POL S 405 B: Advanced Seminar in American Politics: LAW AND ETHICS OF DATA AND TECHNOLOGY

POL S 405 B: Law and Ethics of Data and Technology

Spring Quarter 2026

Professor Brie McLemore | email: bmclem@uw.edu

Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30 - 4:20 p.m. | Clark Hall 316

Office Hours: Wednesdays from 12pm to 2pm, by appointment (https://calendly.com/bmclem-uw/officehours)

Office: Gowen Hall 25

Course Description

The last few decades have been marked by the conspicuous rise of technologies, algorithms, and databases, which have accumulated unprecedented amounts of data tracking all aspects of human life. This occurrence, often referred to as “mass surveillance,” has been facilitated by what is often characterized as a failure on the part of United States governance to impose comprehensive regulations of interconnected and data-driven technologies. Limited court rulings and legislation, as well as the state’s deference to corporate power, have evoked declarations from lawyers, activists, academics, and even politicians that privacy, as we know it, is dead. As government agencies and their corporate partners continue to strengthen and weaponize surveillance infrastructure to target immigrants, political dissidents, and journalists, questions regarding privacy and regulation are pertinent now more than ever.

This research seminar is designed for students who want to develop analytical research skills to interrogate the intersection between law, surveillance, and technology. We will incorporate legal theories and empirical methods in order to analyze the regulatory landscape of mass-surveillance technologies, how it has evolved over time, and the promises and limitations of such attempts. Along the way, we will ask: What is a “regulation” and what constitutes “surveillance”? Who is presumed to be responsible for adopting, conceptualizing, and implementing regulations pertaining to surveillance technologies? Under what circumstances are certain regulations adopted and not others? How (or can) regulations contend with the large breadth of surveillance technologies and the global actors deploying and developing them? What are the intended and unintended consequences of regulatory attempts? And, most critically, what is (or should be) the relationship between technology and the law?

While this course will have a particular focus on the regulatory regime of the United States, there will be some engagement with international laws, particularly as they clash with or compliment domestic policies.

This course will be divided into two parts. For the first half of the quarter, we will engage with socio-legal scholarship detailing the current state of court cases and statutes pertaining to surveillance technologies, with particular emphasis on how regulators understand the function and risks of technology, and the role of the law as a mitigating factor. We will also engage with empirical research on the legal mobilization strategies adopted by privacy proponents to push for such regulations. This will entail an historical analysis to contend with how evolutions in both technologies and constitutional rights have shaped the current limitations in safeguarding privacy. 

This theoretical framework will facilitate the second half of the course, in which students will work collaboratively to develop a database consisting of regulatory documents, such as judicial decisions, amicus briefs, statutes, ordinances, corporate privacy policies, policy briefs, executive orders, etc. This database will then inform students’ original research projects, which will entail developing research questions and identifying themes and patterns. This research will culminate in a final group paper interrogating the regulatory approaches to a surveillance technology of your choosing. 

Course Objectives

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to:  

• Read, comprehend, and synthesize regulatory documents (i.e., court rulings, legal and policy briefs, statutes, ordinances, executive orders, international data protection laws, and corporate privacy policies) 
• Evaluate the gap between the aims of such regulatory attempts and their actual impact, with a particular focus on implementation
• Contextualize contemporary regulatory efforts within the broader historical construction of the American legal and political landscape 
• Identify the consequences of “big data” for individuals and social groups 
• Differentiate and critique the particular ramifications of surveillance for vulnerable groups

Assignments

• Participation

Students are expected to come to class fully prepared to engage with the course material by asking pertinent questions, offering critically-informed commentary, and responding to the insights of your peers. If you miss class, please prepare a 250-word response to the week’s readings, which you can send to me via email in order to receive participation credit.

• Discussant-Presenter Assignment

Students will work in groups of 2-3 to lead one of the class discussions during the quarter. Discussants will develop questions based on the readings to guide the seminar, make connections to the larger themes of the course, historically contextualize the class content and social movements pertaining to the week, and discuss the contemporary implications for law, society, and politics. Discussants will also be tasked with incorporating the response papers for each week. Students will sign-up for the course they would like to serve as a discussant for during the first week of class.

Rubric for Discussant-Presenter Assignment:

• Students provide a concise and accurate description for each of the week’s course materials, which should include the key argument(s), important research concepts/definitions, and the author’s intervention to the field (i.e. what are they saying that is different than what’s been said before?) (3 points)
• Students develop at least 2 questions to pose to the class for each of the week’s readings (3 points)
• If applicable, students incorporate the reading responses of their peers into the class discussion (3 points)
• Students identify at least 2 themes from the course that connect across all of the readings (for example, do the authors express similar concerns regarding privacy and surveillance? Are the materials speaking about the same regulatory body and, if so, what does this reveal about the limits and possibilities of said regulators?) (3 points)
• Students make at least one connection to a previous week’s readings (ex. Did an author from a previous week express a critique or concern that a reading in this week addresses? Do the materials from this week challenge an assumption or assertion from a previous week’s readings?) (3 points)

• Response Paper

Students will upload one response paper (no more than 500 words) throughout the quarter for a week of their choosing. The papers should be uploaded to Canvas to share with all class members by 12pm on the day before class. These response papers should incorporate interesting takeaways, critiques, strengths and weaknesses of the proposed arguments, and/or outstanding questions regarding the course materials. Response papers should not summarize the readings, but instead focus on a specific topic or idea either from a specific reading or across all of the readings assigned for the week. These response papers should also address the overarching questions for the module of the course in which they are assigned, which are outlined below. Students are also invited to connect readings to previous materials from the course, as well as current events. All students are expected to read the submitted response papers in preparation for class. I, as well as the presenters for the week, will incorporate these response papers into the class discussion. 

• Data Collection Exercise

Students will be tasked with identifying two regulatory documents, which will be uploaded to Canvas by May 11th at 11:59pm. The identified regulations could, but do not have to, pertain to the technology you will be discussing for your final paper. This can include a privacy policy from a corporation, a local surveillance ordinance, a state law, or a court case pertaining to surveillance. For each regulatory document, students will provide a brief memo identifying: the specific regulatory agency (ex. A corporation or government agency), what they are regulating (such as a specific technology or type of data), and how they propose to regulate. Students should come to class prepared to discuss their regulatory documents with their peers. 

• Final Project

For your final, you will work in groups of 4 to write a 15-20 page double-spaced (Times New Romans 12 point font with 1-inch margins) research paper exploring the complicated relationship between technology, surveillance, and the law. You will first choose a technology that you think raises serious concerns for privacy rights, describing what these concerns are and who has been (or could be) most directly impacted. 

You will then identify two existing regulations that directly pertain to your technology or you think could potentially address your technology. This could include a law at the local, state, or federal level, a decided or pending court case (can be a Supreme Court case, as well as cases from a state, federal, or district court), and/or the privacy policy from the corporation that developed the technology.

Your paper should detail: 

1. How each regulation is or could be effective in curtailing the surveillance possibilities of this technology
2. The limitations of each regulation in addressing the surveillance concerns you have raised
3. A potential concern and a potential benefit of having numerous regulations functioning simultaneously 
4. Which, of the two regulations identified, do you think is most effective for addressing these surveillance concerns and why

You will then provide one recommendation for how each regulation can be strengthened to better address the surveillance concerns you have identified (so two recommendations in total). You will then apply one of the principles from the readings in the “Alternative Approaches” week (7) to conceptualize a new approach to regulation, detailing how this could improve on the existing regulatory gaps you have already identified.

Students can decide to either work on a particular section of the paper separately (but make sure there’s cohesion throughout!) or work on the entire paper collectively. You will be provided time in class to work on the final projects, but most of the work will be done outside of class. Please email me your proposed groups of 4 by April 20th (if you do not identify a group, you will be randomly assigned).

Students will upload their final papers to Canvas by June 9th at 11:59pm. A more detailed rubric will be shared before week 4 of the quarter.

• Final Paper Proposal and Literature Review

The final paper will use the “scaffolding” method, so students will have smaller assignments due throughout the quarter as follows:

• Intro paragraph identifying the technology you propose to study and the regulations you will analyze [Due by May 4th at 11:59pm on Canvas]
• Literature review (one page, double-spaced) identifying two readings from the course that you will use in your paper and why they are most pertinent to your research topic [Due by May 18th at 11:59pm on Canvas]

Lastly, each student will be required to complete a rubric and submit a grade (anonymously) for each of their group members. Your final grade will be partially based on the average grade you receive from your teammates!

Grade Break-Down

Course Guidelines and Policies

Late Assignments

Given the brevity of the quarter system and that the assignments are designed to build off of one another, submitting assignments by the stated due date is essential for success in this course. If you suspect you will not be able to meet a course deadline, please reach out to me and in the case of a group project, the rest of your team, immediately. Late assignments without prior approval from the instructor will not be accepted.

Academic Misconduct

The University takes academic integrity very seriously. Behaving with integrity is part of our responsibility to our shared learning community. 

Acts of academic misconduct may include but are not limited to:

• Cheating (the acquisition, use, or distribution of unpublished materials created by another
  student without the express permission of the original author(s), working collaboratively on assignments and discussion submissions without the expressed approval from the instructor)
• Plagiarism (representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s))
• Multiple submissions of the same work in separate courses without the express
  permission of the instructor(s).

Use of ChatGPT (or other AI-based Tools that generate text) is strictly prohibited in this course and will be treated as an act of academic misconduct.

All cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the Arts and Sciences Committee on Academic Conduct and students may receive a zero grade for the assignment in question.

If you are uncertain about what constitutes academic misconduct, please feel free to consult with me prior to submitting an assignment.

Accommodations

Your experience in this class is important, and it is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. Disability Resources for Students (DRS) offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so we can discuss how they will be implemented in this course. If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (including, but not limited to, mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924, Mary Gates Hall 011, or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu.

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or  for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to  request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/).  Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious accommodations-request/).

Course Structure

Here is a breakdown of the course topics and their corresponding questions we will  be addressing throughout the quarter: 

Module 1: Introduction to Surveillance (Weeks 1-3)

• How do we define surveillance?
• What are the potential consequences of surveillance?
• What are the presumed purposes of surveillance?
• How do we define privacy?
• Why is privacy important?
• What is the relationship between privacy and surveillance?

Module 2: The Rise of Mass-Surveillance and the Evolution of Privacy Rights (Weeks 4-5)

• How has surveillance and privacy rights transformed in the 21st-century and under what conditions did these evolutions occur?

• How have the historical origins of privacy rights shaped the law’s ability to address surveillance in the present-day?

• What are the limits of privacy rights in the present day and what are the consequences of these gaps?
• How are different people and communities impacted by mass-surveillance and how have the founding principles of privacy rights afforded and/or curtailed these inequitable consequences?

Module 3: Evolving Regulations and Regulators (Weeks 6 and 7)

• What institutions, organizations, and individuals partake in both surveillance and regulatory efforts in the modern-day?
• What do surveillance reform efforts aim (or promise) to achieve?
• How do different regulatory agents compare in their tactics, goals, and capabilities?
• What are the implications, pros, and potential cons of having various regulations from different regulatory bodies?

Module 4: Alternative Approaches (Week 8 and 9)

• What role could/should the law play in addressing surveillance?
• What are some alternative approaches to regulating surveillance technologies and who could be directing and implementing such efforts?
• How can technology be transformed if those historically subjected to surveillance are instead treated as agents?
• What are the benefits of technology and who gets to enjoy them?
• How can regulatory efforts balance the potential benefits and consequences of technology?
• What would an alternative approach to regulation look like in practice and how would it remedy or exacerbate the existing limitations of regulatory efforts?

Module 5: Privacy on the Horizon (Week 10)

• How can we identify potential threats to privacy rights as they arise and the consequences of surveillance? 
• What existing regulations may or may not pertain to new surveillance technologies?
• How can we preemptively evaluate and critique how the current regulatory landscape might contend with emerging privacy threats?

Course breakdown: