Julie Cohen
Mark Claster Mamolen Professor of Law and Technology, Georgetown
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by Julie Cohen
“Why is there so much privacy law but so little privacy? The answer lies in the way privacy compliance is practiced on the ground. Ari Waldman supplies a lucid, rigorous explanation of how privacy law has become captured from the inside out. Essential reading.” (from Amazon)
In Industry Unbound, Ari Ezra Waldman exposes precisely how the tech industry conducts its ongoing crusade to undermine our privacy. With research based on interviews with scores of tech employees and internal documents outlining corporate strategies, Waldman reveals that companies don't just lobby against privacy law; they also manipulate how we think about privacy, how their employees approach their work, and how they weaken the law to make data-extractive products the norm. In contrast to those who claim that privacy law is getting stronger, Waldman shows why recent shifts in privacy law are precisely the kinds of changes that corporations want and how even those who think of themselves as privacy advocates often unwittingly facilitate corporate malfeasance. This powerful account should be read by anyone who wants to understand why privacy laws are not working and how corporations trap us into giving up our personal information.