The attorney general for the state of Texas filed suit against Google on October 20, 2022, alleging
Question:
The attorney general for the state of Texas filed suit against Google on October 20, 2022, alleging that the internet company violated the privacy of Texans by collecting facial and voice recognition information from them without their explicit consent. As reported in the New York Times, "The complaint targets the Google Photos app, which allows people to search for photos they took of a particular person; Google's Nest camera, which can send alerts when it recognizes (or fails to recognize) a visitor at the door; and the voice-activated Google Assistant, which can learn to recognize up to six users' voices to give them personalized answers to their questions. [The attorney general] said the products violated the rights of both users and nonusers, whose faces and voices were scanned or processed without their understanding or consent." Other states have adopted similar "biometric privacy" laws. The issue here is not with homeowners who have Nest cameras or people who upload their own images to the Google Photos app. They obviously consent to Google's use of their images and other information. Instead, the concern is about third parties: people who approach the Nest camera to deliver a package, pass out political campaign literature, or simply drop by for a visit, or other people who appear in photos uploaded to Google by the smartphone owner. Those parties do not have the opportunity to explicitly consent to Google's use of their images and information. However, is their consent necessary? That is an important question you will need to examine.
If you select this assignment, you will:
- Describe the issue: what is biometrics? How does Google collect biometric information? What does it do with that information? Why is this considered by some to be a problem?
- Research, identify and discuss the major positions for and against allowing entities like Google to collect third party biometric information.
- Evaluate the competing positions. Do the assumptions and points of view underlying them hold up to analysis?
three (3) for your research paper.
- The paper will be organized with the following sections (use subheadings to identify the separate sections of your paper).
- Introduction
- Identify the issue about which you are writing
- Provide a brief description about the competing points of view and a summary of your conclusions.
- Background: Describe the issue; why is this an issue that at least some people believe requires a legal remedy? What are the facts underlying the issue?
- State of the Law:
- what is the current state of the law regarding your issue?
- Do courts agree on the way in which this issue should be resolved? Have other positions and/or solutions to the particular problem been proposed or adopted? For example, proposed or pending legislation or litigation. If so, what are they?
- Analysis: Assess the competing viewpoints. Do the assumptions and points of view underlying them hold up to analysis?
- Conclusion: this should be a half page or so that summarized your paper.
Total word count: 1500
Financial Accounting
ISBN: 978-1259914898
5th edition
Authors: David Spiceland, Wayne M. Thomas, Don Herrmann