The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the study of the law and policy around the Internet and other emerging technologies.
CIS in the news.
"Cameras mounted on buildings that have facial recognition capability, for example, needn't be lofted on a flying drone to be a privacy concern, Ryan Calo, an associate professor of law at the University of Washington explained to NBC News." Read more » about Bloomberg to NYC: Domestic drones are inevitable
"Based on the number of car crashes in the United States and the miles traveled, he concluded that Google's cars would need "to drive themselves (by themselves) more than 725,000 representative miles without incident for us to say with 99 percent confidence that they crash less frequently than conventional cars. If we look only at fatal crashes, this minimum skyrockets to 300 million miles. To my knowledge, Google has yet to reach these milestones."" Read more » about A driverless car has gone 300,000 miles without an accident, says Jeb Bush
"“I’m not saying it’s impossible to hack some online voting for a state election, but it’s much more difficult to do it there” than with the newspaper’s poll, Forno said. A state election system “would have far more security features built in,” he said." Read more » about University of South Carolina professor hacks Courier-Journal online poll to 'get the discussion going'
“What I find troubling about it is that she keeps distinguishing Meltwater versus ‘legitimate’ online search tools, but it’s not really clear what that definition is,” Julie Ahrens, director of copyright and fair use for the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society, told MLex in an interview Friday.
Download PDF of Mlex article. Read more » about Comment: AP win in copyright ruling could put search startups at risk
""Google Glass is possibly the most significant technological threat to 'privacy in public' I've seen," Woodrow Hartzog, an affiliate scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, told Ars." Read more » about “Stop the Cyborgs” launches public campaign against Google Glass
""In 2015, when the FAA is set to begin to relax its prohibition on use and integrate civilian use of drones, then I would think the first folks in the door would be media because there's such an obvious use," Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, testified during a Senate hearing earlier this week. " Read more » about Journalism schools start teaching students to fly drones
Opinion article by CIS Affiliate Scholar Marvin Ammori. Read more » about It’s time to update online privacy
"“There’s very little in American privacy law that would limit the use of drones for surveillance,” said one witness, Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law. " Read more » about Current Laws May Offer Little Shield Against Drones, Senators Are Told
""There's very little in American privacy law that would limit the domestic use of drones for surveillance," Calo said. Calo said he thinks the aircraft can be extremely beneficial but warned that Americans may oppose their use unless there are some limits." Read more » about Drone use in U.S. may require new laws, Senate panel told
"Ryan Calo, assistant professor of law at the University of Washington School of Law, told the committee that citizens have good reason to be concerned about the increasing use of drones for an array of purposes. During his testimony, Calo reiterated the need for the nation to update laws to protect privacy – technology is fast outpacing laws protecting privacy." Read more » about Senate Committee Urged to Update Privacy Laws in Face of Increasing use of Drones
"...but as Marvin Ammori briefly mentioned in last week's favorites post, Rep. Louis Gohmert seems to not only think hacking back is a good idea, but that it should be explicitly allowed under the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act)." Read more » about Rep. Gohmert Wants A Law That Allows Victims To Destroy The Computers Of People Who Hacked Them
"In testimony before a House judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday, Richard Salgado, a Google director for law enforcement and information security, said the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act “though ahead of its time in many ways, needs to be brought in line with how people use the Internet today.”" Read more » about Google to Congress: Time to change email laws
"A warrant "is particularly important when it comes to GPS tracking because the technology is cheap, convenient, difficult to detect, and highly intrusive," writes Catherine Crump, the ACLU attorney expected to speak before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday, on the ACLU blog." Read more » about No GPS tracking without warrant, ACLU demands
"Jennifer Granick, the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, says that none of the unlocking bills recently introduced to Congress provide a comprehensive fix for consumers." Read more » about Stanford Law Director Outlines How Congress Should Legalize Phone Unlocking
"Ryan Calo, a professor of law at the University of Washington, also calls them drones. To him, a drone needs to have three qualities: First, it needs to be able to fly. Then, it needs to have some sensing capacity: a camera or an infrared sensor, or similar. And finally, Calo's drones are capable of some level of autonomy, perhaps following GPS coordinates or a moving guide." Read more » about Don't call 'em drones: The wide world of unmanned flying machines
"“We don’t yet know how judges and juries will react,” says Bryant Walker Smith of Stanford Law School." Read more » about Whose Fault Is a Driverless-Car Crash?
But not every kind of robotmaker should be responsible for its creations. Ryan Calo of University of Washington Law School argues that to foster start-up-style innovation in home and service robots, the platforms have to be open, meaning that any app developer can write a program that teaches your floor-mopping robot to clean windows too — much as smartphones have been taught to do more than make calls. The fault for any hiccups would be with the app developer or the user. Read more » about Regulate the Robots
""The extraordinary potential sentences are a result of political pressure by the Department of Justice, characteristic of their pressing for higher penalties in all sorts of areas of criminal regulation," says Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, who has represented hackers facing criminal charges." Read more » about From 'WarGames' to Aaron Swartz: How U.S. anti-hacking law went astray
"Aleecia McDonald, director of privacy for the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, agrees that "Coming to a common understanding of ways to put users in control of their online experience through Do Not Track would be better for all stakeholders."" Read more » about Will Congress Unfriend Mark Zuckerberg?
"“Google is just as concerned, if not more concerned, about public perception than it is about paying a few fines,” said Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington who studies privacy issues. “Lay people will take a settlement as being evidence of a mea culpa.”" Read more » about Google Hastens to Show Its Concern for Privacy