Volume 2009 — Issue 2

As Intelligent Transportation Systems (“ITS”) incorporate data-gathering and compiling systems into the transportation infrastructure, new privacy implications stemming from the potential misallocation or abuse of collected data have been created. The United States currently has no comprehensive national regulatory structure for privacy, leaving answers to these privacy concerns to be found through a consideration of a variety of sources of federal and state privacy law. In this paper, the authors examine a number of areas where privacy law could impact ITS projects and technologies, including constitutional privacy protections from criminal prosecution; the developing legal distinctions of reasonable privacy expectations; the role of evolving surveillance technologies in defining privacy rights; the evolution of vicarious criminal liability theories; and the use of tort law in the remediation of privacy violations. There is evidence that privacy law in the United States is undergoing a paradigm shift in response to data collection by new technologies, and the privacy concerns raised by the deployment of ITS are just one of the factors giving rise to a movement towards a stricter, or at least more comprehensive, privacy regime. After a consideration of the legal implications of ITS technologies, the authors present a legal toolbox and taxonomy for ITS developers to utilize in navigating the current legal landscape with their emerging technologies.

It is six in the morning and a law student is walking her dog before beginning a full day of classes. Across town a few hours later, a classmate rushes onto a crowded subway train, forced to stand sandwiched between strangers during his commute to school. That afternoon, an evening student sits in rush hour traffic, hoping to make it into the city in time for class. Later that night, a student jogs on a treadmill at the gym after a long day of school. What do all of these students have in common? They are learning by listening to their professors‘ podcasts. Even though they are located in different places, at different times of the day, while their hands or eyes may not be free to open a book to study, they can still listen and learn. This Article discusses how and why professors can use podcasts to enhance their students‘ education. Podcasts provide students with an opportunity to listen to their professor outside of the time and space constraints of the classroom. This Article discusses the accessibility, portability, and simplicity of using podcasts. Whether a student is a night owl or a morning person, whether she prefers to listen on her iPod or MP3 player, burn a CD, or listen to it on her computer, the student decides when, where, and how she will listen to the podcast on her own terms and timetables. The Article also examines the benefits and challenges of using podcasts. Finally, it illustrates how professors can use podcasts as a teaching tool to reach today‘s multi-tasking, technology-savvy student in a different way than traditional classroom teaching methods. Now instead of just listening to rock, pop, jazz, country, or any other musical genre, students can add their law school podcasts to their playlist.