Student Privacy Goes to College
Yesterday, I attended the 5th annual Higher Education Privacy Conference at George Washington University with experts and data advocates from across the country to discuss student privacy and information management in higher education. The event was hosted by Daniel Solove, a research professor at George Washington University School of Law, and Tracy Mitrano a principal of Mitrano & Associates LLC.
NHTSA & FTC Critical of House Vehicle Safety Proposal
October 14, 2015 — The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade met to discuss proposals to improve motor vehicle safety. Much of the hearing focused on a recent proposal by committee staff to incentivize the adoption of new technologies to improve vehicle safety, which raises several privacy issues. Specifically, privacy and […]
Tackling Privacy, One Carnegie Mellon Project at a Time
Last Thursday, the Future of Privacy Forum hosted a conversation among five of CMU’s leading privacy researchers. While the panelists discussed a number of their leading privacy projects, I wanted to highlight some of the interesting takeaways I took from the presentation. Many of the researchers focused on how subtle nudges can be used to change people’s behaviors. […]
Framing the "Big Data Industry"
For all its hype, discussions about Big Data often still devolve into debates about buzzwords and concepts like business intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning. Hidden in each of these terms are important privacy and ethical considerations. A recent article by Kirsten Martin in MIS Quarterly Executive attempts to bring these considerations to the surface by moving past framing […]
Rise of the Drones
This morning, the Center for Strategic and International Studies presented a panel conversation on some of the challenges – and opportunities – around domestic drone use. After following the issue for …
Discussing the Merits of Device Encryption
In the wake of Apple and Google’s recent decision to implement “whole device encryption” on their latest mobile operating systems, the FBI has warned that the tech giants’ actions will force law enforcement to “go dark” when it comes to keeping tabs of criminals. FPF has previously explored the question of encryption and law enforcement access, […]
Debating the FBI on Phone Encryption
FBI Director James Comey has heated up the encryption debate with his recent appearances on Sixty Minutes and at the Brookings Institution. Comey has sharply criticized Apple and Google for the companies’ announcements that they would enable strong encryption on their phones. In contrast to prior practice, the companies would no longer keep a key […]
"Databuse" as the Future of Privacy?
Is “privacy” such a broad concept as to be meaningless from a legal and policy perspective? On Tuesday, October 14th, the Center for Democracy & Technology hosted a conversation with Benjamin Wittes and Wells Bennett, frequently of the national security blog, Lawfare, to discuss their recent scholarship on “databuse” and the scope of corporate responsibilities […]
Data Protection Law Errors in Google Spain LS, Google Inc. v. Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Costeja Gonzalez
The following is a guest post by Scott D. Goss, Senior Privacy Counsel, Qualcomm Incorporated, addressing the recent “Right to be Forgotten” decision by the European Court of Justice. There has been quite a bit of discussion surrounding the European Court of Justice’s judgment in Google Spain LS, Google Inc. v. Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de […]
FPF list of Federal Anti-discrimination laws
Civil rights groups have recently highlighted the importance of respecting civil rights in this era of “big data” . The White House has echoed these concerns in its Big Data Privacy Review. As supporters of the benefits of responsible data use, we thought it would be helpful to companies and advocates to have a convenient list of existing […]