
My Guide to 400+ Privacy Books
Notable Privacy Books: A Journey Through History
In this essay, I explore over 400 privacy-related books spanning more than 70 years! Examining the books chronologically also opens a window into history, as the books reflect the concerns, ideas, and terminology of the times in which they were written.
Privacy Cartoon Fun
Here’s a new privacy cartoon for you to enjoy, along with a selection of my favorite classics from the archive. Enjoy the laughs!
If the Real World Were Like the Internet
Notable Privacy Books: A Journey Through History
Last week, I had the opportunity to present a talk on “Notable Privacy Books: A Journey Through History” at CPDP. I discussed many books about privacy from the 1960s to the present. The video of my talk is here. I subsequently created a more complete list of books – 400+ books over the past 70+ years.
Abstract:
In this essay, I discuss notable privacy books from the 1960s to 2020s – seven decades and more than 400 books. I briefly explain why each book is noteworthy. Examining the books chronologically also opens a window into history, as the books reflect the concerns, ideas, and terminology of the times in which they were written. The books also shed light on the discourse about privacy, which has evolved over the decades. In the past few decades, attention to privacy issues has significantly increased, and the number of books has proliferated. The books involve many perspectives, fields, and approaches: philosophical, journalistic, sociological, legal, literary, anthropological, political, empirical, psychological, and historical.
Webinar: The New Anatomy of Health Privacy Law Blog
Health privacy law is currently a vast, complicated, and changing landscape of many different laws. This webinar focused on this landscape and covered HIPAA and the various state privacy laws that involve health data.
Speakers include:
- Daniel Solove (GW Law & TeachPrivacy)
- Kirk Nahra (WilmerHale)
Privacy Program Topics
Navigating the evolving landscape of privacy can be daunting – so many different laws on different topics.
I recently created a whiteboard (1-page visual summary) to depict the breadth and complexity of this landscape.
Download my new whiteboard on Privacy Program Topics.
It’s free!
These days, privacy training is too complex to not be created by an expert. Unfortunately, I see many attempts by general training vendors to create privacy training – but the results are bad and incomplete.
Continue Reading
Privacy and AI Deregulation is the Wrong Answer
Recently, we’ve been witnessing the rapid spread of a deregulatory movement for privacy and AI. Spurred in significant part by the Trump Administration, the U.S. has started to deregulate technology. The EU has caught the virus and has been contemplating weaking its regulation as well. As Luiza Jarovsky notes, some policymakers in the EU are aiming to “simplify” the GDPR and are increasingly being lured by the siren cries of tech companies complaining about EU regulation. For example, the Draghi Report (Sept. 2024) complains that EU privacy and AI regulations “create the risk of European companies being excluded from early AI innovations” and recommends “light-handed rules.” In a terrific piece, Europe Could Lose What Makes It Great, Anu Bradford, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Tommaso Pavone fear that “the EU seems poised to trade away its leverage as a global regulatory superpower.”
AI Companies – Please Regulate Us . . . Actually, Please Don’t
In 2023, AI company CEOs welcomed regulation. They wanted to ameliorate concerns that AI was developing so quickly and recklessly. But now, their true colors have been revealed. Now that the winds have shifted toward deregulation, these companies have changed their tune. Like nearly all companies, they never really wanted to be regulated; they just wanted to create the illusion that were being responsible and the mirage that there were guardrails.
When the AI companies initially called for regulation, I wasn’t fooled, and so I created a cartoon.