Overview
My research and teaching expertise lies at the intersection of law, technology, and human rights, with an emphasis on emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and automation, as well as interdisciplinary and empirical methods. In this context, my research often explores the privacy, security, and safety dimensions of these technologies and their implications for law, policy, and human rights.
Books
Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2025)
Articles / Conference Papers
Moving from Secrecy to Transparency in the Offensive Cyber Capabilities Sector (with Siena Anstis and Niamh Leonard) (in progress)
Understanding Chilling Effects, 106 Minnesota Law Review (forthcoming, 2022)
Platforms, Encryption, and the CFAA: The Case of WhatsApp v NSO Group (with Bruce Schneier), Berkeley Technology Law Journal (forthcoming 2022)
Ethical Testing in the Real World: Evaluating Physical Testing of Adversarial Machine Learning (with Kendra Albert, Maggie Delano, Afsaneh Rigot, and Ram Shankar), 2020 Workshop on Dataset Curation and Security // 2020 Workshop on Navigating the Broader Impacts of AI Research, Proceedings of the 34th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2020)
The Legal Risks of Adversarial Machine Learning (with Kendra Albert, Bruce Schneier, and Ram Shankar), 2020 Workshop on Law & Machine Learning, International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2020)
The Politics of Adversarial Machine Learning (with Kendra Albert, Bruce Schneier, and Ram Shankar), Towards Trustworthy ML: Rethinking Security and Privacy for ML Workshop, Eighth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR 2020)
When Law Frees Us To Speak (with Danielle Citron) (2019) 87 Fordham Law Review 2317
Privacy and Legal Automation: The DMCA as a Case Study, (2019) 22 Stanford Technology Law Review 412
Chilling Effects and Transatlantic Privacy (2019) 25(2) European Law Journal 122.
Internet Surveillance, Regulation, and Chilling Effects Online: A Comparative Case Study, (2017) 6(2) Internet Policy Review
Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use, (2016) 31 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 117
The Cycles of Global Telecommunication Censorship and Surveillance, (2015) 35 University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 693
Internet Access Rights: A Brief History and Intellectual Origins (2011) 38 William Mitchell Law Review 10
Ivan Rand’s Ancient Constitutionalism, Ivan C. Rand at the Supreme Court of Canada, 1943-1959 (DeLloyd Guth & John McEvoy, eds., 2010); 61 UNB Law Journal 43; (2010) 34 Manitoba Law Journal 43
Privacy and the New Virtualism (2008) 10 Yale Journal of Law & Technology 194
Essays / Reports / Contributions / Working Papers
Media Manipulation, Memetic Campaigns, and the 2019 Canadian Elections (with Joan Donovan, Vanessa Rhinesmith, Brian Friedberg, and Nicole Leaver) in Understanding the Digital Ecosystem Findings from the 2019 Federal Election, Elizabeth Dubois & Taylor Owen, eds. (Gov. of Canada / McGill University, 2020)
Protecting Information Consumers in Models for Platform Governance (CIGI Essay Series) (Taylor Owen and Ben Scott eds., 2019), Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).
Trudeau’s Blackface: The Chilling Effects of Disinformation on Political Engagement (with Joan Donovan, Brian Friedberg, and Nicole Leaver), Nieman Reports, October 3 2019
Planet Netsweeper (co-authored) Citizen Lab Report, Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, March 2018
Zeran v AOL’s Chilling Effect Claims in Zeran v America Online 20 Years Later: A Compendium (Eric Goldman and Jeff Kossoff, eds, 2020)
Children and Cyberwar: Victimization and Protection in Dustin Johnson, ed, Allons-Y: Theory Into Action, vol 2 (The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, August 2017).
Can Cyber-Harassment Laws Encourage Online Speech? in Harmful Speech Online: At the Intersection of Algorithms and Human Behavior, Berkman Klein Center Research Publication/Report, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, 2017
Warrant Canaries Beyond the First Amendment in Internet Monitor 2014: Reflections on the Digital World: Platforms, Policy, Privacy, and Public Discourse, Berkman Klein Center Research Publication/Report, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, 2014
Code is Law, But Law is Increasingly Determining the Ethics of Code in Internet Monitor 2014: Reflections on the Digital World: Platforms, Policy, Privacy, and Public Discourse, Berkman Klein Center Research Publication/Report, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, 2014
Communications Disruption and Censorship Under International Law; History Lessons, Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) Working Paper No. 9, USENIX Security Symposium, Advanced Computing Systems Association (ACSA), Bellevue, Washington, 2012
Doctoral Dissertation
Chilling Effects in the Internet Age: Three Case Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford (Balliol College). Successfully defended 2015; finalized 2016
My interdisciplinary doctoral thesis examined regulatory chilling effects online via three empirical legal case studies, including including surveillance, online regulations, and automated legal enforcement. In examining the privacy and other human rights impacts of different regulatory responses to technology, it connects my two primary areas of focus: privacy and legal and regulatory issues in technology.
Submissions to Government/International Organizations
Submission of the Citizens and Technology (CAT) Lab (Department of Communications, Cornell University) to the United States Copyright Office, U.S .Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., (co authored with Nathan Matias and Lucas Wright) re Notice of InquiryTechnical Measures Public Consultations [ Docket No. 2021–10 ][ Federal Reg. No: 2021-27705 ], CAT Lab, Department of Communications, Cornell University), February 4, 2022
Submission of the Citizen Lab (Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto) to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (co authored with Ron Deibert, Siena Anstis, Émilie LaFlèche), Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, June 2022
Submission of the Citizen Lab to the Government of Canada on the Renewal of the Responsible Business Conduct Strategy (co authored with Siena Anstis, Sophie Barnett, Ron Deibert, Lex Gill, RJ Reid and Adam Senft), Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, October 2020.
Submission of the Citizen Lab to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression on the Surveillance Industry and Human Rights (co-authored with Siena Anstis, Siena and Ronald J. Deibert) Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, October 2019.
Commentary / Op-Eds
Canadian technology is being used to thwart human rights overseas — but there are solutions (with Siena Anstis and Sophie Barnett), Toronto Star, November 1, 2020
(Mis)Conceptions about the Impact of Surveillance, Freedom to Tinker Blog, Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Princeton University, February 14, 2018
Whose Speech Is Chilled by Surveillance?, Slate Magazine (Online), July 11, 2017
How Surveillance Harms, Policy Options Magazine, December 12, 2016, Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Montreal, QC
American Lessons for Bill C-51, Policy Options Magazine (May-June, 2015), Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Montreal, QC
Harper’s Charter Activism, Policy Options Magazine, March 13, 2016, Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Montreal, QC
How Laws Are Increasingly Determining the Ethics of Code, Slate Magazine, January 9, 2015
Doomed to Rely on the Mask, Policy Options Magazine , May-June, 2014) Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Montreal, QC
Forget CSIS: It’s the Political Parties that Own Our Privacy, Toronto Star, March 17, 2014
Fighting Surveillance: What Canadian Companies Can Do, Citizen Lab (Blog), Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, February 13, 2014
Deleting Revenge Porn, Policy Options Magazine , (Nov-Dec 2013), Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Montreal, QC
Watching the Watchers: A Role for the ITU in the Internet Age, Cyberdialogue Blog, March 5, 2013, University of Toronto
Outsourcing Cyberwar, The Future of Fighting and How the Canadian Military Must Adapt: Strategic Studies Working Group, Canadian International Council & Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, May 25, 2012
Ignatieff and Every Expat’s Gamble, The Tyee, November 30, 2009
Countering the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Computer World (NZ), November 27, 2009
Jonathon W. Penney 