Whether it’s Facebook secretly tracking your movements, Alexa surreptitiously recording offhand conversations, or a hacker hunting your Social Security number, privacy is a constant concern in our digital lives.
Berkeley Law students learn the legal principles in the classroom. And thanks to PrivLAB, a student organization focused on privacy law, they can also tackle them from a more practical angle outside their courses.
The popular group—more than 200 members strong—examines privacy policies and regulations from an interdisciplinary perspective. That includes hosting talks by experts, visiting company and law firm privacy teams at their offices, supporting privacy initiatives on campus, and enabling students to engage with practitioners at local events.
Among this year’s highlights: A session with representatives from the personal genomics company 23andMe and a Q&A with United Kingdom Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.
“That on-the-ground perspective can be extremely hard to gain in a law school classroom, especially within a curriculum traditionally focused on theory and black letter law,” says PrivLAB Co-President Erin Hilliard ’21.
Exposing law students to different privacy perspectives across industries broadens their thinking, she adds. “We challenge our members to think beyond compliance, and aim to increase awareness of the many considerations that affect an organization’s privacy decisions, such as public policy, business risk, and technical resources.”
Before law school, Hilliard and fellow co-president Hailey Yook ’21 worked at technology companies. They saw firsthand some of the pressing privacy issues facing the industry and consumers.
“I got interested in privacy law when I realized there were significant implications to our autonomy and safety, as more of our lives went online,” Yook says. “I had to grapple with how our business used and protected our customers’ information.”
Hilliard says privacy law piqued her interest because it sparks complex questions about innovation, data use, and human values in this era of constant data collection. She and Yook both describe leading PrivLAB as a law school highlight.
“I came to Berkeley specifically to study privacy law and was so excited to discover PrivLAB,” Hilliard says.
For Yook, making clear to students the operational challenges posed by privacy concerns helps buoy the legal discussion.
“Only at Berkeley Law,” she says, “are students able to engage with privacy law on such a deep level.”
—Gwyneth K. Shaw