Hi Folk,
The moment you’ve all be waiting for is here! The election is live: unique links have been sent out, which will allow one and only one vote per PLA member. That being said, no two people applied for the same role this year, so voting is, well… completely meaningless. Without further ado, let me introduce you to your ’23-’24 PLA E-Board!
- President: Kyle Hunt
- Vice President: Susan Distler
- Treasurer: Cindy Park
- Academic Chair(s): Bethany Friedman and Britt Karen
- Social Chair(s): Lizzy Griffiths and Hussain Abidi
I am especially thrilled to welcome rising 2Ls to the board. Both current and future e-board members will be meeting soon to go over plans for the PLA next year. In the meantime, this year isn’t yet over!
Event: S.T.O.P. x PLA Personal & Household Smart Device Privacy
You asked, and we listened. The PLA has partnered with S.T.O.P., the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, on a training where you can learn more and hear from experts on how to keep your data safe.
S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. They have a thing or two to say about personal and household smart devices! You may have read about surveillance technology in our previous newsletters, or joined S.T.O.P. for their Valentine’s Day of Action, but have you considered the wealth of private data that smart home devices make available not just to corporate interests, but to the police? And what about the potentials for discrimination and abuse when everything can be hidden under the rug of “Big Data”?
The event will run from 1pm to 2pm on Tuesday, April 4, over Zoom. Join us at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86414661190?pwd=dnZINUpVN3NQWEVFM0dJZ0Z0ZjlJdz09!
Event: TriBeCa Cybersecurity Summit 2023
Have you enjoyed our speaker events with lawyers currently practicing in the field? How about 15 of them, all in one place, all eager to share their perspectives on the most essential and current information related to cybersecurity and the law! At this year’s Tribeca Cybersecurity Summit, topics will include a survey of the cyber threat landscape, best practices on cyber extortion, and how to improve cyber defenses via the negotiation of strong cyber provisions in vendor contracts. If you have interest in working as a privacy lawyer, this will be an incredible resource to both learn and network!
The event will run from 9:30am to 7:30pm on Friday, April 14—but don’t worry if you can’t attend every lecture. Space is limited, so RSVP ASAP.
 | Tribeca Cybersecurity Summit 2023 – New York Law School The Tricarico Institute for the Business of Law and In-House Counsel at New York Law School established the annual Tribeca Cybersecurity Summit to bring together in-house counsel, attorneys in private practice, and NYLS students to learn about and engage in the pressing issues of defending organizations’ machines, systems, and networks from cyber harm. www.nyls.edu |
| Tribeca Cybersecurity Summit 2023 Friday, April 14, 2023 James Tricarico Jr. Institute for the Business of Law and In-House Counsel New York Law School 185 West Broadway New York, NY 10013 Directions: https://www.nyls.edu/about/contact-us/ There is no charge for admission. This is an in-person event. Streaming will not be available. nyls.wufoo.com |
Privacy News
The Tor Project has Released a New Browser, Mullvad!
Those of you who know me know that I advocate relentlessly for Mozilla Firefox. Chrome is terrible for privacy and terrible for the online ecosystem–but it’s pervasive, and hard to avoid. Now there’s a new option, one that even goes one step further than Firefox. Mullvad, also based on Mozilla’s Gecko engine, is designed to integrate with a VPN and secure your internet traffic from the very ground up. VPNs are great–we had a workshop about them for a reason–and web browsers designed around privacy are even better.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23318437/akrales_220309_4977_0292.jpg) | The Tor Project’s new privacy-focused browser doesn’t use the Tor network It’s not a privacy silver-bullet, but could be a good first step. www.theverge.com |
Your Protected Health Information is… Not So Protected
Would it really be a privacy law newsletter if there wasn’t some worrying statistic about privacy out in the world at large? According to a recent study, third-party trackers were present on more than 98% of hospital websites. Those third-party trackers include scripts from Google, Meta, and more–and they allow users to be profiled and tracked from the moment they visit a hospital’s site. Although the trackers aren’t necessarily present in access-restricted locations, their presence on pages used to book appointments, look up medical information, or search for specialists can implicate concerns under HIPAA. It remains to be seen how hospitals will react, or if they will react at all.
| Nearly All U.S. Hospital Websites Shared Data With Third-Party Trackers In 2021, Study Finds Over 98% of hospital homepages made at least one data transfer to a third-party, researchers found, which could pose risks for patient privacy. www.forbes.com |
That’s all for now. I hope to see you at our training with S.T.O.P. tomorrow, and remember to vote in the election! Or don’t–but let’s give a huge welcome to all of our new executive officers either way 🙂
Best,
Kyle Hunt
President, Privacy Law Association