Examining the Fourth Amendment and Biometric Data Privacy Law Implications of NCAA Athletes' Mandated Use of Athlete Biometric Data Tracking Devices

Authors

• Alicia Jessop, Pepperdine University

Abstract

This Article presents the first in-depth analysis of the privacy law implications, under both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and individual states' biometric data privacy laws, resulting from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions mandating that athletes wear athlete biometric data (ABD) tracking devices. The Article provides the NCAA' and its member institutions, athletes, and Congress with recommendations of how to respond to the privacy law concerns that exist in a period of expanded ABD collection, use, and storage. Part I discusses the growing practice of athletics departments requiring intercollegiate athletes to wear ABD tracking devices. Part II explains how public university athletics departments violate the Fourth Amendment's trespass test when mandating that athletes wear ABD tracking devices. Part III analyzes how this practice violates the Fourth Amendment's reasonable expectation of privacy test. Part IV explains that college athletes likely do not consent to the search of their person that results when they are mandated to wear ABD tracking devices. Part V examines state and federal statutes regulating biometric data privacy and outlines potential legal issues for athletics departments in this realm. Part VI provides policy suggestions that should be adopted by the NCAA and its member institutions, athletes, and Congress to respond to the competing interests between athletics departments and athletes in gathering biometric data and protecting privacy rights.

Disciplines

Education Law | Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law | First Amendment | Intellectual Property Law | Law | Science and Technology Law

Recommended Citation

Alicia Jessop, Examining the Fourth Amendment and Biometric Data Privacy Law Implications of NCAA Athletes' Mandated Use of Athlete Biometric Data Tracking Devices, 40 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 81 (2022).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cardozoaelj/vol40/iss1/5