Mac Rumors,
Tue 04/05:
Apple CEO Tim Cook to Speak at Global Privacy Summit in Washington D.C. Next Week
The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) today announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook will headline this year's Global Privacy Summit, which will take place in person on April 11 to April 13 in Washington, D.C.
Cook will provide the conference's keynote speech on April 12 at approximately 9:15 a.m. Eastern Time. The annual Global Privacy Summit focuses on international privacy and data protection in practice, policy, and strategy, according to the IAPP, a not-for-profit organization that has a mission of promoting and improving the privacy profession globally.
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macrumors.com/../tim-cook-to-speak..
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EFF,
Mon 04/04:
The NDO Fairness Act Is an Important Step Towards Transparency
The First Amendment guarantees the right to speak your own involvement about court proceedings. And the legislation puts in place important measures to ensure greater transparency around the government’s use of these secretive orders, both for targeted individuals and the larger public, including by requiring the government to notify targets of surveillance that their communications were intercepted and to publish an annual report that provides information about the use of surveillance under Section 2703. These reforms are a welcome step forward in reforming the secrecy surrounding electronic surveillance and bringing the Stored Communications Act closer in line with constitutional guarantees.
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eff.org/../ndo-fairness-act-import..
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EFF,
Fri 04/01:
California: Speak Up For Biometric and Student Privacy
That’s why EFF is proud to sponsor two bills in this year’s legislature—both with the co-sponsorship of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse—that would strengthen privacy protections in the state. These bills are focused on two particularly pernicious forms of data collection. This is the same type of provision that allowed Facebook users in Illinois to take the company to task for collecting their faceprints without permission. That case ended in a $650 million settlement for Illinois’ Facebook users. This simple bill gives those directly harmed by privacy violations—test takers—the opportunity to protect their data and privacy. Take Action
Speak up for California Student Privacy
If you believe that companies should have limits on the information they collect and that people should have ways to hold them accountable, please tell the California Senate Judiciary Committee to vote “yes” on S.B. 1189 and S.B. 1172.
Read full article here:
eff.org/../california-speak-biomet..
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news.bloomberglaw.com,
Fri 04/01:
Alphabet Inc. ‘s Google must face a lawsuit from parents in Illinois who claim that the company’s educational technology tools invaded their children’s privacy by collecting data on their faces and voices. But Darrow wasn’t sure if the same could be said for another state law, the Illinois Student Online Personal Protection Act, which requires edtech providers to enter into agreements with schools concerning student data collection.
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news.bloomberglaw.com/../googles-e..
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penncapital-star.com,
Fri 04/01:
Now a defender of personal freedom, Mastriano wanted to lift privacy rules in pandemic’s early days
In March 2020, Doug Mastriano was a back-bench Republican state senator who was a year into his first term after winning a central Pennsylvania special election. In a series of press releases, legislative memos and interviews throughout March 2020, Mastriano proposed the state and the federal government roll back medical privacy protections for COVID-19 patients. Doctors and employers typically cannot disclose medical information to anyone other than the patient without their consent under a mix of federal laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, popularly known as HIPAA. “We have to protect their privacy, but when it comes to a contagious disease, we should be able to know, ‘yes, this person had it,’ and so then the word will go out if I’ve had contact with him or her,” Mastriano told ABC-27 in Harrisburg at the time. Researchers, as well as Mastriano’s opponents, have pointed out that this stance on medical privacy is, at best, off base, and at worst, dangerous. “Directing the government to broadcast the personal medical information of private citizens is a dangerous idea that should never even be considered,” Tim Murtaugh, an advisor to gubernatorial rival Lou Barletta, said in a statement to the Capital-Star. At the time of the interview, the staffer didn’t have a result. The current disease control law “allows the Health Department to keep records and reports of contagious diseases strictly confidential. Many of these statements also were no longer on Mastriano’s official state website as of March 2022. “We have to give people safe spaces to be tested and treated without our neighbors peeking in the windows,” she said. The suspension applied not just to COVID-19 cases, but to anyone seeking treatment. And even in that small span of time, Dixon noted, people were hurt by revoking HIPAA. But at the rally, Mastriano’s embrace of his new identity as a warrior for personal freedom appeared complete.
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penncapital-star.com/../now-a-defe..
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Privacy International,
Fri 04/01:
UK Government acknowledges past violations of individuals’ rights and the fight continues...
The UK government has acknowledged that section 8(4) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (“RIPA”) (which has since been repealed) violated Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In relation to Article 10, it specifically acknowledged that the way in which security agencies handled confidential journalistic material violated fundamental rights protected by Article 10. As part of a friendly settlement with two applicants, the UK government acknowledged that section 8(4) of the previous investigatory powers regime was not compliant with Article 8 of the Convention, and in relation to the treatment of confidential journalistic material, Article 10 of the Convention, for the reasons identified by the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber in the leading case Big Brother Watch and others v. the United Kingdom on 25 May 2021. This is an important development as the UK government has previously been reluctant to admit this.
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privacyinternational.org/../uk-gov..
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datanami.com,
Thu 03/31:
New Data Regulation Agency Starts to Take Shape in California
California state officials are in the process of hiring executives and staff members to work at the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), the new state agency that is tasked with regulating data privacy starting in January 2023. Soltani is also one of the principal architects of both CPRA and CCPA, according to the bio on Soltani’s website. In lieu of a federal data privacy law, consumers will look to state laws for protection from data abuses. However, only a handful of states have passed data privacy laws at this point.
Read full article here:
datanami.com/../new-data-regulatio..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/31:
Adults or Sexually Abused Minors? Getting It Right Vexes Facebook
Legal and tech policy experts said that social media companies had a difficult path to navigate. In interviews, four former content moderators contracted by Meta said they encountered sexual images every day that were subject to the age policy. “They were letting so many things slide that we eventually just didn’t bring things up anymore,” said one of the former moderators, who described detecting images of oral sexual abuse and other explicit acts during his recent two-year tenure at Accenture. “
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nytimes.com/../meta-child-sexual-a..
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EFF,
Thu 03/31:
Colombian ISPs Show Steady Commitments to User Privacy But Key Transparency Gaps Remain
Colombia’s top internet and cell phone companies continued to maintain a high level of transparency about their privacy practices, and continued to implement best practices to protect customer data, free expression, and security in 2021. Today’s report is Karisma’s seventh annual ¿Dónde Estan Mis Datos? As in prior years, Karisma looked at whether companies’ transparency reports provide detailed information about government requests for user data and content blocking, how strong their data protection policies are, and whether they adequately disclose content blocking practices and data breaches. ETB scored 8 points, DirectTV earned 7 points, Hughesnet and Emcali each earned 5 points, while Skynet earned 3. In new evaluation categories added to assess companies’ policies regarding net neutrality and government interception of communications, the results were mixed. Movistar, Tigo, Avantel and Hughesnet were the standouts in these categories, each earning points for publishing their traffic management practices and publicly committing to protect net neutrality. Karisma also added new categories to document a highly controversial and constitutionally questionable surveillance practice that has come to light. Movistar, Tigo and Avantel are the only companies that have a protocol and documentation for data breach mitigation actions. Karisma’s full report is available in Spanish, and is part of a region-wide initiative that since 2015 has been holding ISPs accountable for their commitments on transparency and user privacy in key Latin American countries.
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eff.org/../colombian-isps-show-ste..
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New York Times,
Wed 03/30:
Opinion | Does the End of Cash Mean the End of Privacy?
As a Treasury-issued currency, Ecash would not be a central bank digital currency of the kind being tested around the world. I think it’s an interesting idea and a good step forward in the process of digitized money,” Scott Talbott, the senior vice president of the Electronic Transactions Association, a trade group of payment processors, told me, without endorsing the approach. In reality, “multigenerational living has grown sharply in the U.S. over the past five decades and shows no sign of peaking,” the Pew Research Center wrote in a March 24 report.
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nytimes.com/../digital-money-priva..
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The Intercept,
Tue 03/29:
Kathy Hochul Is Ready to Spend Millions on New Police Surveillance
Around the same time Adams released his plan, New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, unveiled details of her own policing initiatives to crack down on gun crime — but hardly anyone seemed to notice.
Creating units to surveil social media for signs of gun crime is a recipe for those errors, he said.
“Social media analysis is performed to support criminal investigations, including gun trafficking,” the New York State Police said in a statement to New York Focus and The Intercept.
If passed as proposed, it would allocate nearly $15 million in part to create a network of “crime gun intelligence centers” across the state.
Though the centers focus on gun tracing, their investigative work is all-encompassing, and includes the use of surveillance technology.
Read full article here:
theintercept.com/../new-york-polic..
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New York Times,
Mon 03/28:
Arizona Offers Driver’s Licenses on iPhones. Other States Want to Be Next.
“If they like technology and they want to be an early adopter for it, by all means,” Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Motor Vehicles Division in Arizona, said on Thursday. “ At the airport security checkpoints, people with an iPhone or an Apple Watch can hold the device up to an electronic reader, which will then prompt them to use facial recognition, a thumbprint or a passcode on their phone to consent to transmitting their encrypted information to a T.S.A. agent, Apple said.
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nytimes.com/../arizona-digital-dri..
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New York Times,
Mon 03/28:
The True Crime-Obsessed Philanthropists Paying to Catch Killers
Natalie Ram, a law professor at the University of Maryland, expressed concern about “the public picking and choosing between cases,” saying investigative priorities could be determined by who can donate the most. Ms. Ram said the “largest share” of cases solved so far with the method “tend to involve white female victims.” All it takes is your sibling, aunt or even a distant cousin deciding differently.
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nytimes.com/../dna-tests-crime-sol..
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Wall Street Journal,
Mon 03/28:
U.S.-EU Data Privacy Deal Faces Key Questions on Surveillance
A preliminary data-transfer deal between the U.S. and European Union outlines a new mechanism for how Europeans can challenge U.S. surveillance but offers few details about the way it would work. The White House said the deal will also balance U.S. national-security needs with Europeans’ ability to challenge unlawful surveillance, creating a Data Protection Review Court comprising members outside the U.S. government to review cases and remedial measures. Congress’s attempts to pass a comprehensive national privacy law have stalled for years. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is preparing a final ruling in a closely watched case that could impede Meta’s ability to share information about European users to U.S. computer servers. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, applauded the pending data-flows deal on Twitter. The ruling invalidated a data-transfer agreement known as Safe Harbor, leading to the creation of Privacy Shield.
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wsj.com/../u-s-eu-data-privacy-dea..
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New York Times,
Mon 03/28:
When Nokia Pulled Out of Russia, a Vast Surveillance System Remained
Nokia said this month that it would stop its sales in Russia and denounced the invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s main intelligence service, the F.S.B., uses SORM to listen in on phone conversations, intercept emails and text messages, and track other internet communications.
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nytimes.com/../nokia-russia-survei..
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New York Times,
Fri 03/25:
U.S. and European leaders reach deal on trans-Atlantic data privacy.
American and European Union leaders said on Friday that they had reached an “agreement in principle” to assure that it is legal to transfer personal data across the Atlantic, after a previous pact was struck down when a court found it did not do enough to shield Europeans from American surveillance programs. The deal includes a way for Europeans to object if they feel that their privacy has been violated, including through an “independent Data Protection Review Court,” the White House said in a fact sheet released after the news conference.
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nytimes.com/../us-europe-data-priv..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/24:
E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act
GÖTTINGEN, Germany — The European Union agreed on Thursday to one of the world’s most far-reaching laws to address the power of the biggest tech companies, potentially reshaping app stores, online advertising, e-commerce, messaging services and other everyday digital tools. As early as next month, the European Union is expected to reach an agreement on a law that would force social media companies such as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to police their platforms more aggressively.
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nytimes.com/../eu-regulation-apple..
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The Guardian (UK),
Thu 03/24:
Ukraine uses facial recognition software to identify Russian soldiers killed in combat
Ukraine is using facial recognition software to help identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and track down their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister told the Reuters news service.
A New York based software company, Clearview AI has sparked criticism over its privacy practices from users and authorities around the world.
Studies have shown that facial recognition software often fails to identify Black and brown faces and can introduce biases in policing.
Obtaining pre-death samples of such data from enemy fighters is challenging, though, opening the door to innovative techniques such as facial recognition.
Ukraine’s military has said some 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded on 24 February.
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theguardian.com/../ukraine-facial-..
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epic.org,
Thu 03/24:
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Privacy and Transparency
Judge Jackson’s BackgroundOn February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
If confirmed to the Supreme Court, Judge Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
Cases and IssuesDuring her time on the bench, Judge Jackson has issued decisions in over 570 cases, including several key matters concerning open government and privacy.
In her time as judge, Judge Jackson has ruled in several cases concerning Article III standing and a federal court’s jurisdiction to resolve civil actions.
Because the Equal Rights Center had associational standing, Judge Jackson did not reach the question of organizational standing.
Read full article here:
epic.org/../judge-ketanji-brown-ja..
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EFF,
Thu 03/24:
The Kids Online Safety Act Is a Heavy-Handed Plan to Force Platforms to Spy on Young People
Unfortunately those tactics are the ones endorsed by the Kids Online Safety Act of 2022 (KOSA), introduced by Sens.
The bill deserves credit for attempting to improve online data privacy for young people, and for attempting to update 1998’s Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA).
But its plan to require surveillance and censorship of anyone under sixteen would greatly endanger the rights, and safety, of young people online.
Invasive tracking of young people by online platforms is particularly pernicious—EFF has long pushed back against remote proctoring, for example.
But the Kids Online Safety Act would not protect the privacy of children or adults.
Read full article here:
eff.org/../kids-online-safety-act-..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/24:
Competing for Streets and Sidewalks
Almost as soon as technologists invented robots to haul groceries or burritos to people’s doors, the arguments over sidewalks started. Officials in Kirkland, Wash., recently put on hold permits for Amazon’s experimental package delivery robots and are asking whether the company should pay fees for using sidewalk space.
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nytimes.com/../delivery-robots-sid..
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EFF,
Thu 03/24:
Stop Invasive Remote Proctoring: Pass California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act
Too many schools across the state continue to use remote proctoring at its most invasive settings.
California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act (STTPPA) will correct this.
Proctoring companies claim their customers are the schools who pay them, and not the test takers whose private data is processed.
And it will allow courts to analyze the effectiveness of remote proctoring tools.
Still, too many schools across the state continue to use remote proctoring at its most invasive settings.
Read full article here:
eff.org/../stop-invasive-remote-pr..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/24:
With Eye to Russia, Biden Administration Asks Companies to Report Cyberattacks
“A lot of the real details are going to have to be worked out in the rule-making process,” said Christopher D. Roberti, the senior vice president for cyber, intelligence and supply chain security policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Senators Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, and Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, the authors of the incident reporting legislation, said the law would help companies like JDS Foods and Colonial recover more quickly after these kinds of attacks. Given the way the cybersecurity landscape has evolved, there are threats that need to be addressed.
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nytimes.com/../biden-russia-cybera..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/24:
Israel, Fearing Russian Reaction, Blocked Spyware for Ukraine and Estonia
KYIV, Ukraine — The Israeli government rejected requests from Ukraine and Estonia in recent years to purchase and use Pegasus — the powerful spyware tool — to hack Russian mobile phone numbers, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Israel feared that selling the cyberweapon to adversaries of Russia would damage Israel’s relationship with the Kremlin, they said.
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nytimes.com/../pegasus-israel-ukra..
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New York Times,
Thu 03/24:
How Russia and Right-Wing Americans Converged on War in Ukraine
After President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed that action against Ukraine was taken in self-defense, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the conservative commentator Candace Owens repeated the assertion. As war has raged, the Kremlin’s talking points and some right-wing discourse in the United States — fueled by those on the far right — have coalesced.
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nytimes.com/../russia-american-far..
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EFF,
Wed 03/23:
EFF Director of Investigations Dave Maass Honored With Sunshine Award For Driving Public Disclosure of Government Surveillance Records
Today, Maass will receive the Sunshine Award from the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SD-SPJ) in recognition of this important work.
Maass is the driving force behind the EFF-led Atlas of Surveillance project, the largest-ever collection of searchable data on police use of surveillance technologies.
San Diego County was one of early communities examined in work on the Atlas.
He has been previously honored for his investigative series into deaths at San Diego County jails and the use of pepper spray in its juvenile halls.
He is also a Scholar in Residence lecturing on cybersecurity, surveillance and public records laws at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Read full article here:
eff.org/../eff-director-investigat..
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