Health-Tech Apps: Unclear Regulations and Their Effects on Progress
Emily Dieli The increased emphasis on creating a more streamlined healthcare system in the United States has led to a rise in digital health-tech apps and devices. To protect the privacy of personal health data on these technologies, policymakers have turned towards regulation. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent statement on the Health Breach Notification (HBN) Rule has extended the scope of the 2009 regulation to include previously unregulated health-tech entities. Nevertheless, the statement is vague and will have a negative impact on health-tech innovation. Policymakers should consider the implications of their regulations on health-tech progress before making such hasty...
The Liquidation of Data Privacy: How an Outdated Bankruptcy Code Threatens Consumer Information
Michael R. Akselrad In the modern world, billions of people share personal information online every day, ranging from consumer preferences to biometric and genetic identifiers, leading to the commoditization of user data, the value of which may dwarf the other assets of even large, multinational corporations. In the ordinary course of business, this user data may be kept confidential through such measures as privacy policies, statutory protections, and the reputational backlash facing a company that acts too brazenly with users’ sensitive information. In bankruptcy, however, some of these safeguards are eliminated in the interest of maximizing the value of the...
Can the U.S. Government Sanction TikTok Like It Is Iran’s Nuclear Program?
Joe Swain This Essay addresses the legality of the Trump administration’s TikTok app store ban. The ban restricted individual or corporate transactions with TikTok in the United States, effectively banning its continued use in the country by restricting its access to revenue. This Essay analyzes the application of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to the Trump administration’s actions and explores the resulting case which was decided by the D.C. Circuit. Although the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the IEEPA is restricted from applying to the Chinese platform, it incorrectly interpreted the meaning...
Keeping Private Messages Private: End-to-End Encryption on Social Media
Steven Song Following recent data scandals, online users have become concerned that their private information on the Internet is susceptible to misappropriation. These concerns motivated data privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act to ensure better protection against unauthorized access to personal data. Relatedly, Facebook has announced a plan to implement end- to-end encryption (E2EE) for all of its social media messaging systems. E2EE strictly limits access to private messages to the communicating parties. Even the company managing the messaging system cannot access these encrypted conversations. The implementation of E2EE, however, comes...