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[…] and that is at least partly due to the fact that “the cost of getting  it out is getting lower and lower all the time.” 95   Only recently have individuals begun to realize that this in‐ sight applies to all types of information flows. Though they  might have appreciated the implications of this truism in other  contexts, where many wanted digitized data to flow freely,  they are only beginning to understand the uncomfortable real‐ ity of  what it means for efforts to control their own informa‐ tion. “When this idea was applied to online music sharing, it  was cool in a ‘fight the man!’ kind of way,” says computer sci‐ entist Ben Adida. 96 “Unfortunately, information replication  doesn’t discriminate: your personal data, credit cards and medi‐ cal problems alike, also want to be free. Keeping it secret is  really, really hard,” he notes. 97 Again, this observation holds for  all classes of information—intellectual property, pornography,  hate speech, state secrets, and even personal information.  As Konstantinos Stylianou argues, “there are indeed tech‐ nologies so disruptive that by their very nature they cause a cer‐ tain change regardless of other factors,” and the Internet is one  of  them. 98 Compared to previous communications technologies, the  Internet is qualitatively different from the telegraph, the tele‐ phone, the radio, and the television. It is innately resistant to  control in a way that those previous technologies were not, and  that reality must be factored into public policy considerations.  “As a result, the  cat‐and‐mouse chase game between the law and  technology will probably always tip in favor of technology. It  may thus be a wise choice for the law to stop underestimating  the dynamics of technology, and instead adapt to embrace it.” 99  Observes science journalist Matt Ridley, “[t]he implication is  95. Roger Clarke, Information Wants to be Free,  ROGERCLARKE .COM ,  http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/IWtbF.html (last visited Jan. 30, 2013).  96. Ben Adida, (your) information wants to be free, B ENLOG  (Apr. 28, 2011, 12:46  AM), http://benlog.com/articles/2011/04/28/your‐information‐wants‐to‐be‐free.  97. Id.  98. Konstantinos K. Stylianou, Hasta La Vista Privacy, or How Technology Termi‐ nated Privacy, in  PERSONAL  DATA  PRIVACY AND  PROTECTION IN A  SURVEILLANCE  […]

[…] sense. While this requirement may impose a dditional costs on independent agencies, the better quality of analysis would almost certainly be worth the cost.”). 18 See Susan Dudley & Arthur Fraas, The Future of Regulatory Oversight and Analysis, MERCATUS CTR. 3 (May 2009), http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/MOP51_OIRA web.pdf (noting that “some of the most highly publicized regulatory […]

[…] of finding the actual us- age of a format will further complicate the Commission ’s task. It may be difficult enough for the Commission to assess the number of sales of a software package or downloads from a site. It is even more diff i- /1272.pdf (describing the need to convert unstructured data formats […]

[…] will soon be flying over a number of jurisdictions. 6 The capacity of computers to access, store, and analyze data has made mountains of personal information—ranging from phone and e-mail logs to credit card and bank transactions—available to government officials at virtually the touch of a button. 7 Before Jones, the third party doctrine […]

[…] These organizations used net- worked servers to store applications and data and permit global access to these resources by authorized users using multiple devices, whether Macs, PCs, phones, or tablets. Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon Corporations developed Alzheimer’s disease in the human brain.” Gina Kolata, Rare Sharing of Data Led to Results on Alzheimer’s, N.Y. […]

[…] ∗ I.  INTRODUCTION   Internet scholarship in the United States generally concentrates on  how decisions made in this country about copyright law, network neu- trality, and other policy areas shape cyberspace. 1  In one important as- pect of the evolving Internet, however, a comparative focus is indis- pensable.  Legal forces outside the United States have significantly  shaped the governance of information privacy, a highly important as- pect of cyberspace, and one involving central issues of civil liberties.   The EU has played a major role in international decisions involving  information privacy, a role that has been bolstered by the authority of  EU member states to block data transfers to third party nations, in- cluding the United States. 2  The European Commission’s release in late January 2012 of its  proposed “General Data Protection Regulation” (the Proposed Regula- tion) provides a perfect juncture to assess the ongoing EU-U.S. privacy  collision. 3  An intense debate is now occurring about critical areas of  information policy, including the rules for lawfulness of personal pro- cessing, the “right to be forgotten,” and the conditions for data flows  between the EU and the United States.  This Article begins by tracing the rise of the current EU-U.S. pri- vacy status quo.  The European Commission’s 1995 Data Protection  Directive (the Directive) staked out a  number of bold positions, includ- ing a limit on international data transfers to countries that lacked “ad- equate” legal protections for personal information. 4  The impact of the  –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––  ∗ Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law; Director, Berkeley Cen- ter for Law & Technology.  For their insightful comments on earlier drafts, I wish to thank Jesse  Koehler, Ronald Lee, Katerina Linos, Anne Joseph O’Connell, Karl-Nikolaus Peifer, Joel  Reidenberg, Spiros Simitis, Daniel Solove, Latanya Sweeney, and Daniel Weitzner.  All transla- tions are my own.  1 See generally, e.g., T IM WU, THE  MASTER  SWITCH  (2010); J ONATHAN  ZITTRAIN , THE   FUTURE  OF  THE  INTERNET […]

[…] regarding its definition of “identifiable.” It explains that an “identifiable” person is “one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, me ntal, economic, cultural or social identity.” 10 As additional definitional assistance, the Directive in […]

[…] to five -pound laptops to smart phones weighing just a few o unces. The early 1980s saw the invention of the first laptop and the first cellular phone, and the first personal digital assistant (PDA) was released in 1993. 23 This increase in mobility has been helpful for both personal and professional tasks. The […]

[…] participant by sampling GPS or cell-tower location. The “Personal Data Stream” captured by the mobile device is then automatically uploaded to secure servers via the wireless mobile- phone network. The server processes the data using models to estimate participant activities; for example, by using location and velocity, the server can determine whether the individual […]

[…] States Supreme Court decision, Katz v. United States. 112 Katz excluded from evidence in a criminal prosecution defendant’s conversations recorded by law enforcement from outside a public phone booth located on a public street. In ruling that the Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places,” the Supreme Court rejected basing Fourth Amendment warrant requirements solely […]