Archive | Privacy

[Article] Nerd Harder: A Typology of Techno-Legal Solutionist Logics in Child Online Safety Laws

By on November 18, 2025 in Center for Media Law and Policy, Internet, Privacy

Co-authored with Lorcan Neill and Evan Ringel, our project examines recently enacted state-level child online safety laws (COSLs) and demonstrates how different techno-legal solutionist logics manifest in these legislative efforts.

Our analysis demonstrates three interdependent patterns: (1) the checklist fallacy (reducing safety to discrete technical features), (2) the false promise of age verification (assuming identity verification will prevent harm), and (3) the design determinism myth (overestimating design’s power to shape social outcomes).

The appeal of techno-legal solutionism transcends borders–from California to Brussels, it offers policymakers seemingly clear solutions to complex problems. However, our analysis shows that this approach fundamentally misunderstands both the social shaping of technology and the complexity of youth well-being. Technologies can influence outcomes by offering (or not) certain design features (i.e., affordances); yet these designs do not determine the outcomes. This overconfidence that technology can determine an outcome risks ignoring the more complex and nuanced forces shaping children’s online experiences. Moving forward requires abandoning the fallacy that we can simply “nerd harder” our way to youth safety—and instead embracing the more challenging work of developing comprehensive, nuanced approaches that recognize both the limitations and possibilities of technical intervention.

The Article is open access here.

Nerd Harder Website Graphic

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A UNC Student’s Summer Experience at the Future of Privacy Forum

By on May 14, 2020 in Center for Media Law and Policy, Privacy

Each summer, the Center for Media Law and Policy provides financial support through its summer grants program to UNC law and graduate students taking unpaid or low-paying jobs in the fields of media law or media policy. The writeup below is from Meredith Richards, a rising third-year law student at the UNC School of Law, who interned at the Future of Privacy Forum last summer and received one of the Center’s grants:

Last summer I had the opportunity to work as an intern for the Future of Privacy Forum in Washington, DC. The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) is a think-tank that explores the legal challenges posed by rapid technological innovation and works to develop privacy protections and responsible business practices. FPF conducts research on privacy in a variety of areas, including AI and machine learning, biometrics, facial recognition, connected cars, education, IoT, and location and advertising practices.

As an intern, I worked with the advertising and location-tracking technology policy team to research current business standards and data collection practices, as well as to track and analyze any new emerging legislation concerning data privacy, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act. Because FPF engages with both corporate leaders and legislators, I also helped the policy counsel by developing informational content for these stakeholders on data privacy issues, including a blog post explaining the changes in the National Advertising Institute’s 2020 Code of Conduct and a white paper exploring the multitude of ways in which location data can be tracked and collected.

The policy team at FPF was extremely involved with the summer interns and ensured that we had the opportunity to connect with other privacy professionals in the DC area. My fellow interns and I were often encouraged to attend panels and conferences, including those hosted at the Brookings Institute and the FTC’s PrivacyCon. Because FPF hosts events with industry leaders, I also had the opportunity to meet people from EFF, IAPP, and several prominent privacy law firms in the area. We even had scheduled visits to the Facebook and Google DC offices, as well as joint happy hours with students in privacy programs at other law schools.

Outside of work, living in Washington, DC is exciting and there was an endless list of things to do and see. In my spare time, I visited the Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Mall, and many of the other great sites that our nation’s capital has to offer. The food is also spectacular! Every Thursday at lunch, my fellow interns and I would make the short walk to the best farmer’s market and food truck rodeo located in front of the White House. And I already miss the cupcakes from Baked and Wired and the tapas at Boqueria.

Since the summer, I was invited to continue working with FPF throughout the fall semester. I worked primarily on research regarding federal preemption of state privacy bills, like the CCPA. Overall, this experience not only provided me with in-depth insight into privacy regulation and compliance, but established invaluable connections with privacy professionals, who have inspired me to pursue a career in privacy law. I am so grateful to everyone at FPF for encouraging me and I highly recommend any students who are interested in media law or privacy to apply.

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Tech Ethics and Governance

By on April 18, 2019 in Privacy

TechEthicsTomorrow, I will be joining some fantastic colleagues at Duke University to discuss the legal and ethical issues associated with cyber searches and data privacy. The panel is part of the Kenan Institute for Ethics’s “Tech Ethics and Governance: 2019 Conference on the Ethics of Emerging Tech.”  The conference kicks off today at noon with danah boyd, founder/president of the Data & Society Research Institute, who will speak about data ethics and sociotechnical security, and continues tomorrow with a number of panels on subjects ranging from artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision making, predictive analytics, cybersurveillance, to cyberwar.

My panel will be at 10:45 AM in the Ahmadieh Family Conference Room, West Duke, Room 101.  It’s going to be fascinating discussion, moderated by Sara Sun Beale (Duke). The other panelists are Shane Stansbury (Duke), Jolynn Dellinger (UNC & Duke), Richard Myers (UNC), Stephanie Pell (West Point), and Neil Richards (Washington University).

You can read more about the conference here. Please come by if you are in the area.

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Immerse Yourself in IP and Media Law at the UNC Festival of Legal Learning

By on February 6, 2019 in Copyright, Defamation, FCC, First Amendment, Internet, Privacy

One of the biggest annual events at the UNC School of Law is the Festival of Legal Learning. This two-day convocation of legal geekery comprises 113 different continuing legal education (CLE) sessions and 152 speakers. For the past few years, the Center for Media Law and Policy has helped with the selection and coordination of sessions that cover Media Law and Intellectual Property subjects.

This year’s festival, which takes place on Feb. 8-9, will mark the 29th year of the program, and I feel confident in saying that we have more Media Law and IP sessions than we’ve ever had in the past. By my count, there are 16 sessions this year that touch on these topics, ranging from cybersecurity to recent developments at the Federal Communications Commission. And the list of speakers is a who’s who of the top media, entertainment, and IP lawyers in the state. You can see a list of these folks and descriptions of their sessions on our festival event page.

Here are just a few of the sessions available at the festival this year:

Friday, Feb. 8

  • 8:00 AM  –  9:00 AM + Hot Topics in Intellectual Property: Lessons Learned and Cases to Watch 
  • 8:00 AM  –  9:00 AM + The GDPR: The Impact of EU Privacy Law on US Organizations
  • 9:10 AM  –  10:10 AM + Navigating a Watershed Privacy Law: California Consumer Privacy Act Forecast for 2019
  • 9:10 AM  –  10:10 AM + Revenge Porn – NC’s New Law and Resources to Assist Survivors
  • 10:20 AM  –  11:20 AM + Federal Privacy Legislation: Do We Need It? If So, What Should It Look Like?
  • 10:20 AM  –  11:20 AM + Municipal Broadband and the First Amendment
  • 11:30 AM  –  12:30 PM + Defining Privacy Harm for Standing in Federal Courts 
  • 2:40 PM  –  3:40 PM + New Era in Music Licensing: The Music Modernization Act
  • 3:50 PM  –  4:50 PM + Cutting-Edge Topics in Cybersecurity Law 
  • 3:50 PM  –  4:50 PM + Entertainment Law Hot Topics and Litigation Round-Up 
  • 5:00 PM  –  6:00 PM + Open Source 101
  • 5:00 PM  –  6:00 PM + What Every Lawyer Should Know About eSports

Saturday, Feb. 9

  • 8:00 AM  –  9:00 AM + Peek into North Carolina Public Records
  • 8:00 AM  –  9:00 AM + When #Metoo Meets Defamation Law
  • 10:20 AM  –  11:20 AM + Recent Developments at the Federal Communications Commission

As an added bonus, if you stick around until the last session on Saturday (11:30 AM  –  12:30 PM) you will get to see Mary-Rose Papandrea and me do a session on “The First Amendment and Social Media: What (If Any) Rules Apply?” We will be taking on some important questions, including: What role does big tech have in regulating our national conversation? What is the impact of digital censorship? And, in all of this, does the First Amendment have any bearing on social media platforms? This session will explore the intersection of free speech values, the First Amendment, and our growing reliance on major social media companies that wield an increasing amount of censorial power.

The Festival will take place at the William & Ida Friday Continuing Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill from 8:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8, and 8:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9. You can find a full list of available sessions in the program guide.

To register for the Festival, please visit their registration page.

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Privacy by Design: A Student Guide for Collecting and Protecting User Data

By on August 24, 2018 in Privacy

As we start the new semester at UNC – Chapel Hill, I want to reflect briefly on a class I taught last spring and highlight the great work of some of the students in that class.

For the past six years, I’ve taught a class called Media & Internet Law Practicum.  This is a class I designed shortly after joining the faculty at the UNC School of Law.  My goal was to give students the chance to see what it is like to work in the legal department at a diversified media company. I play the role of  “general counsel” and the students, who are assigned to 3-4 person teams, serve as “associate counsel.” In addition to their classroom work, the teams are embedded in one of several ongoing news-producing projects at the UNC School of Media and Journalism, including Carolina Week (television program), Carolina Connection (radio program), Media Hub (multimedia), and Reese News Lab (startup incubator), where the law students work with undergraduate and graduate student journalists.  Through a combination of in-class simulations and real-world problems arising from their projects, the students gain substantial insight into how in-house lawyers provide legal counseling to media and Internet clients.

At the end of the semester I ask each student team to create a tangible resource/guide that addresses an ongoing legal need for their project.  Over the years, the students have created some fantastic things, including copyright and fair use guides, a primer on FERPA, a pocket summary of a reporter’s legal rights when engaged in newsgathering, fair use training aids, and most recently, a guide titled “Privacy and Security by Design: Best Practices for Collecting and Protecting User Data.” This very useful brochure was created by Amber Lee, David Mansor, and Lauren Russell to help the students in the Reese News Lab avoid legal problems when developing new apps and services. They graciously agreed to allow me to share their work with all of you.

Here is a snippet from the introduction:

No matter what your product is, whether it be an app to inform users on local elections, or a payment service for 20-something drinkers trying to avoid long lines at the bar, you will likely be collecting information from your users. Collecting information about your users allows you to better personalize services and marketing, and sharing the information in an appropriate way could potentially be a revenue stream for your company. Almost all websites—including the Federal Trade Commission’s, the federal agency that polices private companies’ cybersecurity—collect some information on its visitors. But startups should tread carefully. Successful tech companies ranging from Uber to Google to Facebook have gotten into trouble with the FTC and have lost public trust for mishandling user data. It is important to think about users’ privacy throughout your product design and development process.

You can download the entire guide here.  Great work Amber, David, and Lauren!

 

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