Top U.S. magazine journalist and renowned legal scholar, Jeffrey Rosen, delivered the 4th Annual Osler Hoskin & Harcourt Lecture, "The Naked Crowd: Balancing Prof. Jeffrey RosenPrivacy and Security through Law and Technology." On September 29, 2004, Professor Rosen of the George Washington University Law School described how US authorities are collecting massive amounts of personal data and discussed the impact this is having on privacy. He argued that some of the techniques used are far too invasive, and should only be used for the most serious of offences. As an example, Prof. Rosen pointed to an airport surveillance monitor in the US called the 'Naked Machine' that helps airport screeners check for concealed firearms. The machine projects a naked image of airline passengers onto a screen, a clear invasion to passengers' privacy. After a public outcry, this machine was re-designed into what Prof. Rosen called a 'blob machine.' Images of the naked individual are scrambled and then projected onto a computer-generated mannequin. This way, passengers' privacy is protected but airport screeners can check for concealed firearms. The themes of technology and privacy are further explored in his latest book, The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age.

Jeffrey Rosen is a professor of law at George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic. He new book, The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age, was called "wide ranging and thoughtful" by the New Yorker. His first book was The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America, which The New York Times called "the definitive text on privacy perils in the digital age." Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College, summa cum laude; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. His essays and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, National Public Radio, and The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer. The Chicago Tribune recently named him one of the ten best magazine journalists in America.