[Jack Goldsmith and I will have an article out about the Dormant Commerce Clause, geolocation, and state regulations of Internet transactions in the Texas Law Review early next year, and I'm serializing it here. There is still plenty of time for editing, so we'd love to hear any recommendations you folks might have; in the meantime, you can read the entire PDF of the latest draft (though with some formatting glitches stemming from the editing process) here.]
We think that the economic significance of geographical differences has driven the development of increasingly sophisticated technologies that identify where an internet user is coming from, and that allow websites and other internet operations to treat users differently based on geography. These technologies today permeate internet operations.
Geographical identification and filtering technologies grew up so that internet firms could better serve consumers and businesses, and, more generally, could make the internet a more effective communications tool.[1] Many internet firms, and all major internet platforms, collect and use geographical information as a core element of their business models.[2] For example, the firms involved in Greater L.A. Agency and Online Merchants Guild—CNN and Amazon—collect masses of location data about their users so that they can provide geographically tailored information to those users.[3] Firms operating on the internet cherish this geographical data because relevant consumer preferences differ by geography, and the data enable firms to better deliver their content and services.
