Weekly Takeaways: Week 3

1/22/2018

Who should be responsible for distribution and use of information?

• Government
• User
• Collector

staysafeonline.org for resources and information about privacy protection

EU vs. US Privacy Protections

• The EU views personal data as akin to a property right owned by the subject; the U.S. does not
• Increased protection of personal data and privacy
• Property right means that you own your personal data
• Ownership provides an opportunity to have control over your data because, like a personal possession, you have the power to sell it, rent it, or keep it private
• If someone takes your data it’s considered theft so you can take proper legal action
• Closest thing to this in the US is the common law ability to control the commercial use of your name or likeness
• Europe generally places privacy over free speech, US is the opposite
• If you belong to the EU you agree to subscribe to certain policies and activities
• Including personal data and privacy policies
• Europe requires express affirmative consent before personal data may be collected by others; the US allows implied consent and often requires “opting out” of default sharing
• “Opt in” vs “Opt out” system
• Europe addresses privacy globally; the U.S. addresses in specific contexts
• In US different laws for different situations and topics, no all encompassing laws
• Advantages and disadvantages to both; US approach provides greater specificity, EU approach provides a greater level of consistency
• Europe has recognized a general “right to forget;” the U.S. has done so only in very narrow and limited circumstances
• If information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant, or excessive

Surprise! Your bank has been hacked

• Europe: any company with data breach must notify central authority and subject of breach within 3 days of breach or face fines
• US: breach notification laws vary from state to state and do not cover all types of personal data
• Can sue if you’ve been damaged, however can be hard to prove

Monitoring of Online Activities

• In europe
• Companies must have express permission to collect data about you
• You can request details about what infor about you a company has and how it is used
• In U.S.
• Permission to collect your personal data may be implied

Data collected on children

• EU: Digital services like facebook, snapchat, etc. must obtain parental consent before collecting on anyone under 16
• U.S.: COPPA federal law requires web sites and apps targeted to children to obtain parental consent before collecting data on anyone under age of 13

Forgetting that one bad night

• In Europe: may request search engine to remove link to news article if it is ‘inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant, or excessive”
• Article remains on newspaper website, but effectively hidden
• In United States: First Amendment protects freedom to speak and publish
• No comprehensive law that allows deletion; California eraser law; state expungement laws
• The Star Wars Kid
• How would the invasion of Raza’s privacy been addressed in Europe or the United States?
• Could be considered excessive by European standards
• Given to 3rd party so no reasonable expectation of privacy by U.S. standards

Mason’s blog post

• “This story is just life in the internet age now”
• Agree or Disagree?
• Raza’s classmates went to a lot of trouble to convert video to computer file and post it online. That shows “how truly mean they were.”
• Is person’s intent important in privacy invasion discussions?
• Ghyslain Raza’s situation vs Logan Paul’s situation

1/24/2018

Question of the Week #2

• Should the U.S. Congress statutorily recognize a “right to be forgotten”
• 10 Yes
• 3 No
• Google has received requests to remove more than 2.1 million URLs
• Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are the sites delisted the most
• 56% of requests are denied
• Either didn’t fit criteria or was deemed that the public’s right to the information outweighed the individual’s privacy
• Often in cases of elected officials
• If a request to delink is accepted, should the delinking be global or just on the search results produced by the domain name in the country where the request originates?
• Potential infringement on the rights and laws of other countries if the request of someone to be delinked is honored globally
• Allows a country to act as a kind of “global censor”
• Arguments for global delinking include how easy it is to use a VPN or similar method to access information available in other countries
• Google content removal policies
• Child sexual abuse imagery
• Nude or sexually explicit images posted without the consent of the person
• Prompted by an epidemic of “revenge porn” in recent years
• Violation of copyright
• Certain Sensitive personal information
• SSN’s, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, images of signatures

Should the Right to Forget Apply to Mugshots?

• The case of celebrities throws a curveball at this question

The right to forget sounds appealing in the abstract, however in application there are many nuances and situational complications that make it hard to apply.

Takeaways

Something that I find very interesting is how a seemingly straightforward question or concept can get incredibly complicated once you actually dive into some specific scenarios. At first, the “Right to Forget” seemed like a no-brainer, something that I absolutely thought should be adopted by the U.S. However, after diving into some of the complexities I’m not so sure. I found myself conflicted when we were looking at the situations of sex offenders. After that, I have a new appreciation for how difficult law makers’ jobs are. It also highlighted the importance of being well-educated on all aspects of an issue before making judgments, something I believe more people should do when developing their political views. Another thing I find interesting from this week is the juxtaposition of policy between the United States and Europe. It seems that almost every policy related to privacy is completely different between the two. It’s crazy how much the priorities of society can differ by region.