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.
To hear some in industry and government tell it, the answer to our modern privacy dilemma is simple: give users more control. There is seemingly no privacy-relevant arena, from social media to big data to biometrics that cannot be remedied with a heaping dose of personal control. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said “What people want isn’t complete privacy. It isn’t that they want secrecy. Read more about Privacy and the Dark Side of Control
Encryption shields private information from malicious eavesdroppers. After years of slow adoption, encryption is finally becoming widespread in consumer-oriented electronic devices and communications services. Consumer-oriented encryption software is now more user-friendly, and much of it turns on encryption by default. These advances enhance privacy and security for millions of people. Read more about Everything Radiates: Does the Fourth Amendment Regulate Side-Channel Cryptanalysis?
The New York Times reports that the liberal-leaning think tank New America has pushed out scholar Barry Lynn and his team on the foundation’s Open Markets initiative. Read more about A liberal think tank has just pushed out an employee who criticized Google. That’s worrying.
The publication of Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, a history of the “public choice” economist James Buchanan and his impact on American politics, has led to an enormous, highly charged debate. But as Marshall Steinbaum correctly noted in this journal, not many people have weighed in who aren't either Team Public Choice or Team Anti-Buchanan. Read more about When Politics Drives Scholarship
Just Security recently broke the story that the State Department was considering shuttering or downgrading certain functional offices and Senate-confirmed ambassadorships within the Department. An outpouring of support for many these offices, and particularly the Office of Global Criminal Justice, ensued in the press and elsewhere. Read more about Key U.S. Foreign Policy Positions—including Ambassador for War Crimes—Saved from Getting Axed
A lot has happened before the International Criminal Court since we last reported on the Palestine and related situations. The timeline below picks up where my last timeline of relevant events left off. At that time, the Prosecutor had opened a preliminary examination into the Comoros referral based upon events on the Mavi Marmara, which was part of the Gaza freedom flotilla. The Prosecutor subsequently closed that examination on gravity grounds in November 2014. Read more about An Update of the Israel-Palestine-International Criminal Court Timeline
The bombing of a mosque and community center in suburban Minneapolis 10 days ago and the horrific events in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend are just the most recent examples of hateful violence that has become all too common in America. Read more about What We Learn From Government Speech About Hate
Almost all posts on social media include depictions of real people. And most social media websites include advertising. Does this combination mean that nearly everyone featured on social media can sue for infringement of their right of publicity? That would be disruptive. Fortunately, a new ruling [PDF] by the California Court of Appeal confirms that more is needed for a right of publicity claim. Read more about California Court of Appeal Overturns Dangerous Right of Publicity Ruling
