Privacy in school, at home, and at work has become a very hot topic over the past several years due to the increased amount of our everyday activities that are being digitized. Earlier today, The White House released an administration discussion draft of the President's vision for enhanced consumer privacy protections. Unfortunately, the proposal appears to fall short.
According to Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, the draft is "a big victory for the tech industry because it really sidelines the FTC and removes it as an effective force." Alvaro Bedoya, director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown's law school believes that Obama's bill may preempt state laws, in favor of letting companies collect what they want as long as they maintain some level of transparency. These concerns are very real and demonstrates that The White House needs to rethink its approach.
The FTC also weighed in and stated, "[w]e are pleased that the Administration has made consumer privacy a priority, and this legislative proposal provides a good starting point for further discussion. However, we have concerns that the draft bill does not provide consumers with the strong and enforceable protections needed to safeguard their privacy. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to strengthen the proposal.”
I agree with above sentiments and hope this draft spurs a robust conversation on digital privacy and technology. Absent stronger privacy protections, digital platform users will be discriminated against based upon their age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, physical/mental impairments, etc....There needs to be not only mandatory industry transparency but also stronger regulation on data collection and utilization practices. Federal legislation should be a floor and not a ceiling for privacy protections and the FTC needs to be provided enhanced regulatory enforcement powers.
I want my children to grow up with the same expectation of privacy I had as a kid and I don't want them to fear that their emails, Internet searches, and digital activity will be utilized to create robust profiles about them which will affect their schooling, career prospects, and ability to obtain insurance, etc...
I fight for our digital privacy because it is the right thing to do. I encourage those who believe we have an expectation of privacy in the Digital Age to contact The White House and their federal and state lawmakers to tell them to make stronger digital privacy protections a priority this year.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Maryland's Student Data Privacy Act of 2015
Last fall, California enacted what Education Week called a "landmark" student-data privacy law (SB 1177). This was passed because some educational technology companies were caught abusing their access to personal student data.
As a parent, the digital privacy of my children is very important. I don't want an educational technology vendor using my kids' school created digital data for behavioral advertising or for profiling purposes that may be utilized to discriminate against them in the future. The Family Educational Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was enacted in 1974 and has not kept up with the innovative digital learning technologies that are becoming more widely available for our students.
Today, schools utilize cloud-based technologies, apps, and other digital services to teach our children. Unfortunately, metadata created from these platforms is not considered an educational record under FERPA and thus not protected from the prying eyes of advertisers and others who covet this rich information. Therefore, students and their families need stronger legal privacy protections. Absent more robust student privacy laws, our children's privacy and safety will be compromised and innovative learning and educational technologies will face increased parent skepticism and opposition.
Maryland, a state that has vied with California to be a national leader in digital privacy protection recently introduced the Student Privacy Act of 2015. The bill is modeled after California's groundbreaking SB 1177. Mark Schneiderman, senior director of education policy for the Software & Information Industry Association said California's SB 1177 "seems to generally strike the right balance". Thus, the SIIA should hold the same position on Maryland's student data privacy act.
Last month, President Obama gave a historic speech at the FTC about his privacy agenda for the last two years of his term. In regards to student privacy the President stated: "But we’ve already seen some instances where some companies use educational technologies to collect student data for commercial purposes, like targeted advertising. And parents have a legitimate concern about those kinds of practices.
So, today, we’re proposing the Student Digital Privacy Act. That's pretty straightforward. We’re saying that data collected on students in the classroom should only be used for educational purposes -— to teach our children, not to market to our children. We want to prevent companies from selling student data to third parties for purposes other than education. We want to prevent any kind of profiling that outs certain students at a disadvantage as they go through school."
Congress is also concerned about student privacy issues. On February 12, 2015, it held a hearing entitled, "How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy". The testimony during the hearing demonstrated that FERPA needs to be updated. While my hope is that one day Congress passes stronger student privacy legislation, I am not optimistic in the short term due to all of the acrimony on Capitol Hill.
Until this occurs, states such as Maryland must fill this void and step up to protect the digital privacy and cyber security of our kids.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
As a parent, the digital privacy of my children is very important. I don't want an educational technology vendor using my kids' school created digital data for behavioral advertising or for profiling purposes that may be utilized to discriminate against them in the future. The Family Educational Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was enacted in 1974 and has not kept up with the innovative digital learning technologies that are becoming more widely available for our students.
Today, schools utilize cloud-based technologies, apps, and other digital services to teach our children. Unfortunately, metadata created from these platforms is not considered an educational record under FERPA and thus not protected from the prying eyes of advertisers and others who covet this rich information. Therefore, students and their families need stronger legal privacy protections. Absent more robust student privacy laws, our children's privacy and safety will be compromised and innovative learning and educational technologies will face increased parent skepticism and opposition.
Maryland, a state that has vied with California to be a national leader in digital privacy protection recently introduced the Student Privacy Act of 2015. The bill is modeled after California's groundbreaking SB 1177. Mark Schneiderman, senior director of education policy for the Software & Information Industry Association said California's SB 1177 "seems to generally strike the right balance". Thus, the SIIA should hold the same position on Maryland's student data privacy act.
Last month, President Obama gave a historic speech at the FTC about his privacy agenda for the last two years of his term. In regards to student privacy the President stated: "But we’ve already seen some instances where some companies use educational technologies to collect student data for commercial purposes, like targeted advertising. And parents have a legitimate concern about those kinds of practices.
So, today, we’re proposing the Student Digital Privacy Act. That's pretty straightforward. We’re saying that data collected on students in the classroom should only be used for educational purposes -— to teach our children, not to market to our children. We want to prevent companies from selling student data to third parties for purposes other than education. We want to prevent any kind of profiling that outs certain students at a disadvantage as they go through school."
Congress is also concerned about student privacy issues. On February 12, 2015, it held a hearing entitled, "How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy". The testimony during the hearing demonstrated that FERPA needs to be updated. While my hope is that one day Congress passes stronger student privacy legislation, I am not optimistic in the short term due to all of the acrimony on Capitol Hill.
Until this occurs, states such as Maryland must fill this void and step up to protect the digital privacy and cyber security of our kids.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
Monday, February 16, 2015
Law Enforcement Access To Data Stored Abroad Act Introduced
Late last week, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced the Law Enforcement Access To Data Stored Abroad Act (LEADS Act) which would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) to obtain the content of subscriber communications from an electronic communications or cloud computing service. According to Sen. Hatch, the legislation would "strengthen privacy in the digital age and promote trust in US
technologies worldwide by safeguarding data stored abroad, while still
enabling law enforcement to fulfill its important public safety mission".
The LEADS Act appears to have been introduced in response to an ongoing federal court case that required a U.S. email service provider to turn over customer emails that are stored in Ireland in response to a U.S. warrant instead of going through the proper legal channels in Ireland. This ruling was very troubling because it disregarded European digital privacy laws. Unless this decision is reversed, it may encourage foreign countries to ignore U.S. privacy laws when demanding access to their citizens digital content that is located in the U.S.
The passage of the LEADS Act is needed not only to better protect digital privacy, but also from a business perspective. According to The New York Times, the U.S. cloud computing industry may lose tens of billions of dollars in business because international companies and governments have lost confidence in U.S. technology companies due to the NSA surveillance programs that Edward Snowden exposed in 2013. Forrester Research has indicated that these losses could be as high as $180 billion dollars for U.S. based firms.
As a lawyer who focuses on privacy and cyber security matters, I have seen some of my clients change their communication habits based upon the information obtained from the NSA documents leaked by Snowden. Even though I am a proponent of utilizing cloud platforms, due to the troubling state of our digital privacy protections and an increase in hacking incidents, I have been encouraging some of my clients to conduct more business in person and/or on the phone until the U.S. enacts stronger digital privacy laws. In some instances, I am advising clients to go "old school" and send more physical packages via personal courier or a trusted commercial parcel service.
Unless there are digital exigent circumstances, the government should generally be required to obtain a warrant to access our electronic communications. Since law enforcement officials generally need a warrant to search our physical homes and businesses, the same standard should apply to our digital homes and businesses.
The LEADS Act is a sensible bill that will help protect online privacy and bring digital public policy into the 21st century. With more of our personal and business communications occurring digitally, it is imperative that our electronic communications receive the same protections as our "old school" pen and paper documents.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
The LEADS Act appears to have been introduced in response to an ongoing federal court case that required a U.S. email service provider to turn over customer emails that are stored in Ireland in response to a U.S. warrant instead of going through the proper legal channels in Ireland. This ruling was very troubling because it disregarded European digital privacy laws. Unless this decision is reversed, it may encourage foreign countries to ignore U.S. privacy laws when demanding access to their citizens digital content that is located in the U.S.
The passage of the LEADS Act is needed not only to better protect digital privacy, but also from a business perspective. According to The New York Times, the U.S. cloud computing industry may lose tens of billions of dollars in business because international companies and governments have lost confidence in U.S. technology companies due to the NSA surveillance programs that Edward Snowden exposed in 2013. Forrester Research has indicated that these losses could be as high as $180 billion dollars for U.S. based firms.
As a lawyer who focuses on privacy and cyber security matters, I have seen some of my clients change their communication habits based upon the information obtained from the NSA documents leaked by Snowden. Even though I am a proponent of utilizing cloud platforms, due to the troubling state of our digital privacy protections and an increase in hacking incidents, I have been encouraging some of my clients to conduct more business in person and/or on the phone until the U.S. enacts stronger digital privacy laws. In some instances, I am advising clients to go "old school" and send more physical packages via personal courier or a trusted commercial parcel service.
Unless there are digital exigent circumstances, the government should generally be required to obtain a warrant to access our electronic communications. Since law enforcement officials generally need a warrant to search our physical homes and businesses, the same standard should apply to our digital homes and businesses.
The LEADS Act is a sensible bill that will help protect online privacy and bring digital public policy into the 21st century. With more of our personal and business communications occurring digitally, it is imperative that our electronic communications receive the same protections as our "old school" pen and paper documents.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Student Forced To Change Schools Because His Social Media Activity Indicated His Sexual Orientation
The Social Media Age has drastically changed how we interact with others and how we express ourselves. For example, we may connect professionally on LinkedIn, like a product or service on Facebook, or we may film videos about our thoughts and activities and post them on YouTube. These platforms were not available to us just 15 years ago.
While the Social Media Age has created tremendous new opportunities to do business, communicate with others, and express ourselves, there is also a dark side to all of this sharing and connectedness. Its plain old discrimination. According to The Daily Mail, a Texas teen was told to delete his YouTube account and other social media accounts because it showed what the school alleged stated was a "sinful" lifestyle. This so called "sinful" lifestyle was that the teenager was gay. Instead of deleting his social media accounts the student transferred to another school.
This situation is very troubling and further demonstrates the need for students to have stronger privacy protections in the Social Media Age. While it may be easy to identify a student based upon seeing them in a video uploaded to YouTube or other digital platforms, absent a student being required to authenticate their personal social media accounts it may be difficult to identify their Facebook or Twitter accounts because anyone can create a fake account.
The bottom line is that students deserve stronger personal digital legal protections in the Social Media Age and schools should not be required to become the Social Media Police. Maryland's HB 210: Educational Institutions-Personal Electronic Account-Privacy Protection which was introduced by State Senator Ronald Young would go a long way in achieving these goals. The bill would help protect the personal digital privacy of students while at the same time providing schools a legal liability shield against claims that they have a legal duty to police their students' personal digital behavior.
To support MD HB 210 I urge you to reach out to Senator Young's office for more information.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
While the Social Media Age has created tremendous new opportunities to do business, communicate with others, and express ourselves, there is also a dark side to all of this sharing and connectedness. Its plain old discrimination. According to The Daily Mail, a Texas teen was told to delete his YouTube account and other social media accounts because it showed what the school alleged stated was a "sinful" lifestyle. This so called "sinful" lifestyle was that the teenager was gay. Instead of deleting his social media accounts the student transferred to another school.
This situation is very troubling and further demonstrates the need for students to have stronger privacy protections in the Social Media Age. While it may be easy to identify a student based upon seeing them in a video uploaded to YouTube or other digital platforms, absent a student being required to authenticate their personal social media accounts it may be difficult to identify their Facebook or Twitter accounts because anyone can create a fake account.
The bottom line is that students deserve stronger personal digital legal protections in the Social Media Age and schools should not be required to become the Social Media Police. Maryland's HB 210: Educational Institutions-Personal Electronic Account-Privacy Protection which was introduced by State Senator Ronald Young would go a long way in achieving these goals. The bill would help protect the personal digital privacy of students while at the same time providing schools a legal liability shield against claims that they have a legal duty to police their students' personal digital behavior.
To support MD HB 210 I urge you to reach out to Senator Young's office for more information.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Emoji Evidence Important in Silk Road Trial
Have you ever sent a text or email with an emoji? For those who don't know what an emoji is, it is a small picture that helps demonstrate an emotion. Some examples include a smiley face or a frown that is included at the end of a text or inside of an email.
An emoji or emoticon should only be inserted after carefully weighing the potential legal consequences. Every time you insert a smiley face or frown in a text or email you need to realize that it may be utilized as digital evidence. An emoticon may create tremendous legal liability for the sender.
For example, during the Silk Road trial emoji evidence has become an important issue. While video and phone call/audio recordings have been introduced as evidence during legal proceedings for years, digital evidence is now coming into its own. During the past 15 years, emails, text messages, and other digital created data has grown in importance. This change has occurred since we now communicate more and more on digital platforms.
The bottom line is that not only may written or spoken words may come back to haunt someone in a legal proceeding but also alleged emotions based upon an emojis or other symbols. Therefore, it is imperative to be very careful when utilizing emoticons and/or symbols on digital platforms.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
An emoji or emoticon should only be inserted after carefully weighing the potential legal consequences. Every time you insert a smiley face or frown in a text or email you need to realize that it may be utilized as digital evidence. An emoticon may create tremendous legal liability for the sender.
For example, during the Silk Road trial emoji evidence has become an important issue. While video and phone call/audio recordings have been introduced as evidence during legal proceedings for years, digital evidence is now coming into its own. During the past 15 years, emails, text messages, and other digital created data has grown in importance. This change has occurred since we now communicate more and more on digital platforms.
The bottom line is that not only may written or spoken words may come back to haunt someone in a legal proceeding but also alleged emotions based upon an emojis or other symbols. Therefore, it is imperative to be very careful when utilizing emoticons and/or symbols on digital platforms.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
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