Vol. 39, No. 3- Privacy

Featured

Human Rights

Chair's Column

by Stephen J. Wermiel

The breadth of issues on which IRR members work to improve the legal system and to protect civil rights and civil liberties is impressive, and this issue of Human Rights magazine is a perfect example. The fast pace of technological advances in our society requires constant vigilance to redefine and protect the right of privacy.

Human Rights

The Business of Surveillance

by Heidi Boghosian

It is at once revealing and disturbing that the American retailing company Target can learn of a teenager’s pregnancy before the family she lives with does. An angry father near Minneapolis found this out firsthand, as reported in the New York Times, revealing a modern-day quandary: Communications and information technology have advanced with such speed that privacy safeguards lag far behind.

Human Rights

Protecting Children's Privacy Online: The Battle Continues

by Kathryn C. Montgomery

During the heady days of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, the emergence of the World Wide Web ushered in a host of online marketing and data collection practices that raised fundamental privacy concerns for children. The business model of one-to-one marketing, combined with the increasing value of children as a target market for advertisers, created a perfect storm for marketers who wanted to use the Internet to reach young people.

Human Rights

Protecting Privacy: The Role of the Courts and Congress

by Marc Rotenberg, David Brody

Speaking to a public audience recently, Justice Elena Kagan stated what many know to be true: that privacy “will be one of the most important issues before the Court in the decades to come.”

Human Rights

Warrantless Wiretapping Under the FISA Amendments Act

by Mitra Ebadolahi

Since July 2008, however, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act has jeopardized the confidentiality of such communications. On December 28, 2012—just days before the FISA Amendments Act was set to expire—the Senate voted to reauthorize the law for five more years. And on February 26, the Supreme Court held that American media, human rights, and legal and labor organizations lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of the statute.

Human Rights

Employment Privacy: Is There Anything Left?

by Lewis Maltby

The battle for workplace privacy is over; privacy lost. Despite repeated language in judicial opinions regarding the need to balance the competing rights of employers and employees, no balancing occurs.

Human Rights

Upending Human Dignity and Shattering the Fourth Amendment: Strip Searches

by John W. Whitehead

While strip searches may span a broad spectrum of scenarios, the common denominator remains the same: humiliation and degradation at the hands of government officials and a complete disregard for privacy and human dignity.

Human Rights

Privacy in Hollywood

by Alexander Wohl

While it is unlikely that we will be forced to endure even a Lifetime Network drama about the Petraeus scandal, the interaction of technology and privacy is a recurring theme in our popular entertainment.

Human Rights

Human Rights Hero: Senator Ronald Lee Wyden

by Wilson Adam Schooley

It is tempting to throw up our hands without choosing a hero this issue—right before clapping them loudly in celebration of all the heroes who do noble battle in this arena. The scope of the “privacy” topic is not unlike its substance. Vast, unwieldy, sprawling, and shadowy, it seems to lurk in every corner of our collective and individual lives.

American Bar Association TM American Bar Association

Vol. 39, No. 3- Privacy

Introduction

Featured

Chair's Column

The Business of Surveillance

Protecting Children's Privacy Online: The Battle Continues

Protecting Privacy: The Role of the Courts and Congress

Warrantless Wiretapping Under the FISA Amendments Act

Employment Privacy: Is There Anything Left?

Upending Human Dignity and Shattering the Fourth Amendment: Strip Searches

Privacy in Hollywood

Human Rights Hero: Senator Ronald Lee Wyden