Ryan Calo

Ryan Calo is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law and a former research director at CIS. A nationally recognized expert in law and emerging technology, Ryan's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Wired Magazine, and other news outlets. Ryan serves on several advisory committees, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Future of Privacy Forum. He co-chairs the American Bar Association Committee on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and serves on the program committee of National Robotics Week.

You can read Ryan's work on SSRN and follow him on Twitter.

Robotics and the New Cyberlaw

By Ryan Calo • March 3, 2014 at 2:14 pm

Cyberlaw is the study of the intersection between law and the Internet. It should come as no surprise, then, that the defining questions of cyberlaw grew out of the Internet's unique characteristics. For instance: an insensitivity to distance led some courts to rethink the nature of jurisdiction. A tendency, perhaps hardwired, among individuals and institutions to think of "cyberspace" as an actual place generated a box of puzzles around the nature of property, privacy, and speech. Read more » about Robotics and the New Cyberlaw

Third Annual Robotics and Law Conference “We Robot”

By Ryan Calo • March 2, 2014 at 3:03 pm

Michael Froomkin, Ian Kerr, and I, along with a wonderful program committee of law scholars and roboticists, have for three years now put on a conference around law, policy, and robotics. “We Robot” returns to the University of Miami School of Law from Stanford Law School this year and boasts an extraordinary roster of authors, commentators, and participants. Folks like Jack Balkin, Ann Bartow, Kenneth Anderson, Woodrow Hartzog, Mary Anne Franks, Margot Kaminski, Kate Darling, and David Post, among many others. Not to mention a demo from a roboticist at the University of Washington whose lab built the surgical robot for the movie Ender’s Game. Read more » about Third Annual Robotics and Law Conference “We Robot”

We Robot: Third Annual Robotics & Law Conference

By Ryan Calo • September 19, 2013 at 5:22 am

I'm delighted to announce We Robot 2014, back at the University of Miami School of Law for its third year after a wonderful event at Stanford Law School last April. Cyberlaw is about more than the Internet. As Chris Anderson put it so well in another context, atoms are the new bits. I hope you will join us for another stimulating discussion of the intersection of law, policy, and robotics. Call for papers below. Be there, or be digital. Read more » about We Robot: Third Annual Robotics & Law Conference

Madness And Privacy Harm

By Ryan Calo • August 25, 2013 at 2:13 pm

Recent research suggests a new trend among paranoid schizophrenics: they believe they are secretly being taped by hidden cameras for purposes of a reality show. I don't know quite what to make of this "fascinating cultural illness," to use Carla Casilli's eloquent label. This population is presumably going to pick some premise for their delusion; what does it matter whether their imagined antagonist is a demon or a director? Read more » about Madness And Privacy Harm

Why Opt Out Of Tracking? Here's A Reason

By Ryan Calo • August 14, 2013 at 11:39 am

The Stanford Center for Internet and Society, where I am an affiliate scholar, is a thought leader on consumer privacy and a source for potential solutions. The CIS Cookie Clearinghouse, for instance, intends to publish lists of tracking cookies to block or allow based on objective, balanced criteria informed by consumer expectations. According to recent work by Daniel Solove and CIS affiliate scholar Woodrow Hartzog, Federal Trade Commission privacy enforcement is also trending toward upholding what consumers have come to expect regarding their data. Violating consumer expectations around privacy is probably itself a sufficient reason for intervention. Consumers who take steps not to be tracked, or who rely upon representations that they are not being tracked, shouldn't be. My new project, however, asks a different question: Why should consumers worry about being tracked in the first place? What exactly is the harm here? Read more » about Why Opt Out Of Tracking? Here's A Reason