Dissertation Proposal Defense - Justin Petelka
Examining the Impact of US Right of Access Laws
Abstract: In the absence of a comprehensive Federal data privacy law, US state legislatures have started to pass state-level data privacy laws. Among other strategies for regulating corporate data practices, these state laws create individual data subject rights for state residents. The right of access, or the ability to request and inspect a copy of personal data, is a key component of these data rights regimes since other data subject rights, such as the right to be forgotten, cannot be exercised without first understanding what personal data a data controller holds. In short, the right of access is intended to create actionable transparency by empowering data subjects to participate in data-related activities and discussions. Despite this importance, recent work has questioned the practical effectiveness of simply requesting and analyzing copies of personal data as a data privacy safeguard. Enshrining an ineffective right of access jeopardizes the ability of the other data subject rights to act as a meaningful form of data privacy.
To better understand how US right of access laws are impacting data controllers and data subjects, I will conduct a series of interview sessions with community college students from US states with and without a right of access. During two remote interview sessions, I will help participants request, access, analyze, and understand copies of their personal data, then ask them to reflect on their experiences. Though these interviews, I will identify the interfaces, process, and components related to the right of access that modulate actionable transparency for participants. This project will provide evidence of how emerging comprehensive data subject rights are impacting both US data controllers and data subjects, whether the right of access is creating actionable transparency for data subjects, and what else can be done to enable the right of access's potential as a data privacy and protection safeguard.
Supervisory Committee
Co-chair: Megan Finn, Associate Professor, The Information School
Co-chair: Jaime Snyder, Associate Professor, The Information School
GSR: Stephen Meyers, Associate Professor, Department of Law, Societies, and Justice, Jackson School of International Studies
Member: Florian Schaub, Associate Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan