Overview

This course gives students an overview of the operation of Big Tech and related online and data services under Australian law, examining the business models, technical platforms, legal requirements and policy reasoning which influence how data uses and online services are regulated, and the sort of impacts which trigger calls … For more content click the Read More button below. It will consider the challenges arising from emerging technologies and data tools, and their impact on social life and cultural expression. It will approach this from the perspective of users of Big Tech services and their data, community members, creators and developers, and citizens and consumers, particularly the impact of social media and machine learning/ ‘AI’ tools for mass personalisation and automated decision-making. LAWS3533 is for certain law students (not LLB or JD). Main Topics are likely to include: how the online and Big Tech data environment is both similar to and different from the physical world, from a regulatory perspectivebrief intro to how laws are made, changed, interpreted and enforced; how court judgments are constructed, and arguments won or lost; and the role of ethical factors in regulatory analysisanalysing the legal issues involved in problems and conflicts encountered in social, commercial, administrative or cultural scenarios with Big Tech and data analytic servicesconflict of Big Tech’s cult of "Disruption" or "Forgiveness not Permission" with the rule of lawhow to properly characterise ostensibly novel developments such as blockchain, ‘Web3’, NFTs and ‘crypto’, or whatever becomes ‘the new, new thing’implications of different countries and jurisdictions having their own national laws, while Big Data services cover the world and can be hosted anywhereoptions for dealing with disputes and abuses involving Big Tech services and AI, whether between individuals, businesses, or the Big Data ‘platforms’; how to choose amongst these optionsissues around ‘Open data’, ‘Big Data’ and their use in machine learning and artificial intelligencerationales and challenges for content restriction on Big Tech ‘platforms’, including defamation, harassment, vilification/‘hate speech’, revenge porn, misinformation, and classification and censorshiplaws on digital surveillance, online biometric identification, cryptographic tools, communications interception, hacking, tracking and autonomous targeting by states and ‘state actors’

Conditions for Enrolment

Prerequisite: Restricted to students enrolled in Legal Studies LEGLB24053 or an approved exchange program. Students enrolled in UNSW Law programs are excluded from this course.

Delivery

Fully online - Standard (usually weekly or fortnightly)
Fully online - Intensive

Fees

Pre-2019 Handbook Editions

Access past handbook editions (2018 and prior)