Georgetown Law
Technology Review

As part of the United States Government’s strategy to combat the potential threat of Chinese telecoms companies being leveraged by their government to enhance China’s intelligence collection capabilities, Huawei is the latest front in the battle. Last August, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) which provided over $700 billion in funding for the […]

In recent years the United States witnessed several giant technology companies stepping in to help fix the housing crisis in tech hubs like Seattle and San Francisco. Tech giants such as Facebook, Amazon, and Airbnb are contributing millions through corporation funds and personal donations. While this private philanthropy could help curb the housing crisis, questions arise […]

Data privacy surged to the forefront of policy concerns in Congress during 2018 after revelations regarding Cambridge Analytica’s misappropriation of Facebook user information. As a result, elected officials in both the House and Senate spent months hosting hearings, grilling technology companies, and drafting bills to address growing concern about the “wanton collection, dissemination, and monetization […]

Authorities in China have declared that researcher He Jiankui’s controversial gene-editing work “seriously violated” state laws. At a conference in November, the researcher revealed that he had successfully created the first gene-edited humans using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. China, as well as the United States, prohibit gene-editing for reproductive purposes. His conduct has reignited debates regarding the […]

The Growing Concern Over Data Privacy Individual data privacy is and has been a global concern for much of the 21st century. Should anyone need convincing, it is estimated that Google processes over 40,000 searches per second. Internet searches generally occur through a web browser run via a local computing environment. It may seem completely […]

On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Chinese spies had surreptitiously implanted microchips as small as a “sharpened pencil tip” on server motherboards sold by Supermicro, an American company whose customers included Apple and Amazon. Businessweek alleged that the spies had forced domestic subcontractors to install the chips before the processed components were shipped to other […]

Several of the world’s largest technology companies expressed support last month for federal regulation to protect consumers’ data privacy, signaling a shift from Silicon Valley’s longstanding preference for self-regulation. But critics argued that the companies’ push for new federal law is driven more by their desire to head off tougher state-level data rules than by genuine […]

Brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly using cutting edge technology to do everything from streamlining grocery shopping to identifying potential shoplifters. These technologies provide great benefits to consumers looking to shave precious minutes off their shopping time; however, they often collide with privacy and consent concerns. Amazon Enters the Real World In late September 2018, news leaked […]

On September 26th, the world’s largest biometric identification system passed a major hurdle as the Indian Supreme Court ruled that India’s Aadhaar system is constitutional, a year after it had ruled that Indians have a fundamental right to privacy. As a number of countries, including Germany, Argentina, and Spain, have implemented mandatory nationwide identification systems, India’s […]

In September 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) kicked off its hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century at the Georgetown University Law Center and the FTC’s Constitution Center facilities in Washington, D.C. The FTC’s hearings come at a time that the antitrust community is seeking to understand the proper role of […]