Last week, I had the honor of being a panelist at the
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s event
on the future of privacy regulation. The debate question was simple enough: Should the US copy the EU’s new privacy law?
When we started planning the event, California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) wasn’t a done deal. But now that it has passed and presents a deadline of 2020 for implementation, the terms of the privacy conversation have changed. Next year, 2019, Congress will have the opportunity to pass a law that could supersede the CCPA and some are looking to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for guidance. Here are some reasons for not taking that path. Continue reading →
Privacy is an
essentially contested concept
. It evades a clear definition and
when it is defined
, scholars do so inconsistently. So, what are we to do now with this fractured term? Ryan Hagemann suggests a bottom up approach. Instead of beginning from definitions, we should be building a
folksonomy of privacy harms
:
By recognizing those areas in which we have an interest in privacy, we can better formalize an understanding of when and how it should be prioritized in relation to other values. By differentiating the harms that can materialize when it is violated by government as opposed to private actors, we can more appropriately understand the costs and benefits in different situations.
Hagemann aims to route around definitional problems by exploring the spaces where our interests intersect with the concept of privacy, in our relations to government, to private firms, and to other people. It is a subtle but important shift in outlook that is worth exploring. Continue reading →
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled on Carpenter v.
United
States, a case involving the cell-site location information. In the 5 to 4 decision, the Court declared that “The Government’s acquisition of Carpenter’s cell-site records was a Fourth Amendment search.” What follows below is a roundup of reactions and comments to the decision. Continue reading →
The advocates of regulation pay lip service to the importance of advertising in funding online content and services but don’t seem to understand that this quid pro quo is a fragile one: Tipping the balance, even slightly, could have major consequences for continued online creativity and innovation.
Who is this handsome young man and why does he have “Mr. Yogato Stamped Me!!!” on his forehead? More importantly, why does he look so darn happy?
Flashback: Earlier this week, my partner Michael (pictured) and I visited Mr. Yogato, a frozen yogurt shop in Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood which describes itself as “the FUNNEST yogurt experience you’ll ever have.”
Apart from serving exceptionally tasty frozen yogurt and letting customers play a vintage Nintendo, Mr. Yogato is famous for the eight “Rules of Yogato,” which offer discounts if users achieve certain feats, including:
- Answering devilishly difficult trivia (10% off—or extra if you fail)
- Reciting the Stirling battlefield speech from Braveheart in a great Scottish accent (20% off)
But the best discount, which Michael does every time (unless I’m there to help identify, say, countries that end in ‘L’), is offered for wearing the Yogato stamp on your forehead. Being stamped is, of course,
almost as much fun as singing along to “Mr. Roboto” if you’re lucky enough to hear that played while you’re in the shop (10% off). But the real fun is in engaging passersby on the street about the icy-sweet joys of Yogato. It’s also, of course, probably the most effective advertising Mr. Yogato could ever want.
So, the next time you hear Adam Thierer and I talk about the benefits of advertising, especially online, just remember that while there is no free lunch (nor free frozen yogurt), there is discounted frozen yogurt. It’s a simple, obvious quid pro quo: 10% off in exchange for spreading the Gospel of Yogato. Continue reading →
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.