Why is there so much bad privacy law, and so many privacy victims? Here’s my theory. Privacy advocates exploit that first uncomfortable moment when we realize that technology is changing our world, offering a Luddite illusion that law can prevent uncomfortable change. The result is laws and court rulings on privacy that quickly become quaint. […]
Author Archive | Stewart Baker
Finding Fault with the Stop Online Piracy Act
Once again, Congress is being asked to make bad rules that will hurt network security, but this time the blame doesn’t fall on the privacy lobby. This time the booby prize goes to the intellectual property lobby. Below is an op-ed I wrote for Politico this week on the security consequences of the copyright enforcement bills […]
Privacy Victims by the Million: Federal Law Turns Parents and Children into Liars … and Criminals?
A recent report by Danah Boyd and others reveals that turning parents and children into liars is a principal effect of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million kids under 13 have joined Facebook. Since Facebook prohibits kids of that age from the service, that’s 7.5 million children […]
Well, that’s all right, then
The British Commonwealth has endorsed an end to the traditional preference for sons over daughters in royal succession. Said British Prime Minister David Cameron, “The idea that a younger son should become monarch instead of an elder daughter simply because he’s a man … this way of thinking is at odds with the modern countries […]
Counterterrorism: Why President Obama Loves Travel Data As Much As He Love Drones
Anyone who’s read Skating on Stilts knows I am a big believer in using travel data for counterterrorism purposes. What’s more interesting is that the Obama administration has been just as enthusiastic. Some of the reasons for its enthusiasm showed up in testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee last week, when the Department of […]
The Science is Settled: You’re Just Too Stupid to Live
The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, has studied the problem of how to distribute antibiotics in the event of an anthrax attack. It’s a big problem, because, as the study confirms, the antibiotics have to be in people’s hands (mouths, really) within 48 hours of an attack. And it may […]
Will Jeff Bezos Bring Feudal Security to the Net?
The Kindle Fire is a remarkable innovation in the Apple mold: taking a bunch of components that are pretty well known and combining them into a powerful new experience. But unlike Apple, Amazon’s integrating vision isn’t visual design or even user delight. Instead it’s far more ambitious — a new vision of the entire Internet […]
The Law of Cyberwar: What FDR, Hitler, and the Blitz Can Teach Us
By Stewart Baker on September 30, 2011 9:41 pm in Computer Crime Law, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, International Law, Uncategorized
I’ve just finished a longish piece on cyberwar and the role of lawyers, published in Foreign Policy magazine. Here’s how it begins: Lawyers don’t win wars. But can they lose one? We’re likely to find out, and soon. Lawyers across the U.S. government have raised so many show-stopping legal questions about cyberwar that they’ve left […]
Google changes my life, again
I find even good flight search sites, like Hipmunk, Yapta, and Kayak, a little frustrating. Now Google Flight Search is getting ready to do what Google does best – transform Internet tools for free. Google’s new travel search service is the first fruit from its acquisition last year of ITA Software, a travel search firm. […]
Poisoning the Hamburger Helper
By Stewart Baker on September 11, 2011 4:49 pm in Computer Crime Law, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Criminal Law, Uncategorized
The Obama Administration’s legislative proposals on cybersecurity are a distinctly mixed bag. But probably the worst ideas are those put forward by the Justice Department, which last week testified about the need to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Again. In fact, for the eleventh time since it was adopted in the 1980s. We’ve seen […]
Cyberwar: Iran Counterattacks?
By Stewart Baker on September 11, 2011 1:07 pm in Freedom of Speech, International Human Rights Law, Iran, War on Terror
Iran is to cyberwar what 1930s Spain was to airwar – contested ground where everyone tries out new technology and tactics. After being on the receiving end of Stuxnet, which sabotaged the Natanz enrichment plant and showed that cyberweapons could replace cruise missiles, it looks as though the Iranian government has gone on the offensive. […]
Better Swatch What You Say
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reporters sneaked onto a conference call that Swatch held with invited securities analysts. The reporters taped Swatch executives’ two-hour exchange with the analysts, even though the call-in preliminaries included warnings that the call would be recorded for Swatch and that no other recordings should be made. When Bloomberg started selling its […]
Mea Minima Culpa
At Ben Wittes’s request, I’ve put up a post on Lawfare reflecting on the things I got wrong in the days after 9/11. I can’t pretend it’s much of an apology. Here’s the gist: First, I misread the willingness of the press and the Pulitzer committee to stop celebrating disclosures of classified information. A few […]
Gut Feeling
This just in: The right kind of bacteria in your gut can literally change your mind – reducing anxiety in stressful situations. Now we know why they call it intestinal fortitude. Because it is.
NYPD’s Antiterror Campaign — And Federal Turf
I have an op-ed in the NY Post, commenting on the role that bureaucratic turf fights may play in the Associated Press story looking for scandal in NYPD’s counterterrorism tactics. Here’s a sample: When you’re done [with the story], you find that NYPD is uniquely determined to find terrorists before they strike. To do that, […]