Data Privacy Day

Today is Data Privacy Day. According to Wikipedia, it began in Europe, with the Council of Europe's Data Protection Day. The date was chosen to mark the anniversary of the Council of Europe's Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Jan. 28, 1981).

Learn more on the Data Privacy pages from Stay Safe Online (from the National Cyber Security Alliance). The group is tweeting @DataPrivacyDay.

Several U.S. agencies are marking Data Privacy Day 2016, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy. Check out Twitter at noon (Pacific time) for the Federal Trade Commission's Data Privacy Day 2016 Twitter Chat.

Here in Washington, Attorney General Rob McKenna and King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg are asking businesses to reinforce their work to protect consumer data.

It's Data Privacy Day. Do you know where your data is?, C|Net, Jan. 28, 2016, discusses a study that was able to match up "anonymous" health data from Washington State with identified people. See Latanya Sweeney, Only You, Your Doctor, and Many Others May Know, Journal of Technology Science (JOTS), Sept. 29, 2015. The good news? "This study resulted in Washington State increasing the anonymization protocols of the health records including limiting fields used for the re-identification study."

Want some tips for your own online data? Reporter Julia Angwin lists what she did: I Ramped Up My Internet Security, and You Should Too, ProPublica, Jan. 20, 2016.

Law Firm Search Engine

Need information about local law firms? Looking for a source of free legal research? Try the new Law Firm Search Engine!

http://lawfirmsearchengine.com/

Developed by librarian Jeffrey H. Buckley, this search engine allows you to search across more than 4,500 law firm websites. This is a useful resource for free legal information, as law firms are constantly publishing insightful commentaries and legal memos on their websites.

The Law Firm Search Engine's other features include:

• A list of Law Firms on Twitter,
• A description of Best Practices for Law Firm Websites,
• A list of Milestones in the History of Legal Research, and
• Law Firm Website Traffic Rankings (congratulations to Campbell Cohen, currently #1).

Genetics and the Law

Issues involving genetics can be found in many areas of the law, from employment discrimination to insurance to criminal procedure to international trade. If you're interested in this area, check out our newly updated guide, Genetics & the Law.

Researching professional responsibility

Professional responsibility is one subject that affects every law student. You'll have to pass a test in professional responsibility to become a member of the bar—and then you'll have to live by those rules throughout your career. To help you with this important area, we have a new guide listing resources, both national and Washington State.

Tribes and Tribal Law in Washington State

There are currently 29 federally-recognized tribes in Washington State.

The concept of tribal sovereignty is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, perhaps most famously in the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8): "Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshal fleshed out the legal concept of tribal sovereignty in the three seminal cases of Johnson v. M'Intosh (21 U.S. 543), Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, (30 U.S. 1), and Worcester v. Georgia (31 U.S. 515). Congress also protected the rights of federally-recognized tribes in the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. As "domestic dependent nations," many federally-recognized tribes have their own constitutions, codes, and courts.

Map of federally-recognized Washington State tribes (Washingtontribes.org):

New Titles in the Gallagher Law Library

The first 2016 installment of the bimonthly New Titles List is now available.

Noteworthy additions include:

Climate change and human rights: an international and comparative law perspective / Classified Stacks (K3585.5 .C5497 2016)

Dying with dignity: a legal approach to assisted death / Classified Stacks (K3611.E95 L67 2015)

Enduring conviction: Fred Korematsu and his quest for justice / Classified Stacks (KF228.K59 B36 2015)

The guide to U.S. legal analysis and communication / Reference Area (KF250 .M377 2015)

Public spaces, marketplaces, and the Constitution: shopping malls and the First Amendment /  Classified Stacks (KF4770 .M36 2015)

Check out these and other titles that have recently been added to the Library's collection.