Private Law Theory

INTRODUCTION
… This Note will focus on the posthumous disposition of the personal information businesses collect, use, and sell about individuals and argue that data privacy rights should extend posthumously to fulfill the promise of data privacy legislation like CCPA. In Part I, this Note will examine the dead’s legal and customary rights, from property rights to cultural observances, to identify the contours of posthumous rights. Part II will shift the analysis to the evolution of data privacy rights in American jurisprudence by tracing the development of CCPA. Part III will weave together the contours of posthumous rights with the development of data privacy rights to argue that data privacy rights must extend posthumously.

Kate C Ashley, Data of the Dead: A Proposal for Protecting Posthumous Data Privacy, 62 William and Mary Law Review 649 (2020).

First posted 2021-01-15 10:36:10