CSU Law Library Blog

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently proposed “a change from time-based deferrals to assessing blood donor eligibility using gender-inclusive, individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV.”  The draft recommendations are based on FDA’s review of “data from other countries with similar HIV epidemiology that have instituted this approach as well as ongoing surveillance of the U.S. blood supply.”  Proposed guidance changes include revising the donor history questionnaire to ask prospective donors about new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months, and the deferral of prospective donors who have had anal sex with new or multiple sexual partners in the past three months.  There is no proposed change to donor deferral time periods for other HIV risk factors (eg, non-prescription injection drug use), individuals who have tested positive for HIV or taken medication to treat HIV will continue to be deferred permanently, and blood establishments will still be required to test all blood donations for transfusion-transmitted infections (eg, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C).  The FDA will receive comments on the proposed guidance until March 31, 2023 (see 88 Fed. Reg. 5894, 1/30/2023).  For more information on current questionnaires, see the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies Blood Donor History Questionnaires page.

If you need help with a paper, or other research project, the law library offers scheduled Research Consultations. Let us know what you have already completed and what areas you need help with, and a librarian will assist with finding resources and information. Most research consultations are approximately 30 minutes in length, depending on need.

The library also has several research guides designed to assist you in starting your research: Scholarly Writing, Finding Articles in Law Reviews and Journals, Bluebooking and Legal Writing Software, Research Databases, and Citation Checking.

The ABA Rules of Professional Conduct, Model Rule 1.1 Comment 8 requires, “To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer shall keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” To that end, we have developed this regular series to develop the competence and skills necessary to responsibly choose and use the best technologies for your educational and professional lives. If you have any questions, concerns, or topics you would like to see discussed, please reach out to e.koltonski@csuohio.edu.

This is the second of a two-part discussion about cookies that got slightly delayed. If you need a refresh on part one or if you missed it, which is totally fine (I understand), you can follow this link.

As we discussed last time in our pre-holiday chat, cookies are tiny bits of code that are stored by your web browser and serves good and bad functions on a website. A good cookie is one where a website remembers that you already logged in when you move from page-to-page. Who wants to have to login every time you go from a home page to an article? Bad cookies are things like third-party trackers, which collect and transmit data about your online session that is packaged and sold to businesses. Obviously, if you care about your privacy online than this is pretty awful.

But what can I do about this?

Also as we chatted about previously, you now have a lot of control over whether you want to accept cookies from a website or not. See how this is all coming full circle? Since we have some control over accepting cookies and if we care about our privacy at all (Nobody but me needs to know how many times a day I look at new sweaters online!), then we should learn some practical ways to protect ourselves.

Your browser and you.

First, most browsers provide ‘private’ or ‘incognito’ browsing modes. We could have a very long talk about how these modes work versus how we think they work. If only I had somewhere to discuss technology topics. Anyway, when it comes to cookies during private browsing what we need to know is that your browser will typically still store cookies, though the browser will delete them after you exit private browsing.

I know. This sounds like a lot of work.

There are other options, luckily. There are several great resources that explain cookies and show you how to adjust the privacy settings of your web browser. The link that I sneakily snuck into the last sentence has instruction for the most popular browsers. The benefit of doing this is that you get to “set it and forget it;” however, it possible that stricter privacy settings may make websites not function properly.

A website and you.

The other option you have comes when you visit most websites. They will often provide a warning that the site uses cookies and most give you the option of what cookies you’re willing to accept. An example of this is found on the ABA website.

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You can then choose to accept all cookies or to set your preferences. If our privacy-minded selves chose the latter, you will be taken to a new page that will explain the purpose of different cookies and let you turn some off. It’s pretty uncommon for a site to allow you to block them all.

Can software save us?

Sure, software can do almost anything. There are lots of resources to find out about privacy software and, while I usually don’t like to recommend specific software, I’m going to go ahead and break that rule. uBlock Origin is a great tool for blocking cookies, along with ads and other content. It’s opensource, free, and available as an extension or add-on for the most used browsers. uBlock is also great because it is user-friendly but also provides a huge amount of options and controls if you are looking for that.

A TLDR conclusion.

Electronic cookies are a lot like the cookies we eat:

Some are good.

Some are bad.

Life isn’t as good if you cut them out completely but you still want to moderate them.

For Space Law related materials, check out the HeinOnline’s   Air and Space Law database.  This database “covers the multitude of ways humans interact with and explore the earthly skies and distant reaches of outer space.”  Topics include “the role of aviation in an interconnected global economy”; aviation’s “function as a means of travel, airline deregulation, passenger screening protocols, administrative bodies and more”; and “the advances in and impact of space exploration in day-to-day technologies, from the 20th century’s race to the moon, space shuttle disasters, proliferation of satellites, and the increasing numbers of commercial entities and their stakes in outer space.”  Database materials include books, periodicals, scholarly articles, US Code Title 51, selected US Public Law legislative histories, US Congressional Committee prints and hearings, US Code of Federal Regulations Title 14, Congressional Research Service Reports, US Government Accountability Office Reports, as well as links to selected organizational websites and research guides (such as the CSU Law Library’s Space Law Research Guide).  As with all HeinOnline databases, access to the Air and Space Law database is available off campus with a CSU ID and PIN.

The CSU|LAW Library Center for Health Law & Policy Guide provides information on, and links to, scores of resources concerning general health law, bioethics, Medicare/Medicaid law, and public health law.  The Guide covers key Federal and Ohio legislation and regulations, as well as numerous secondary sources, including study aids, books, and journals & blogs.  The Guide also covers key web sites of government entities and nonprofit, academic, and professional organizations, which provide access to a wealth of primary and secondary resources.  Researchers will also be interested in the Guide’s databases information, which covers several key interdisciplinary databases, such as PubMed.