May 2, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
In our capacities as scholars, teachers, and leaders of the Privacy Law Scholars Foundation (PLSF) and the Privacy Law Scholars Conference (PLSC), we write to express our grave concern about ongoing threats to privacy and democracy in the United States.
Each of us brings different perspectives on what the law is and should be. Diversity in our views is one hallmark of the privacy law community. That diversity has made PLSC a vibrant incubator of cutting edge scholarship for nearly twenty years. Although we have different views on many things, we are resolute in our view that lawyers, elected officials, judges, and other government actors must abide by the rule of law. And although we approach the topic of privacy from many different angles, we all agree that privacy is of great and fundamental importance to the rule of law and to democracy in general.
We echo and join the sentiments expressed by many law school faculty in the US about the threats posed by the current US administration’s actions to the rule of law.
As privacy scholars, we are particularly concerned about actions by the current US administration that threaten privacy, including, but not limited to:
- Access by the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which, we note, has neither the Congressional authority to be called a “department” nor the popular legitimacy to be recognized in common parlance as such, to government databases with personal information on millions of citizens in potential violation of the letter and spirit of the Privacy Act of 1974, which a bi-partisan Congress agreed would help protect against overweening government power and control, and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act, which prevents the use of data or information that was acquired by an agency confidentially for statistical purposes from being used for any other (nonstatistical) purpose;
- The use of AI systems to monitor federal employee communications to detect those critical of the current administration;
- The creation of a massive database of sensitive information on every single person living in the United States, a project that Congress thoroughly rejected fifty years ago;
- Gathering information on immigrant populations from data brokers, making an end run around the Fourth Amendment;
- The use of personal information about lawful permanent residents, students on long-term visas, and other immigrant populations to enable deportations without due process;
- Weaponizing and misusing HIPAA’s whistleblower provisions to encourage health care workers, staff, and third parties to file complaints against providers simply for offering gender-affirming care; and
- Using privacy as a pretext for invading the rights and undermining the liberty of minoritized populations, particularly transgender and other gender-variant populations.
These threats to privacy and the rule of law will harm us all, but the most vulnerable among us will bear a disproportionate share of the burden. We strongly condemn these and other efforts that undermine basic privacy protections. We are ashamed of those lawyers enabling these violations and applaud efforts of those in the legal profession who are resisting and defending privacy.
Privacy, like the rule of law, is essential for democracy. We stand united in support of these pillars of freedom.
We recognize that many in the privacy community share these and other concerns not listed. We also recognize that some of us in leadership roles in our community cannot speak out on these issues right now, despite their solidarity, because it could put their own safety at risk. As those who can speak, we will not be silent.
Signatories:Ari Ezra WaldmanDanielle Keats CitronPaul OhmWoodrow HartzogKate WeisburdJeffrey VagleGianclaudio MalgieriKirsten MartinGloria González FusterNgozi OkidegbeOrla LynskeyDaniel SusserAndrew Selbst