The huge search and social media platforms of the internet are reaching an inflection point. For decades they have been able to deflect attention from their role as content providers. The issue is now front and center in our national debate and the long-reigning status quo is likely […]
Your body may be a wonderland or a wasteland, but it is a goldmine of data. Collectors of information have noticed. In our midwinter exploration of the economic and legal foundations of data regulation, we next turn to a natural tool for personal identification, for ongoing transactions (like […]
Last week I jumped from the starting point of the newest U.S. anti-trust action against Google into a discussion about the legal and economic status of data. I would like to carry the discussion of data further. To briefly recap: data is history (it describes someone at a […]
In 2020, a more tragic year than most, we lost giants of the technology world. We lost Larry Tesler, PARC’s magician, later at Apple, who helped develop the computer commands that run our lives, like ‘search and replace’ and ‘copy and paste,’ and other concepts crucial for user-friendly […]
Two weeks ago I collected the major recent anti-trust/competition lawsuits, by regulators and competitors alike, filed against U.S. big technology companies. My point was that, after a long fallow period where these giants received the benefit of the doubt for their successful competitive practices, the public trust has […]
The recent hack against FireEye and the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department affected SolarWinds software for more than 18,000 software users including mostly private company clients in addition to the famously affected government entities. SolarWinds has confirmed that a cyberattack to its systems inserted a vulnerability within the […]
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are proposing modifications to the HIPAA Privacy Rule to ease information sharing in emergencies. Some of the modifications being discussed would provide patients affirmative legal rights, and others would loosen restrictions on medical personnel. The timing of the […]
Announced within days of one another, two developments, one bureaucratic, one nefarious, showcased the growing chasm between the dream and the reality of our increasingly interconnected world. On December 4, 2020, President Trump signed into law the “Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020,” which establishes security […]
Tim Wu, the bard of big tech, has written multiple books about the rise and coming fall of technology monopolies, oligopolies, and empires. In The Master Switch, Wu tells the story of how, in the 19th Century, the existing telegraph empire tried to smother telephone technology in its […]
On December 2, 2020, the European Commission and the European Union (“EU”) foreign affairs service issued a joint statement with goals for the EU’s relationship with the United States. The statement highlighted areas of shared interest including cooperation on “cybersecurity capacity building, situational awareness, and information sharing.” The […]
