Clinic News

Senior staff attorney Chris Jay Hoofnagle was quoted in an article regarding online privacy. The article entitled “Do Consumers Care About Online Privacy?” discusses how consumers perceive online privacy. Hoofnagle comments: “Consumers fundamentally misunderstand the rules of the marketplace.” He also cites studies in which up to 75% of consumers think as long as a site has a privacy policy it means it won’t share data with third parties. He states that consumers “…equate the presence of the policy with substantive privacy rules.”  read more »

Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan called for increased privacy protections in a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled “Privacy laws need better controls, technology, panelists say.” The article mentions a panel at Sun Microsystems, which called for “…clearer laws and better technological controls over what information should be public and how it should be used.” Various questions regarding social-networking sites and parental control were raised during the panel discussion. Deirdre Mulligan commented “Nothing is ever forgotten.  read more »

Senior staff attorney Chris Jay Hoofnagle commented on Facebook’s “social advertising” plan. A New York Times article, “Facebook Is Marketing Your Brand Preferences (With Your Permission),” discusses how Facebook, a social networking site, is displaying user profile pictures with commercial messages. A Facebook user can rate or recommend a product and then an ad for that product will be sent to the user’s friends. However, this new plan comes with growing privacy concerns that advertisers may have access to too much information regarding user activities.  read more »

Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan commented on increased video surveillance and privacy in a BusinessWeek article entitled “A New Look at Big Brother.” The article discusses how there has been in an increase in use of video surveillance but yet there are no clear guidelines on how this technology should be used.  read more »

Senior staff attorney Chris Jay Hoofnagle commented on consumer confusion about online privacy policies in a PC World article. The article entitled “Most Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking,” states that consumers are largely unaware that their online activities are being tracked by online marketers and advertising networks so that they can use the information for targeted advertisements.  read more »

Associate Director of the Clinic Jason Schultz commented on digital rights and privacy on the NPR—Bryant Park Project after a blogger claimed that a network stole a picture of her dog. The blogger posted a picture of her dog on Flickr which was later used by a network for a Christmas ad. Jason Schultz notes that “there’s a right to publicity, which is a part of law that says that anyone who takes your image and uses it commercially violates your rights. So you do have some legal recourse. But oftentimes, the law is kind of an extensive and cumbersome thing.  read more »

Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan was featured in an article published by Silicon.com regarding SB 1386. The article entitled “Data Breach Laws ‘Makes Companies Serious about Security,’” discusses the data breach law, which mandates that state agencies and businesses in California must inform residents if their personal information may have been compromised. Deirdre Mulligan expressed her view: “I believe that the law has heightened the attention paid to information security.  read more »

Clinic Director Deirdre Mulligan and Clinical student David Snyder co-authored an op-ed published by the San Francisco Chronicle. “Why Security and Liberty Fit Hand In Glove” discusses the tension between increased security and civil liberties, and why the two concepts need not be mutually exclusive. The op-ed discusses video surveillance as well as other types of surveillance as examples of security measures that encroach on individual liberties, noting that the need to “watch the watchers” and ensure such tools are not abused is a vital part of living in a democratic society.  read more »