The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Death, taxes, and data regulation

Episode 491 of the Cyberlaw Podcast

|

The latest episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast features guest host Brian Fleming, while Stewart Baker is participating in the Canadian Ski Marathon. Brian is joined for the news roundup by Jane Bambauer, Gus Hurwitz, and Nate Jones.

They begin by discussing the latest U.S. government efforts to protect sensitive personal data, including the FTC's lawsuit against data broker Kochava and the forthcoming executive order restricting certain bulk sensitive data flows to China and other countries of concern.

Nate and Brian then discuss whether Congress has a realistic path to end the Section 702 reauthorization standoff before the April expiration and debate what to make of a recent multilateral meeting in London to discuss curbing spyware abuses.

Gus and Jane then talk about the big news for cord-cutting sports fans, as well as Amazon's ad data deal with Reach, in an effort to understand some broader difficulties facing internet-based ad and subscription revenue models.

Nate considers the implications of Ukraine's "defend forward" cyber strategy in its war against Russia. Jane next tackles a trio of stories detailing challenges, of the policy and economic varieties, facing Meta on the content moderation front, as well as an emerging problem policing sexual assaults in the Metaverse.

Bringing it back to data, Gus wraps the news roundup by highlighting a novel FTC case brought against Blackbaud stemming from its data retention practices.

In this week's quick hits, Gus and Jane reflect on the FCC's ban on AI-generated voice cloning in robocalls, Nate touches on an alert from CISA and FBI on the threat presented by Chinese hackers to critical infrastructure, Gus comments on South Korea's pause on implementation of its anti-monopoly platform act and the apparent futility of nudges (with respect to climate change attitudes or otherwise), and finally Brian closes with a few words on possible broad U.S. import restrictions on Chinese EVs and how even the abundance of mediocre AI-related ads couldn't ruin Taylor Swift's Super Bowl.

Download 491st Episode (mp3)

You can subscribe to The Cyberlaw Podcast using iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or our RSS feed. As always, The Cyberlaw Podcast is open to feedback. Be sure to engage with @stewartbaker on Twitter. Send your questions, comments, and suggestions for topics or interviewees to CyberlawPodcast@gmail.com. Remember: If your suggested guest appears on the show, we will send you a highly coveted Cyberlaw Podcast mug! The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of their institutions, clients, friends, families, or pets