Private Law Theory

Solon Barocas and Karen Levy, ‘Privacy Dependencies’, 95 Washington Law Review 555 (2020). American law typically treats privacy and its associated rights as atomistic, individual, and personal – even though in many instances, that privacy is actually relational and interdependent in nature. In their seminal article on ‘The Right to Privacy’, for instance, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis described privacy as a ‘right to be let alone’. Doctrines of informed consent are generally concerned with ‘respect[ing] individual autonomy’, even as the information disclosed or withheld by that consent may implicate the privacy of others. Similarly, consumer genetics platforms seek authorization from a single individual before processing or uploading a genetic profile, even though law enforcement now routinely searches those profiles to identify distant relatives who may have committed prior criminal acts … (more)

[Natalie Ram, JOTWELL, 11 August]