Issues

The Myth of the Privacy Paradox

People report that they value privacy highly, but are willing to trade personal data for goods and services. This “privacy paradox” is sometimes used as an argument against privacy regulation. However, regulation should be based on the social value of privacy, not individual valuations.

Using Data and Respecting Users

Firms should make ethical choices in using data to avoid souring relationships with users. Three basic guidelines reduce risk and help maintain user trust.

The Portability and Other Required Transfers Impact Assessment (PORT-IA): Assessing Competition, Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Other Considerations

One key legal question is whether data should move from A to B, or be prevented from moving from A to B. Requiring the transfer of data can be harmful in some ways and beneficial in others.

Privacy Regulation and Innovation Policy

Some claim that privacy regulation threatens innovation, but regulation is appropriate to correct market failures. Privacy regulation could help align markets and ensure that innovation is consistent with social values.

National Security, Surveillance and Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) often decides cases involving a conflict between human rights and surveillance systems intended to protect national security. Surveillance must be necessary and lawful.

“It’s a scavenger hunt”: Usability of Websites’ Opt-Out and Data Deletion Choices

Privacy laws require websites to offer consumers options such as the choice to opt out of advertising or to delete account data. On many sites, these options are poorly labelled and hard to find.

Informing the Design of a Personalized Privacy Assistant for the Internet of Things

Personalized Privacy Assistant (PPAs) will help users manage Internet of Things (IoT) device data collection. The best PPAs will learn from users and offer suggestions from unbiased sources.

Usable and Useful Privacy Interfaces

Designing privacy interfaces for devices, software, and websites that are easy for people to understand and control is difficult. Designers should shift focus from information to people and their privacy needs.

You Might Be a Robot

Policymakers show increasing interest in regulating robots. However, a "robot" can be hard to define. The increasing pace of innovation makes it hard to apply the plain language of laws to new cases.

Privacy’s Constitutional Moment and the Limits of Data Protection

The United States Congress must decide whether to enact a national privacy law like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But GDPR-style rules fail to protect against many harms of data overuse.