Protecting Your Brain Waves and Other Biometric Data in a Global Economy

Abstract

This updated proposed article argues against a harmonized federal omnibus approach to data protection in the United States because an overarching law cannot accommodate the rapidly changing perceptions of ownership, etiquette, and privacy. Such a law will fail to significantly alter the risks associated with government abuses of future technology, while increasing online transaction costs and unnecessarily hampering technological development. Part II examines technological advancements in non-invasive brain-wave-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI), biometric data processing, and data aggregation. This part explores the potential benefits associated with continued development of brain-wave-controlled technologies and how such development is reliant, in part, on continued accumulation, sharing, and analysis of personal data. Part III of this article reviews the development of the EU/U.S. international framework pertaining to data processing, sharing, and privacy in a commercial context. Part IV evaluates shifting views regarding classification and ownership of information and its effect on privacy expectations. Part V concludes that the EU and the U.S. should adopt new rules to ensure biometric and other personal information is appropriately protected. However, this part also asserts that any future U.S. regulation should appropriately reflect changing social norms and not needlessly retard beneficial technological discovery.