Dr. Block,

I recently found out that the university is planning on using the recordings from courses to send to prospective students. This includes the audio and video of the students participating in the class? Now a lot of fellow peers have expressed concerns about this because they don’t consent to having their audio/video shared with others. Especially since if they don’t consent, then they cannot participate in class sessions. While I understand that in the free society perspective there is no right to privacy, would this be considered a breach of contract because students consented to the rules and regulations of in-persons class, not virtual ones? Or would switching to virtual classes be an implicit contract? Curious to know what the free-market response would be for this?

Best,

-Alex Hernandez

Dear  Alex:

I don’t see any implicit contract here. I think that if the university wants to broadcast this to anyone except members of the class who were absent, or, who wanted to view it again, they would need to get permission of all. If they didn’t get permission, then, they should delete that students’ participation.

Best regards,

Walter

The Best of Walter E. Block