Anita Allen
Deputy Dean
Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law
Professor of Philosophy
Department: School of Law
Colleges / Universities: University of Pennsylvania
Contact
3400 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: aallen@law.upenn.edu
Website: Penn Law faculty profile
Anita L. Allen is an expert on privacy law, bioethics, and contemporary values, and is recognized for her scholarship about legal philosophy, women’s rights, and race relations. In 2010 she was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Her books include Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide (Oxford, 2011); Everyday Ethics: Opinion-Writing about the Things that Matter Most (Academic Readers/Cognella, 2010); Privacy Law and Society (Thomson/West, 2011); The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the 21st Century Moral Landscape (Miramax/Hyperion, 2004); Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); and Uneasy Access: Privacy for Women in a Free Society (Rowman and Littlefield, 1988). She co-edited (with Milton Regan) Debating Democracy’s Discontent (Oxford, 1998). Allen, who has written more than a 100 scholarly articles, has also contributed to popular magazines and blogs, and has frequently appeared on nationally broadcast television and radio programs.
Degrees
B.A. New College, 1974
M.A. Michigan, 1976
Ph.D. Philosophy Michigan, 1980
J.D. Harvard, 1984
Recent Academic Article Summaries
Dismantling the “Black Opticon”: Privacy, Race Equity, and Online Data-Protection Reform
Federal privacy law has failed to address privacy problems that disproportionately affect African Americans, such as oversurveillance, discrimination, and fraud. New state and federal privacy laws could better serve their interests.
Race-conscious policies would better address African Americans’ privacy concerns.
Dredging up the Past: Lifelogging, Memory, and Surveillance
This article hypothesizes the potential costs and benefits of widespread lifelogging.
While no policy regulation is necessary at this point in time, future regulation may become necessary if lifelogging becomes prevalent.
Face to Face With "It": And Other Neglected Contexts of Health Privacy
This paper looks at new cases involving medical privacy and the media.
Respecting patient’s privacy should include protection against unauthorized recording of the patient’s image by the media or others.
Unpopular Privacy: The Case for Government Mandates
This article analyzes the effect and necessity of laws mandating privacy on unwilling individuals.
Privacy law most often addresses governmental protection of optional privacy; however, forced privacy is an issue that should be more thoroughly addressed by privacy scholars.
Blog Posts
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