Leading IT with Law
A revamped MSIT course prepares students for leadership opportunities by examining the relationship between IT and law.
Nov 11, 2022
The role information technology (IT) professionals play within organizations continues to increase, and a new course in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program examines that growing significance through a unique lens: the law.
The five-week class — “Law and Information Technology” — reflects the growing role IT professionals have at the intersection of technology and potentially thorny legal and ethical issues, said Daniel W. Linna Jr., senior lecturer and director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Pritzker School of Law.
Linna is teaching the course during the fall quarter.
“I want IT leaders to understand law because law comes up in many of the things they do,” Linna said. “They need to understand it to lead organizations.”
That’s the main goal of the course – to help develop IT professionals who are better equipped to lead their organizations, whether they are junior technologists or chief information officers. Working knowledge of the legal and ethical issues surrounding IT will enable MSIT graduates to be more valuable to their companies, Linna said.
“For a long time we’ve thought about the legal department inside an organization as the ones who think about compliance with law and ethical principles and things like that,” Linna said. “What legal departments need to do is empower people in the organization to help make good legal and ethical decisions. IT people can be very helpful in putting those systems into place. And IT people must also be a part of making good legal and ethical decisions, particularly as technology and data gathering, analytics, and AI play an ever-increasing role in organizations.”
One area of focus in the class will be data collection and privacy issues. Stories about legal and ethical challenges over user data dot the news landscape. A family safety app used by parents to track the whereabouts of their children was found to be selling the precise location data of its users. Information apps collect about the routes people drive to their choice of music can all be collected, and potentially distributed to outside companies and advertisers.
Thinking about that type of data and what happens to it will be a foundational part of the course.
“The key concept here is to get them thinking about personally identifiable information,” Linna said. “Are you collecting data that can be linked to an individual person? Social security numbers and email addresses are obvious examples, but it turns out that just a few pieces of seemingly innocuous information can make it possible to identify an individual, which gives rise to various legal obligations regarding the security and use of that data.”
The course also will focus on contract law. As agreements for software, cloud services, professional services, and other products and services continue to play a bigger role in the IT landscape, it's more important than ever for IT professionals to understand the details.
“They need to understand what’s in those contracts when they negotiate and before they sign them,” Linna said. “When they’re operating under those contracts, they need to understand their rights and obligations. A deeper understanding of contracts will also help IT professionals get better outcomes when they collaborate with attorneys.”
The course will be heavy on discussion to delve into the grays that so often fall between the ethical blacks and whites. Linna said he’s looking forward to the back-and-forth and the opportunity to work with students.
“One of the things that’s so exciting about this connection between computer science and law is the idea that law, to be successful in the future, requires a partnership with technologists,” he said. “I’m excited to interact with IT professionals who are interested in the law, who want to learn more about the law, and who are thinking about how their knowledge of the law can help make them more effective leaders.”
The five-week class — “Law and Information Technology” — reflects the growing role IT professionals have at the intersection of technology and potentially thorny legal and ethical issues, said Daniel W. Linna Jr., senior lecturer and director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Pritzker School of Law.
Linna is teaching the course during the fall quarter.
“I want IT leaders to understand law because law comes up in many of the things they do,” Linna said. “They need to understand it to lead organizations.”
That’s the main goal of the course – to help develop IT professionals who are better equipped to lead their organizations, whether they are junior technologists or chief information officers. Working knowledge of the legal and ethical issues surrounding IT will enable MSIT graduates to be more valuable to their companies, Linna said.
“For a long time we’ve thought about the legal department inside an organization as the ones who think about compliance with law and ethical principles and things like that,” Linna said. “What legal departments need to do is empower people in the organization to help make good legal and ethical decisions. IT people can be very helpful in putting those systems into place. And IT people must also be a part of making good legal and ethical decisions, particularly as technology and data gathering, analytics, and AI play an ever-increasing role in organizations.”
One area of focus in the class will be data collection and privacy issues. Stories about legal and ethical challenges over user data dot the news landscape. A family safety app used by parents to track the whereabouts of their children was found to be selling the precise location data of its users. Information apps collect about the routes people drive to their choice of music can all be collected, and potentially distributed to outside companies and advertisers.
Thinking about that type of data and what happens to it will be a foundational part of the course.
“The key concept here is to get them thinking about personally identifiable information,” Linna said. “Are you collecting data that can be linked to an individual person? Social security numbers and email addresses are obvious examples, but it turns out that just a few pieces of seemingly innocuous information can make it possible to identify an individual, which gives rise to various legal obligations regarding the security and use of that data.”
The course also will focus on contract law. As agreements for software, cloud services, professional services, and other products and services continue to play a bigger role in the IT landscape, it's more important than ever for IT professionals to understand the details.
“They need to understand what’s in those contracts when they negotiate and before they sign them,” Linna said. “When they’re operating under those contracts, they need to understand their rights and obligations. A deeper understanding of contracts will also help IT professionals get better outcomes when they collaborate with attorneys.”
The course will be heavy on discussion to delve into the grays that so often fall between the ethical blacks and whites. Linna said he’s looking forward to the back-and-forth and the opportunity to work with students.
“One of the things that’s so exciting about this connection between computer science and law is the idea that law, to be successful in the future, requires a partnership with technologists,” he said. “I’m excited to interact with IT professionals who are interested in the law, who want to learn more about the law, and who are thinking about how their knowledge of the law can help make them more effective leaders.”
