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Name: Tal
Family Name: Zarsky
Affiliation: U. of Haifa – Faculty of Law
Personal web-site: http://law.haifa.ac.il/faculty/eng/Zarsky.htm
Short BIO
Tal Zarsky is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Haifa – Faculty of Law.
His research focuses on Information Privacy, Internet Policy, Telecommunications Law and Online Commerce, Reputation and Trust. He has also taught Contract and Property law. He has written and presented his work on these issues in a variety of forums, both in Israel and worldwide. In addition, he has advised various Israeli regulators and legislators on related issues. Dr. Zarsky is also a Fellow at the Information Society Project, at Yale Law School.
Dr. Zarsky is currently examining the inner dynamics of various online social networks, and their impact on various regulatory settings. He is also closely examining the security and privacy standards set out in severer digital contexts, and whether they are facilitating fair and efficient outcomes.
Title of the presentation
Profiling in the Digital Age: Market Forces and Failures, and the Regulator's New Role
Abstract
Recent technological advances have created the opportunity and incentives for commercial entities to engage in extensive profiling practices in virtual and physical settings. The profiling practices that followed are generating public criticism and calls for legal intervention and action. This talk will demonstrate that any discussion examining the proper regulatory response to commercial profiling must take into account the specific market forces and failures which are transpiring in the relevant underlying market in which the profiling takes place. Among others, I will discuss market forces which inhibit personal data aggregation (and commonly overlooked) – forces that might lead to an overbroad regulatory response and the loss of the benefits of profiling (which will be briefly addressed as well).
On the other hand, I will explain that profiling practices are potentially generating considerable power and information disparities between consumers and vendors (or marketers and advertisers) in several retail settings, which favor the latter parties. These disparities (as well as the market forces and failures mentioned above) might therefore lead to a somewhat unexpected regulatory response to profiling practices – through consumer protection law. Such a response will attempt to properly and proportionally address the detriments of profiling while allowing the various benefits of these dynamics to live on.
On-line publications
Law and Online Social Networks: Mapping the Challenges and Promises of User-Generated Information Flows, 18(3) Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal 741-783 (2008).
Thinking Outside the Box: Considering Transparency, Anonymity and Pseudonymity as Overall Solutions to the Troubles of Information Privacy, 58(4) Miami Law Review 1301-1354 (2004). pdf
Mine Your Own Business! Making the Case for the Implications of the Data Mining of Personal Information in the Forum of Public Opinion, 5 Yale Journal of Law and Technology 1-57 (2002-2003). pdf
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