PRIVACY CRISIS: THE CURRENT AND FUTURE ISSUES OF RECEDING PRIVACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

A legal research project by Matt Salcido

Spy Drone! (Photo: Wikimedia)
A surveillance drone takes flight (Photo: Wikimedia)

Abstract

Rapid technological change is having a drastic impact on individual privacy rights, both in cyberspace and in realspace. The law reacts slowly to these changes and various countries are taking different approaches to this now global concern. The first section of this paper offers a brief vision of the future and introduces some imminent technologies based on current research. It is followed by a primer on current privacy law and how this has developed in different countries over time. The last two sections discuss current proposals for changes to privacy laws and the legal and social issues of privacy in the 21st Century. This paper departs from more traditional legal research essays in that it seeks a broad audience comprised of academics and non-academics alike. It seeks to clarify the "jargon" of high tech and explain "legalese" in such a way that professionals from both fields can focus on fashioning solutions, both technical and legal, to our impending privacy crisis.



Read it! Download a draft for review - comments, edits, etc. are invited and encouraged.

E-mail comments to msalcido@soe.ucsc.edu


Download in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all who provided feedback on this paper, including Professor David D. Friedman of Santa Clara University School of Law, for whose class "Legal Issues of the 21st Century" this paper was written and who provided substantial comment on early drafts and guided the presentation format for the paper. Thanks also to Daniel Ryan Gray, J.D. candidate at the University of Tulsa College of Law, John Niman, J.D. candidate at the William S. Boyd School of Law, Steve Rodriguez, IT Manager for the City of Mountain View, California, and Carl Campos, enlightened luminary, for their thoughtful review and valuable feedback.


Time constrained the scope/content of this paper.
Other issues perhaps worth future investigation:



8/24/2012
Copyright 2012 Matt Salcido