The Norm against Economic Espionage for the Benefit of Private Firms: Some Theoretical Reflections
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For decades, the American intelligence community has adhered to a norm against spying for the sake of enriching private firms. More recently, the norm has figured in a prominent presidential directive as well as in various international agreements. But notwithstanding its durability and its newfound renown, the norm has largely eluded scholarly consideration. In this Essay, I aim to address that gap by showing how theories of agency capture and institutional culture can help make sense of the norm’s past and inform judgments about its future.
The author thanks Khalid Albutairi, Elizabeth Brandt, Simone Montgomery, Madeline Reed, and Lauren Yi for their assistance.
Parents are turning to autonomous vehicles (AVs) to shuttle their children around, seeing them as a safe and convenient option. AVs promise increased mobility for children but bring with them unparalleled surveillance risks. As parents embrace in-cabin monitoring and location tracking to enhance safety, they also—often unknowingly—authorize the mass collection, retention, and potential disclosure of their children’s most intimate data.
This Essay presents the first case study of children’s privacy in AVs, serving as a lens to critique the prevailing reliance on parental notice and choice as the cornerstone of children's data protection. Drawing on privacy theory, surveillance studies, and child development literature, the Essay argues that the notice-and-choice framework fails to account for children’s distinct privacy interests, particularly when the data collected may be retained indefinitely, repurposed by law enforcement, or sold to data brokers. The Essay calls for real limits on data collection, meaningful restrictions on sharing, and mandatory deletion rules. These principles extend beyond AVs to the technological ecosystem now shaping childhood in the digital age.
Special thanks to Mario Barnes, Courtney Douglas, Paul Gowder, Deborah Turkheimer, to the audience at Northwestern Law’s Julian Rosenthal Lecture, and to Miranda Coombe, Sam Hallam, Caroline Kassir, and Danielle O’Connell for superb editing. Adeleine Lee and Alex Wilfert provided excellent research assistance. The authors contributed equally to this essay.
Antidemocratic forces rely on intimidation tactics to silence criticism and opposition. Today’s intimidation playbook follows a two-step pattern. We surface these tactics so their costs to public discourse and civic engagement can be fully understood. We show how the misappropriation of the concept of online abuse has parallels in other efforts at conceptual diversion that dampen democratic guarantees. Democracy’s survival requires creative solutions. Politicians and government workers must be able to operate free from intimidation. Journalists and researchers must be able to freely investigate governmental overreach and foreign malign influence campaigns that threaten the democratic process. Surfacing the two-step strategy is a critical start to combating it.
Special thanks to Mario Barnes, Courtney Douglas, Paul Gowder, Deborah Turkheimer, to the audience at Northwestern Law’s Julian Rosenthal Lecture, and to Miranda Coombe, Sam Hallam, Caroline Kassir, and Danielle O’Connell for superb editing. Adeleine Lee and Alex Wilfert provided excellent research assistance. The authors contributed equally to this essay.
Antidemocratic forces rely on intimidation tactics to silence criticism and opposition. Today’s intimidation playbook follows a two-step pattern. We surface these tactics so their costs to public discourse and civic engagement can be fully understood. We show how the misappropriation of the concept of online abuse has parallels in other efforts at conceptual diversion that dampen democratic guarantees. Democracy’s survival requires creative solutions. Politicians and government workers must be able to operate free from intimidation. Journalists and researchers must be able to freely investigate governmental overreach and foreign malign influence campaigns that threaten the democratic process. Surfacing the two-step strategy is a critical start to combating it.