Professor Ohm Talks with NY Times About Internet Privacy

September 8, 2008

Professor Paul Ohm is featured as a legal expert in the “Bits” section of The New York Times. This section focuses on the technology industry, including government policies. The article profiles Professor Ohm’s latest paper, “The Rise and Fall of Invasive ISP Surveillance,” and discusses how Internet service providers (ISPs) are using new technologies to track what their customers are doing online, including what sites they visit, what they download, and what they purchase. ISP’s have been planning to sell this information to advertisers so that they can more effectively target consumers.

“Even though Congress has growled loudly enough to get Internet service providers to back off their plans to sell information about their customers’ Web surfing to advertising companies, one prominent legal expert argues that the law governing the issue should still be made tougher.” (The New York Times)

Professor Ohm feels that monitoring individuals on the Internet threatens privacy and his paper addresses this issue. The paper asserts that Internet privacy should be protected under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act. Although this law was originally enacted to regulate telephone companies, the laws should also apply to some of the monitoring that ISP’s engage in as well. While some monitoring is okay, it should be limited to sniffing out hackers and other security issues. Additionally, Professor Ohm feels, “the law is overly complex and ambiguous, and should be clarified.” His article proposes simplifying the overall structure and making it harder for customers to waive their privacy rights.