Naked on a Beach: Navigating US and EU Approaches to Publicly Available Data

If data is publicly available, is it fair game for companies to use? This session will explore a tension at the heart of data protection law: the treatment of public data as exempt from many privacy protections. Under myriad U.S. federal and state privacy laws, publicly available information is typically excluded from the definition of personal information. In contrast, the EU and U.K. data protection frameworks apply many privacy obligations even to personal data that has fallen into the public record, creating a sharp transatlantic divergence. The use of most publicly available information as training data for AI has put a spotlight on a previously arcane debate. Our panel will unpack the legal foundations, cultural differences and policy choices behind these differences. Panelists will examine how the U.S. approach affects data broker practices, employee background checks, consumer transparency, and individual rights — and why that matters in the age of online doxxing, AI, and location tracking. They will consider the practical challenges of managing data operations spanning the Atlantic.

What you will learn: 

• Understand how publicly available information is defined under different legal regimes, and what is at stake in those definitions. 
• Explore the implications for data brokers, employers, journalists, researchers, and regulators. 
• Learn how emerging laws and real-world harms are reshaping the conversation around public data and privacy.