The Inadequate, Invaluable Fair Information Practices

Woodrow Hartzog

Privacy law is in a bit of a pickle thanks to our love of the Fair Information Practices (“FIPs”). The FIPs are the set of aspirational principles developed over the past fifty years used to model rules for responsible data practices. Thanks to the FIPs, data protection regimes around the world require those collecting and using personal information to be accountable, prudent, and transparent. They give data subjects control over their information by bestowing rights of correction and deletion. While the FIPs have been remarkably useful, they have painted us into a corner.