Issues

Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security

"Deep fake" technology makes it possible to create audio and video files of real people saying and doing things they never said or did. These technologies create policy and legal problems. Possible responses include technological solutions, criminal and civil liability, and regulation.

The Cambridge Handbook of Consumer Privacy

New data collection technologies raise privacy issues for consumers. Educational technologies and “smart cars” present new issues. Every aspect of life will be logged and analyzed. We must revisit basic ideas about democracy, the distribution of power in society, and bias.

The Federal Trade Commission's Inner Privacy Struggle

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) privacy cases involve attorneys in the Bureau of Consumer Protection and economists in the Bureau of Economics, who are skeptical of privacy crusades. In future, the Bureau of Economics will play a larger role.

Facebook Was Letting Down Users Years Before Cambridge Analytica

In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Facebook had deceived users about how much data it shared with third-party apps, and how that data was used. Facebook was required to ensure that outsiders did not obtain such data, but failed to do so.

A Not Quite Contemporary View of Privacy

Leading nineteenth-century scholars assumed that the expansion of sweeping privacy rights was an inevitable aspect of legal progress. But the history of contract and tort law shows that the courts recognized narrow, minimal privacy rights to avoid imposing burdensome duties on others.

Shifting Institutional Roles in Biomedical Innovation in a Learning Healthcare System

In future, health care outcomes will be guided by a learning healthcare system, which uses data from patients to evaluate treatments. Some data derived in clinical settings might be of low quality. The FDA now evaluates more treatments using data collected after the treatment begins to be used.

Privacy as Commons: Case Evaluation Through the Governing Knowledge Commons Framework

“Privacy” is best defined as a matter of the appropriate flow of information. A concept known as the “general knowledge commons” helps analyze privacy problems, although the concept was developed for creative content rather than privacy analysis.

Risk and Anxiety: A Theory of Data-Breach Harms

Data breaches increase the risk that consumers will be victims of fraud. But courts are reluctant to recognize that this increased risk is a sufficient harm to justify a lawsuit. Recognizing such harms might lead to more bankruptcies, but would deter data breaches.

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) now offer improved predictions, which will reduce uncertainty and lead to the redesign of business strategies. AI will affect jobs, the concentration of corporate power, privacy, and politics around the world.

The Missing Role of Economics in FTC Privacy Policy

Privacy regulation restricts information flows, the lifeblood of the digital economy, and have significant economic impact. Yet actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect privacy often lack economic analysis and fail to provide clear evidence of consumer harm.