St. John's University Law Faculty Blog

During March, Professor Kate Klonick made several media appearances to discuss a privacy by obscurity exercise she designed for her Information Privacy seminar.  The optional exercise directed students as follows:  At some point over spring break, when in a public place, using only Google see if you can de-anonymize someone based on things they say loudly enough for lots of others to hear and/or things that are displayed on their clothing or bags.

On March 16, Professor Klonick appeared on CNN to discuss the exercise with host Michael Smerconish in a segment titled, “Your privacy at risk in everyday life.”

On March 10, Professor Klonick discussed the exercise with Francesca Paris in an NPR.COM segment titled, “Googling Strangers: One Professor’s Lessons on Privacy in Public Space;” on March 9 she discussed the exercise in an NPR: Weekend Edition titled, “How Easy It Is to Identify Strangers with Google” (with Scott Simon); and on March 6, she discussed the exercise with Cary Doctorow in a post titled, “A brilliant, simple exercise to teach privacy fundamentals,” that appeared on BoingBoing.

During January and February, Professor Klonick discussed Facebook’s speech regulation and her research with several news publications:

On February 18, Professor Klonick discussed the proposed creation of Facebook’s “Supreme Court” in an article titled, “Can Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Supreme Court’ End Facebook’s Era of Absolute Monarchy?,” that appeared in The Telegraph.

On February 5, her research was quoted in a Washington Post article titled, “Facebook Has Declared Sovereignty.“

On February 14, Professor Klonick’s research was quoted in an article on Axios titled, “Facebook’s constitutional moment.”

On January 25, she was a featured guest on Denise Howell’s This Week in Law: Videocast.

On January 10, she was quoted as an expert in a New York Times article titled, “How Far Should Facebook Go in Regulating Users’ Speech?“