Jim Dempsey

Jim Dempsey is the Executive Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and formerly held leadership roles at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Jim Dempsey provided one of the inaugural podcasts of the ADCG series and discussed the lengthy and unsuccessful attempts to enact a federal privacy law. In light of the EU GDPR, California’s passage of the CCPA, and the EU Court of Justice invalidating the US Privacy Shield, he ponders whether the U.S. needs a federal privacy law and what that might look like. The discussion covers likely stumbling blocks to a federal privacy law, such as preemption of state law and a private right of action, similar to that provided in the CCPA. As a professor of cybersecurity issues at UC Berkeley, Jim also explores the potential cybersecurity aspects of privacy legislation and the role cybersecurity requirements have played in breach notification laws.