Author of Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power
My scholarship has appeared (or will soon appear) in many leading law journals, including the Columbia Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review (twice), the California Law Review, the Boston University Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, and the Northwestern University Law Review, among many others. My work has also been published in top peer reviewed journals, including Law & Social Inquiry (twice), Big Data & Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics.
Awards
2025 Dukeminier Award (the Ezekiel Webber Prize) for my article, Gender Data in the Automated State, published in the Columbia Law Review, as the “best law review article concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.”
2024 Dukeminier Award (the M.V. Lee Badgett Prize) for my article, Disorderly Content, published in the Washington Law Review, as one of the “best law review articles concerning sexual orientation and gender identity.”
2024 Law & Society Association Article Prize, a world-wide competitive prize that “recognizes exceptional scholarship in socio-legal studies for a journal article,” for Gender Data and the Automated Administrative State, published in the Columbia Law Review.
2023 & 2024 Top 100 Most Cited Legal Scholars (#48 & #34)
2021 Faculty Excellence Award, Fordham University School of Law.
2020 Top 50 Thinker, Prospect UK Magazine.
2019 Best Paper Award, Privacy Law Scholars Conference (for Privacy Law’s False Promise). Awarded to best scholarship annually. I am the only person to win twice on two single-author papers.
2019 Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award (for Privacy As Trust). Competitive internal NYLS honor for best faculty book published in the previous year.
2019 Privacy Papers for Policymakers (for Designing Without Privacy). Awarded by the Future of Privacy Forum to 5 of the best works of scholarship in privacy worldwide annually.
2018 Deirdre G. Martin Memorial Lecture on Privacy (for Safe Social Spaces). Awarded to 1 privacy scholar worldwide annually.
2018 Best LGBT+ Lawyers Under 40. Awarded to outstanding queer lawyers by the National LGBT Bar Association annually.
2017 Best Paper Award, Privacy Law Scholars Conference (for Designing Without Privacy). Awarded for best scholarship in privacy annually.
2016 Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award (for Privacy As Trust). Competitive internal NYLS honor for best faculty article.
2016 New York Law Journal Rising Star Award. Competitive regional honor for lawyers with impact in the community.
2015 Outstanding Dissertation (for PhD dissertation). Competitive internal Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences honor for dissertation distinction.
Fellowships & Other Honors
2025 Newkirk Faculty Fellow, UC Irvine. Competitive internal, campus-wide fellowship run by the UC Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society, awarded to 10 UC Irvine faculty annually.
2022-2023 Humanities Center Fellow, Northeastern University. Competitive, university-wide fellowship to study the role of misinformation and conceptions of expertise in the law. Given to 8 faculty members across Northeastern annually.
2020-2023 Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts. Appointed by the Chief Judge of the State of New York.
2019 Elected to the American Law Institute on July 19, 2019.
2019 Belfer Fellow, Center for Democracy and Society, Anti-Defamation League. $50,000 nationally competitive research grant and fellowship to research technology and harassment. Only law professor to be named a fellow of any cohort.
2015 Cihui Foundation Fellowship. Internal Columbia award for graduate research.
2012-2015 Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellowship. Competitive Columbia Ph.D. fellowship.
2004-2005 Charles Warren Center Fellow. Internal fellowship for history dissertation research.
2003-2005 John Harvard Scholar. Academic excellence scholarship.
2003-2005 Marshall & Jacqueline Kates Scholar. Academic excellence scholarship, Harvard College.
Grants
2024 Law & Society Program Grant ($12,000) for law & technology theory workshop.
2023 National Science Foundation grant ($500,000) for research into how privacy lawyers translate privacy laws on the books into practical advice for clients.
2022 Anti-Monopoly Fund (Economic Security Project) grants ($30,000 and $15,000) to study misinformation in the law and to develop a new paradigm for privacy governance.
2021, 2022 Internal grants at Northeastern University ($50,000 each) to study social surveillance and discrimination on platforms.
2021 Knight Foundation grant ($25,000) for research on misinformation.
2019-2022 Grant from Microsoft ($10,000 annually) to fund Joel R. Reidenberg Northeast Privacy Scholars Workshop.
Advanced Introduction to U.S. Data Privacy Law
Edward Elgar Press (2023)
*Named a Notable Privacy + Security Book (2023), by Daniel Solove, GWU
*Favorably reviewed in the Journal of Data Protection & Privacy (2024)
Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data, and Corporate Power
Cambridge University Press (2021)
*Favorably reviewed by Daniel Solove, Notable Privacy Books: A Journey Through History (2024)
*Named one of five “Best Books About Privacy,” Shepherd, by Daniel Solove, GW Law
*Favorably reviewed in Law & Society Review (2022) by Erika Douglas, Temple University
*Favorably reviewed in JOTWELL (2022) by Paul Ohm, Georgetown University
Privacy as Trust: Information Privacy for an Information Age
(Cambridge University Press 2018)
*Cited in ALI’s Principles of the Law: Data Privacy
*Winner: Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award, 2019, for Best Book by NYLS Faculty
*Finalist: PROSE Award in Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology category
Platform Accountability after Moody v. NetChoice, 136 YALE LAW JOURNAL FORUM __ (forthcoming 2027)
Youth Privacy’s Constitutional Reckoning (with Danielle Keats Citron), 60 GEORGIA LAW REVIEW __ (forthcoming 2027)
Selective Privacy (with Danielle Keats Citron), 2026 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM __ (forthcoming 2026)
The Evolution of Trust & Safety (with Danielle Keats Citron), 75 EMORY LAW JOURNAL __ (forthcoming 2026)
*Favorably reviewed in Tech Policy Press (2025) by Dean Jackson
Challenging Technical Expertise, 106 Boston University Law Review 451 (2026)
*Response: Karen Levy, Technology Expertise and Prediction-Proof Policymaking, 106 BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 521 (2026)
Rethinking Youth Privacy (with Danielle Keats Citron), 111 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 1429 (2025)
Digital Authoritarianism (with Danielle Keats Citron), UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW REVIEW ONLINE (2025)
Civil Society and the Future of Privacy Law, 74 EMORY LAW JOURNAL 1079 (2025)
Legibility Double Binds, 104 BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 133 (2024) (invited symposium)
Opening the Gender Box: Legibility Dilemmas and Gender Data Collection on U.S. State Government Forms, 49 LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY 1 (2024) (doi:10.1017/lsi.2023.44) (peer reviewed)
Gender Data in the Automated Administrative State, 124 COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW 1229 (2023)
*Winner of the 2025 Dukeminier Award (the Ezekiel Webber Prize) for “best article on sexual orientation and gender identity legal scholarship”
*Winner of the 2024 Law & Society Association Article Prize for “exceptional scholarship in socio-legal studies”
*Reprinted in Gender and the Law (Anibal Lebron, Daniela Kraiem, & Jamie Abrams eds. 2024)
Introduction: Framing Regulatory Managerialism as an Object of Study and Strategic Displacement, 86 LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS i (2023) (with Julie Cohen)
*Co-Editor (with Julie Cohen) of special issue: Regulatory Managerialism and Public Governance
Americans Cannot Consent to Companies’ Use of Their Data, 17 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 4796 (2023) (peer reviewed) (with Joseph Turow, Yphtach Lelkes, and Nora Draper)
Forward: Framing Managerialism as an Object of Study and Strategic Displacement, 86 LAW & CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS __ (forthcoming 2023) (with Julie Cohen, and co-editor of special issue)
Policing Queer Sexuality, 121 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW __ (forthcoming 2023)
Manufactured Uncertainty in Constitutional Litigation, 92 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW __ (forthcoming 2023)
Disorderly Content, 97 WASHINGTON LAW REVIEW 907 (2022)
*Winner of the 2024 Dukeminier Award (the M.V. Lee Badgett Prize) for “best article on sexual orientation and gender identity legal scholarship”
Privacy’s Rights Trap, 117 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW ONLINE 88 (2022)
Privacy, Practice, and Performance, 110 CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW 1221 (2022)
Governing Algorithmic Decisions: The Role of Decision Importance and Governance on Perceived Legitimacy, BIG DATA & SOCIETY (2022) (peer reviewed) (with Kirsten Martin)
Are Algorithmic Decisions Legitimate? The Effect of Process and Outcomes on Perceptions of Legitimacy of AI Decisions, JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS (2022) (peer reviewed) (with Kirsten Martin)
Social Norms and the Fourth Amendment, 120 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 265 (2021) (w/ Matt Tokson)
The New Privacy Law, 55 U.C. DAVIS LAW REVIEW 19 (2021)
Habit and Performative Privacy, 10 SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY AND REPLY COLLECTIVE 43 (2021) (invited essay)
Outsourcing Privacy Law, 96 NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEW DISCOURSE 194 (2021)
Privacy Law’s False Promise, 97 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 773 (2020)
*Winner: Best Paper Award at the 2019 Privacy Law Scholars Conference
Data Protection By Design? A Critique of Article 25 of the GDPR, 53 CORNELL INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL 147 (2020)
Past the Privacy Paradox: The Importance of Privacy Changes as a Function of Control and Complexity (with James A. Mourey), 5 JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CONSUMER RESEARCH 162 (2020) (peer reviewed)
Power, Process, and Automated Decision-Making, 88 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 613 (2019)
Safe Social Spaces, 96 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 1537 (2019)
Cognitive Biases, Dark Patterns, and the “Privacy Paradox”, 31 CURRENT OPINION IN PSYCHOLOGY 105 (2019) (peer reviewed)
Law, Privacy, and Online Dating: “Revenge Porn” in Gay Online Communities, 44 LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY 987 (2019) (peer reviewed)
*Honored as the Deirdre G. Martin Memorial Lecture on Privacy, University of Ottawa
*Most downloaded Law & Social Inquiry article, 2021-2022, 2022-2023
Designing Without Privacy, 55 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW 659 (2018)
*Winner of the 2019 Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award
*Winner of the Best Paper Award at the 2017 Privacy Law Scholars Conference
A Statistical Analysis of Privacy Policy Design, 93 NOTRE DAME LAW REVIEW ONLINE 159 (2018)
The Marketplace of Fake News, 20 PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 845 (2018)
Are Anti-Bullying Laws Effective?, 103 CORNELL LAW REVIEW ONLINE 135 (2018)
Privacy, Notice, and Design, 21 STANFORD TECHNOLOGY LAW REVIEW 74 (2018)
A Breach of Trust: Fighting “Revenge Porn”, 102 IOWA LAW REVIEW 709 (2017)
Trust: A Model for Disclosure in Patent Law, 92 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 557 (2017)
Triggering Tinker: Student Speech in the Age of Cyberharassment, 71 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW REVIEW 427 (2017)
Privacy, Sharing, and Trust: The Facebook Study, 67 CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW 193 (2016)
Manipulating Trust on Facebook, 29 LOY. CONSUMER L. REV. 175 (2016)
Amplifying Abuse: The Fusion of Cyberharassment and Discrimination, BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW ANNEX (Oct. 2015)
Privacy As Trust: Sharing Personal Information in a Networked World, 69 UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW REVIEW 559 (2015)
*Winner of the Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award, 2016
Marriage Rights and the Good Life, 64 HASTINGS LAW JOURNAL 739 (2013)
All Those Like You: Identity, Aggression, and Student Speech, 77 MISSOURI LAW REVIEW 563 (2013)
Tormented: Anti-Gay Bullying in Schools, 84 TEMPLE LAW REVIEW 385 (2012)
Youth Privacy’s Constitutional Reckoning (with Danielle Keats Citron): In this second in a series of articles with Professor Citron on youth privacy, we argue that youth privacy law is informed by the logics and pathologies of the Supreme Court’s parental rights cases. We demonstrate the inadequacy of this legacy, focusing on different structural contexts and the important role of tech companies elided by the triadic understanding of most parental rights cases as involving parents, children, and the state.
Stale Information: This Article is part of a larger research agenda that asks: When, if at all, should policy decisions be made using “artificial intelligence” tools that rely on historical information? Not when that information is “stale”. In this Article, I provide a definition of staleness and use case studies in the law to understand how the law has traditionally approached the problem of prediction from historical information with harmful effects on individuals and society.
Interrogating Technical Expertise: This article explores and challenges the conventional assumption that “engineering thinking” and deep technical knowhow is necessary for regulating technology.
Industry Unbound exposes precisely how the tech industry conducts its ongoing crusade to undermine our privacy. With research based on four years of fieldwork, interviews with scores of tech employees, and reviews of internal documents outlining corporate strategies, I show that companies don’t just lobby against privacy law; they also manipulate how we think about privacy, how their employees approach their work, and how we use their data-extractive products. In contrast to those who claim that privacy law is getting stronger, I show why recent shifts in privacy law are precisely the kinds of changes that corporations want and how even those who think of themselves as privacy advocates often unwittingly facilitate corporate malfeasance.
Privacy as Trust argues that information shared in relationships of trust should be protected by law as private. This book, which is based on my dissertation in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University, argues that most privacy scholarship presumes as individualistic, atomistic understanding of privacy: me against the world. Whether that’s to separate or retreat or establish one’s own autonomy, privacy has usually be conceptualized as an individual right. But privacy only makes sense as a social value; we only need privacy when others are around. Privacy As Trust relies on social theory to argue that trust—a resource of social capital—should define how courts determine whether information shared to one or a few people still remains private under the law.
