Academic Writing

Correcting the Record on Section 702: A Prerequisite for Meaningful Surveillance Reform, Part II

Author(s): 
Jennifer Granick
Publication Date: 
September 22, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

Last week, we argued that the public discussion surrounding two of the government’s most controversial mass surveillance programs – PRISM and Upstream – has not sufficiently acknowledged the broad scope of collection under these programs, which take place under section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In short, hiding behind the counterterrorism justifications for section 702 is a broad surveillance program that sucks up massive amounts of irrelevant private data.

US Department of Transportation issues guidance for automated driving

Author(s): 
Bryant Walker Smith
Publication Date: 
September 21, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

With the recent announcement, the US Department of Transportation is enthusiastically embracing automated driving. It’s saying that self-driving vehicles are coming in some form (or many forms) and that the agency can play a role not only in supervising but also in assisting this transportation transformation. The DOT is recognizing the wide range of relevant technologies, applications, and business models and is striving to address them more quickly and flexibly through its wide range of prospective and retrospective regulatory tools.

Correcting the Record on Section 702: A Prerequisite for Meaningful Surveillance Reform

Author(s): 
Jennifer Granick
Publication Date: 
September 15, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

The legal authority behind the controversial PRISM and Upstream surveillance programs used by the NSA to collect large swaths of private communications from leading Internet companies –  Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) –  is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2017. In recent months, Congress began to review these programs to assess whether to renew, reform, or retire section 702. Unfortunately, it appears the debate has already been skewed by misconceptions about the true scope of surveillance conducted under the contentious provision.

T-Mobile's Binge On Violates Key Net Neutrality Principles

Author(s): 
Barbara van Schewick
Publication Date: 
January 29, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

In November 2015, T-Mobile, the third largest provider of mobile Internet access in the U.S., launched a new service called Binge On that offers “unlimited” video streaming from selected providers. Customers on qualifying plans can stream video from forty-two providers in Binge On – Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, and others – without using their data plans, a practice known as zero-rating. As currently offered, Binge On violates key net neutrality principles and harms user choice, innovation, competition, and free speech online. As a result, the program is likely to violate the FCC’s general conduct rule.

When Toasters Attack: 5 Steps to Improve the Security of Things

Author(s): 
Scott Shackelford
Publication Date: 
September 8, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

There is a great deal of buzz surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the notion, simply put, that nearly everything not currently connected to the Internet from gym shorts to streetlights soon will be. The rise of “smart products” holds the promise to revolutionize business and society. Applications are seemingly endless.

Why U.S. taxpayers may pay most of the bill for Apple’s $14.5 billion tax judgment

Author(s): 
Henry Farrell
Publication Date: 
August 30, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

The European Commission — the European Union’s main regulatory body — has hit Apple with a whopping estimated $14.5 billion bill for unpaid taxes. While the commission had been expected to rule against Apple, both Apple and the U.S. government had hoped for a much smaller amount. Here is how it happened — and why U.S. taxpayers may end up having to pay most of the bill.

Evaluating Proportionality and Long-Term Civilian Harm under the Laws of War

Author(s): 
Beth Van Schaack
Publication Date: 
August 29, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

As noted by Alex Whiting in his piece last week, the law of armed conflict, or international humanitarian law (IHL), contains broad principles and prohibitions that are applied to a set of concrete facts in the context of any armed conflict. This analysis happens both ex ante—as a target set is being identified and an attack is launched—and ex post—when a completed operation is being evaluated for its compliance with IHL, including the war crimes prohibitions.

Apple vulnerability is surprising, but journalists should stick with iPhones

Author(s): 
Geoffrey King
Publication Date: 
August 25, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

A rare and serious vulnerability in Apple's iOS operating system has been discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which today published a report detailing its findings. It is the first known remote iOS vulnerability of its kind. Disturbingly, the company behind malware designed to exploit the security flaw may have also helped target an investigative journalist in Mexico in 2015, Citizen Lab said.

Rio 2016 — A Gold Medal For Cybersecurity?

Author(s): 
Scott Shackelford
Publication Date: 
August 12, 2016
Publication Type: 
Other Writing

In many cases athletes train for years, if not decades, to reach the pinnacle of their sports and represent their respective nations in the Olympic Games. Increasingly, such specters, though, are attracting another breed of competitor with very different motivations; they are perhaps out for gold, but not of the Olympic variety.

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