LAW 335 - Cybersurveillance Policy and Privacy Law Seminar.

This seminar examines the current implications of post-9/11 cybersurveillance policy and dataveillance, or data surveillance, as a result of data mining and database tracking technologies.  Historically, the U.S. has been a technological leader in employing various tracking methodologies to catalogue personally identifiable data collected by the government.  In particular, dating back to at least the 1880s, the government has utilized the most sophisticated biometric technologies and other database technologies available to further national security policy objectives. The dramatic expansion of government surveillance and dataveillance following the attacks of 9/11 is unprecedented.  Rapid technological developments permit such expansion in the context of what has been described as an “axial age of technology.”  Multiple presidential directives and executive orders issued after 9/11, for example, now mandate dataveillance for national security and immigration policy purposes. The legal and constitutional protections available to curtail this expanding web of data collection and cybersurveillance are unclear.  Therefore, this seminar will also explore the preexisting statutes and regulations that protect electronic privacy, including digital communications, as well as the availability of constitutional privacy rights, such as Fourth Amendment protections. Two hours. Hu