This course examines the complicated and porous scheme of legal privacy protections governing online and offline individual consumer information in the United States. The course will examine topics including:

1. The role of privacy policies
2. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) enforcement of privacy violations
3. Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
4. Protections for children’s information under the Children ‘s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPAA)
5. Statutes providing protections against marketing calls and spam
6. The role of tort lawsuits for individual consumer privacy violations

This course provides a broad overview of key issues at the intersection of cybersecurity and privacy. Topics covered include:

1. Security practices, standards, and insurance

2. Data breaches, incident response, and corporate governance considerations

3. Consumer protection law and enforcement actions

4. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (aka the “anti-hacking” statute)

5. Law enforcement surveillance

6. Emerging technological paradigms and legislative responses

This course introduces students to the legal regime governing information privacy, data protection, and data security in the European Union. Topics covered include data protection and privacy in the European Court of Human Rights, the Data Protection Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data protection supervisory authorities and international data transfers, the "right to be forgotten," and cybersecurity in Europe.

This course explores the federal, state and judicial scheme designed to protect the privacy and security of financial information. Topics covered include:

1. Regulation of sharing consumer information by financial institutes under the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act.
2. Regulation of credit reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
3. Identity theft and businesses’ responsibilities under the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Red Flag Rules.
4. Protections of individual financial information against the government under the Fourth Amendment and the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA).
5. State financial privacy law
6. Breach Notification and Financial Privacy

This course explores the federal regulatory scheme designed to protect the privacy and security of health information. Topics covered include:

1. Entities and information to which HIPAA applies

2. When consent is required for the use and disclosure of health information

3. Types of health information requiring heightened protection

4. Use of health information for research and marketing

5. Security measures required to protect digitized health information

6. Individuals’ right to access their health information

7. Business associate agreements

8. HIPAA compliance and enforcement

This course examines the modern realities of privacy in the workplace, covering the kinds of personal information an employer may want to learn about an employee, or prospective employee, as well as the kinds of monitoring an employer may conduct in relation to employees: email monitoring, social media monitoring, drug testing, and even DNA testing. Attention is paid to the use of new technologies, including digital technologies and biotechnological advances, that enable new forms of incursion into employee privacy. The course surveys the current patchwork of American laws that apply to workplace privacy, including principles of constitutional law, tort law, contract law and federal statutes that protect employee privacy. Some comparison is made with laws in other countries, specifically countries of the European Union, as these laws are increasingly relevant to organizations that operate across national borders.