Information Privacy Law

Catalog description

As information technology advances, the legal issues surrounding information privacy, data collection, data retention, data access, and data disclosure grow increasingly complicated. This course will explore information privacy and security issues arising from technological change and resulting shifts in societal perceptions of individual privacy, including how private and government actors electronically gather data, what type of data is gathered (personally identifiable information, biometric data, geolocation data, intimate personal details), and how such data is compiled, shared, bought, and sold across private industry data platforms and government electronic databases. The course overviews the current legal regime in the United States meant to address such issues. This overview will take into account constitutional, statutory, contract, and common law sources of information privacy and electronic surveillance law, at both the federal and state level. There will be particular focus on the First and Fourth Amendment concerns that result from such data gathering. The course concludes with a focus on developing fair information practices and principles to mitigate constitutional privacy concerns.