Showing archive for: “Privacy & Data Security”
Privacy Cost-Benefit Analysis
As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a strong effort to regulate the use of information on the web in the name of “privacy.” The basic tradeoff that drives the web is that firms use information for advertising and other purposes,and in return consumers get lots of things free. Google alone offers about 40 free services, including the original ... Privacy Cost-Benefit Analysis
Privacy and Tracking
First I would like to thank Geoff Manne for inviting me to join this blog. I know most of my fellow bloggers and it is a group I am proud to be associated with. For my first few posts I am going to write about privacy. This is a hot topic. Senators McCain and Kerry ... Privacy and Tracking
Watch me discuss the future of the Internet and its regulation on Ideas in Action
Larry Downes (who, like me, is a senior fellow at TechFreedom and a contributor to the excellent book, The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet) and I taped an episode of Jim Glassman’s talking head show, Ideas in Action, a couple months ago, and it is airing this week on PBS ... Watch me discuss the future of the Internet and its regulation on Ideas in Action
The FTC and the Internet
I will be discussing the titular topic at a Federalist Society panel (sponsored by the NY City Lawyers Chapter) along with Richard Epstein (NYU Law) and Jonathan Baker (Chief Economist, FCC) Tuesday night at the Cornell Club. Registration details are available at the link above. Here is the event description: The Federal Trade Commission is ... The FTC and the Internet
Richard Epstein on The Dangerous Allure of Behavioral Economics: The Relationship between Physical and Financial Products
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York University School of Law, The Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, and the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, The University of Chicago. Few academic publications have had as much direct public influence on the law as ... Richard Epstein on The Dangerous Allure of Behavioral Economics: The Relationship between Physical and Financial Products
The roots of foreclosure-gate: incentives and lawyers
Careless or even fraudulent documentation in foreclosure actions has stalled foreclosures, stymied recovery of the housing market, threatened the earnings and even financial stability of banks, and may lead to massive securities fraud actions. How did this happen? Per CR: [A] combination of getting swamped with foreclosures, lack of experienced staff, the poor economic environment ... The roots of foreclosure-gate: incentives and lawyers
Competition in the Evolving Digital Marketplace–Congressional Hearing
I will be testifying tomorrow before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy on competition in the digital marketplace. My testimony won’t be surprising to readers of this blog–in fact some of it was lifted directly from blog posts that have appeared here. Also on the panel are Richard Feinstein from the ... Competition in the Evolving Digital Marketplace–Congressional Hearing
Facile claims of behavioral economics: too much choice; not enough privacy
Chris Hoofnagle writing at the TAP blog about Facebook’s comprehensive privacy options (“To opt out of full disclosure of most information, it is necessary to click through more than 50 privacy buttons, which then require choosing among a total of more than 170 options.”) claims that: This approach is brilliant. The company can appease regulators ... Facile claims of behavioral economics: too much choice; not enough privacy
Gretchen Morgenson Calls for Greater Protection (?) of High-Risk Consumers of Credit
Gretchen Morgenson doesn’t want poor people to have access to consumer credit. At least, that’s what I think she’s saying in her rambling NYT column this week. Congress and federal regulators have recently taken a number of actions that will make it tougher for riskier customers to access consumer credit. First there was the Credit ... Gretchen Morgenson Calls for Greater Protection (?) of High-Risk Consumers of Credit
Debating Google
Apologies for the late notice on this. Last week I was on a Federalist Society panel discussing Google’s antitrust issues with Rick Rule, Susan Creighton and Scott Cleland. The event description follows, and you can find audio of the panel here. It was an interesting discussion, full of nice ironies in that Microsoft’s chief outside ... Debating Google
Is Google or the government the problem?
Well, you probably know my answer to that one. I was interested to read Fred von Lohmann’s short take on the privacy aspects of the Google Books Settlement, available here. Fred and the EFF have, basically, two concerns. The first is that [t]he products and services envisioned by the proposed settlement will give Google not ... Is Google or the government the problem?
GMU/Microsoft Conference on the Law & Economics of Innovation
UPDATE 3: It just keeps getting better. Now we’ve added Mike Baye, formerly Director of the Bureau of Economics at the FTC, now returned to his post at Indiana. He’ll be moderating and I’m sure commenting on many of the papers. UPDATE 2: And now Susan DeSanti, newly-appointed Director of the Office of Policy and ... GMU/Microsoft Conference on the Law & Economics of Innovation
