Danielle Keats Citron
Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Danielle Keats Citron
“Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, Industry Unbound chronicles the ways in which tech companies use their power to undermine our privacy. Ari Waldman went under the hood of the information industry for this project, and the result is a fantastic piece of law and sociology scholarship. But Industry Unbound isn't just for students and academics. It's a must read for anyone interested in privacy and political economy, for policymakers looking to write new privacy laws, for regulators trying to rein in Big Tech, and for anyone curious about how law really works on the ground. Everyone should read it.” (from Amazon)
by Ari Ezra Waldman·You?
by Ari Ezra Waldman·You?
In Industry Unbound, Ari Ezra Waldman exposes precisely how the tech industry conducts its ongoing crusade to undermine our privacy. With research based on interviews with scores of tech employees and internal documents outlining corporate strategies, Waldman reveals that companies don't just lobby against privacy law; they also manipulate how we think about privacy, how their employees approach their work, and how they weaken the law to make data-extractive products the norm. In contrast to those who claim that privacy law is getting stronger, Waldman shows why recent shifts in privacy law are precisely the kinds of changes that corporations want and how even those who think of themselves as privacy advocates often unwittingly facilitate corporate malfeasance. This powerful account should be read by anyone who wants to understand why privacy laws are not working and how corporations trap us into giving up our personal information.
Recommended by Danielle Keats Citron
“With deep insight, passion, and humor, Woodrow Hartzog demands that we see what has been in front us all along yet never meaningfully reckoned with. As Hartzog makes clear, we can design apps, social media, and networked clothing (underwear!) with privacy in mind but we need a plan and this book provides it in spades. This is a defining book for our information age and a must read.” (from Amazon)
by Woodrow Hartzog·You?
Every day, Internet users interact with technologies designed to undermine their privacy. Social media apps, surveillance technologies, and the Internet of Things are all built in ways that make it hard to guard personal information. And the law says this is okay because it is up to users to protect themselves―even when the odds are deliberately stacked against them. In Privacy’s Blueprint, Woodrow Hartzog pushes back against this state of affairs, arguing that the law should require software and hardware makers to respect privacy in the design of their products. Current legal doctrine treats technology as though it were value-neutral: only the user decides whether it functions for good or ill. But this is not so. As Hartzog explains, popular digital tools are designed to expose people and manipulate users into disclosing personal information. Against the often self-serving optimism of Silicon Valley and the inertia of tech evangelism, Hartzog contends that privacy gains will come from better rules for products, not users. The current model of regulating use fosters exploitation. Privacy’s Blueprint aims to correct this by developing the theoretical underpinnings of a new kind of privacy law responsive to the way people actually perceive and use digital technologies. The law can demand encryption. It can prohibit malicious interfaces that deceive users and leave them vulnerable. It can require safeguards against abuses of biometric surveillance. It can, in short, make the technology itself worthy of our trust.