Securing Privacy in the Internet Age

CALL FOR PAPERS

A Stanford Law School Symposium: Securing Privacy in the Internet Age

What legal regimes or market initiatives would best prevent the unauthorized
disclosure of private information while also promoting business innovation?

March 13-14, 2004
Stanford Law School

As individuals do more -- shopping, talking, working -- on-line, they leave private information behind in databases stored on Internet-connected servers. Companies store proprietary data on networked servers connected to the Internet. Computer security experts struggle to develop technology and best practices to protect this information from unauthorized intruders or inadvertent leaks. Are private initiatives sufficient to protect private and confidential information, or should the law allocate the responsibility of keeping the server secure, and if so, on whom? And will the imposition of this legal and economic burden impede further exponential advances like those the computer industry has made in the past decade?

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS), a part of the Law, Science & Technology Program (LST) at Stanford Law School, announces an open call for papers addressing the ways in which application of various legal doctrines could induce software vendors, hardware companies and system administrators to adopt security-enhancing practices, report unauthorized disclosures of private information, and properly value and remedy harm flowing from privacy breaches, while promoting vigorous competition and innovation.

In the selection process, papers offering new perspectives, novel analysis, or innovative prescriptions will be given preference. Proposals from legal and other academics, economists, lawyers, scientists and technologists, as well as new voices are encouraged. Some suggested topics are posted on the conference website at: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/privacysymposium/

The event is funded by a generous grant from the cy pres fund established in the Supnick et al. v. Amazon.com, Inc. and Alexa Internet, Inc. litigation. We are able to offer free admission to the symposium and anticipate a large audience of academics, executives, students, and U.S. and foreign policy makers. Those selected to present papers will be reimbursed for two- week advance purchased coach airfare to California and for two nights stay at the Westin, Palo Alto hotel. Interested parties should submit a 200-word abstract describing theproposed paper to; http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/privacysymposium/form.html. The deadline for submissions is October 27 and the selected presenters will be notified by mail by November 10. The website also allows visitors to register to be notified when we finalize the symposium schedule.

Papers will be due May 3, 2004. The symposium editors will select the papers which will be published in a scholarly volume under a Creative Commons license that will allow authors to submit their papers to other publications, including law journals.

The symposium editors are: