George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

Author: Program on Economics & Privacy

PEP Public Policy Briefing: Is EU Privacy Regulation Being Exported to the US?

On Tuesday, December 3 the Program on Economics and Privacy hosted a Public Policy briefing on “Is EU Privacy Regulation Being Exported to the US?”

The EU and the US have distinct approaches to protecting consumer data, but policies like the GDPR and “The Right to Be Forgotten” do not necessarily stop at the border.  Empirical evidence suggests that EU privacy regulation has reduced investment in EU tech firms.  If EU privacy regulations affect how US companies collect and use consumer data, is there a risk that they also could export any negative economic consequences to the US?  Join us for a discussion with leading experts to explore how EU privacy regulation impacts US firms, and what lessons US policymakers should draw from the EU experience.  

Moderator: James C. Cooper, Director, Program on Economics & Privacy and Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

Panelists:
Lydia B. Parnes, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and former Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Noah Phillips, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
James M. Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services, US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration
Liad Wagman, Associate Professor of Economics, Illinois Institute of Technology

See below for photos from the event, and click here to listen to the recording.



 

Director Cooper Speaks at TPI Panel on “Techlash: Is It Real and How to Respond”

On Monday, October 21, 2019 PEP Director James Cooper spoke at the Technical Policy Institute’s panel on “Techlash: Is It Real and How to Respond” at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Click here to watch the panel.

Cooper spoke alongside Bruce P. Mehlman, Randal C. Picker, Catherine Tucker, and moderator Thomas M. Lenard.

PEP Director James Cooper Speaks at FTC Workshop – “The Future of the COPPA Rule”

On Monday, October 7, 2019  PEP Director James Cooper spoke at a public workshop hosted by the Federal Trade Commission that discussed updating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule. You can watch the full afternoon session here. Tune in at 3:30:00 to hear Director Cooper speak on Panel 4: “Uses and Misuses of Persistent Identifiers.”

“I worry about undervaluing  information flows to kids. . . Kids shouldn’t deserve any less First Amendment protections than grownups. . . . Once we start thinking about using COPPA as a tool to restrict advertising to kids, then I do think we’re getting into First Amendment land.”

Read the full transcript here.

Cooper spoke alongside alongside Harry Jho, Katharina Kopp, Jonathan Mayer, Kate O’Loughlin and Julia Tama on the panel. The panel was moderated by Mark Eichorn, an Assistant Director in the Division of Privacy & Identity Protection, and Laura Hosken, an Economist in the Bureau of Economics at the FTC.

Call for Papers: 2019 – 2020 Privacy Fellowship

The Program on Economics & Privacy (PEP) at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School invites applications for the 2019 – 2020 Privacy Fellowship. We seek authors to develop and present original work that focuses on the law and economics of issues surrounding the increasing regulatory scrutiny of online platforms. Issues of interest include, but are not limited to:

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Durable Privacy Legislation: An Evidence-Based Privacy Law that Works for the People

Public demand for stronger privacy laws has reached a critical point, and congress is likely to pass sweeping, cross-technology and cross-industry privacy legislation for the first time in US history. This is an exciting juncture for information policy, but also a perilous one. Poorly constructed privacy laws can frustrate the interests of the people they are meant to protect.

In her newest white paper, PEP Director Jane Bambauer explains why an evidence-based privacy law would not look like the GDPR or the CCPA, and offers the contours (and even model language) of a statutory scheme that would better serve the modern American consumer.

You can read the full paper and model legislation here.

Seventh Annual Public Policy Symposium on the Law & Economics of Privacy and Data Security

Registration is now open for PEP’s Seventh Annual Public Policy Symposium on the Law & Economics of Privacy and Data Security. The Symposium will be held Friday, May 10, 2019 in the Founders Hall Auditorium at GMU’s Scalia Law School.

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PEP Director Jane Bambauer Provides Further Testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee

On March 12, 2019, PEP Director Jane Bambauer testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the likely impact of GDPR and the CCPA on innovation and consumer welfare. Following her testimony, Senator Lindsey Graham requested that Jane expand her testimony by answering a series of written questions. Jane provided her responses on April 3, 2019.

You can read the Committee’s questions and Jane’s responses here.

PEP 2018 Year in Review

This dispatch of the PEP report takes a fly-over view of the year that just came to a close. Here are a few of the most important developments in policy and research related to privacy, data security, and data stewardship.

Story of the Year

Cambridge Analytica

News that Cambridge Analytica collected data on millions of Facebook users and exploited it to perform political consulting services has caused a seismic shift in privacy debates. For many observers, the scandal moved our attention to the particulars of data ownership over to more fundamental questions about the nature of data-related harm. Most of the observations from civil society describe that harm in terms of manipulation and deceit. For example, a report by the New America Foundation summarizes the Cambridge Analytica events and other related scandals this way:

“The central theme in these scandals is the power of the major digital media platforms to track, target, and segment people into audiences that are highly susceptible to manipulation. These companies have all profited enormously from this market structure, and they have done little to mitigate potential harms.”

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