Woodrow Hartzog
Andrew R. Randall Professor of Law
Woodrow Hartzog is the Andrew R. Randall Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law, where he is a leading scholar of privacy law, data protection, and technology regulation. His book Privacy's Blueprint was the first to propose a comprehensive framework for regulating the design of digital technologies, and his co-authored book Breached! offers a path forward for data security law reform. He is a Faculty Associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and an Affiliate Scholar at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society. His work has been published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, and California Law Review.
Teaching Style
Professor Hartzog brings a design-thinking perspective to privacy and technology law, pushing students to consider how the architecture of technology systems shapes legal rights and user behavior. His Socratic method is conversational but probing, often asking students to evaluate whether existing legal frameworks are adequate for emerging technologies. He cold-calls regularly and encourages students to think creatively about regulatory approaches, drawing on real-world examples of data breaches, surveillance technologies, and platform design choices.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Stay current on major data breaches, privacy scandals, and technology regulation developments in the news
- 2Think about privacy not just as a legal concept but as a design problem, considering how technology architecture shapes user autonomy
- 3Be prepared to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing privacy frameworks like GDPR, state privacy laws, and the FTC Act
- 4Consider the perspectives of users, companies, and regulators when analyzing privacy and security issues
Areas of Expertise
Education
- Ph.D. in Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- LL.M., George Washington University Law School
- J.D., Samford University Cumberland School of Law
Notable Publications
- Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies (Harvard University Press, 2018)
- Breached!: Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve It (Oxford University Press, 2022, co-authored with Daniel Solove)