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The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said in October last year it was pushing for the FTC to probe the app maker after finding that it was retaining user data even after accounts were deleted – a practice Grindr’s privacy policy explicitly says it wouldn’t do.
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On Friday, the Senate passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R. 7888, which reauthorizes and expands FISA Section 702 for a period of two years. In doing so, the Senate rejected several privacy amendments, including:
Jeramie Scott, Senior Counsel and Director of EPIC’s Project on Surveillance Oversight:
“It is profoundly disheartening that leadership in Congress chose to bypass meaningful, bipartisan reform bills and jam through a bill that entrenches and expands the government’s warrantless surveillance authority under FISA Section 702 despite years of abuse while undercutting amendments to protect Americans’ privacy and civil rights. Americans deserve better, and we will continue to fight for significant reform ahead of Section 702’s expiration in 2026.”
EPIC published a blog series focused on explaining Section 702 and the need to reform it. EPIC and a bipartisan coalition of civil society groups have called for broad reform to Section 702 and related surveillance authorities. Most recently, EPIC co-authored a letter opposing RISAA’s base text and a document explaining how the bill was crafted to preserve the warrantless surveillance status quo.
Raising rabbits in colonies is an alternative to cage-breeding that is rising in popularity, especially for those farming rabbits for meat. However, for some breeds and breeders, colony-raising can cause more complications than it solves. Taking a look at the advantages and disadvantages of raising rabbits in this way is important to determine whether it will fit your individual situation.
Rabbits are naturally outdoor animals. Access to sunshine lets them form vitamin D, which helps with the healthy absorption of calcium. They have instincts to dig and to run, which colony living can provide.
In addition, a large run allows waste to remain separate from other activities. Their urine is full of ammonia, and being outside helps to dispel vapors that can otherwise make rabbits sick.
However, in areas with heavy predator loads, losses can be high without significant protection. Kits and small breed rabbits are at especially high risk. Other animals may also be attracted to water and feed left in the pen, which can lead to disease exposure. Wild rabbits have also been known to be attracted to domestic rabbit pens.
Rabbits love to play in the dirt!
Rabbits are social animals. Allowing young rabbits to form relationships in a colony environment can improve their well-being and quality of life. Colony-raised rabbits can help each other reduce stress through grooming and physical contact.
Breeding rabbits in colonies also allows does to share parenting duties. Does will often birth close together, and this means fostering between mothers is easier in case of emergency. A good buck will play with his kits, keep them warm, and sometimes can even be observed assisting with bathing.
However, those breeding show rabbits, these animals do have disagreements. There are rarely serious injuries in these scuffles, but rabbits will pull fur, and bloody noses and cause minor injuries. This can interfere with the quality of the rabbits.
During most seasons, care of colony rabbits is simple. They often deposit manure in one area of the run, and it breaks down quickly, requiring less cleaning.
They can be free-fed since the increased exercise and other options for stimulation means they eat only what they need. The added physical activity can result in a higher calorie need, however. Exercise also works muscles, so keeping meat rabbits in colonies can result in less tender rabbit meat.
Mother and baby finding some shade on a hot day
Winter is usually the biggest concern for those considering colonies. However, thick fur and warmth in the winter make rabbits successful in cold weather climates. Heat and rain will actually create more difficulties for the animals.
Rabbits do not sweat, instead regulating their body temperature primarily through their ears. They will stretch out in shallow trenches on hot days but require a source of shade and plenty of water.
Torrential rains can cause flooding, driving rabbits from their burrows and exposing them to predators and cold. In extreme conditions, litters can drown if burrows are…
On April 17, EPIC submitted comments to the UK ICO on its call for views relating to “Consent or Pay” business models. In its comments, EPIC urged the ICO to prohibit the use of the facially illegal business model due to the clear violation of the UK GDPR’s definition of consent. Under the UK GDPR, consent must be “freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.” Forcing users to pay a fee or lose access to a website if they don’t want their data to be processed for targeted advertising is anathema to the rigorous standard of consent needed under the UK GDPR and does not pass the muster under the UK ICO’s own guidance on consent. There is no fee that would ever be appropriate to sell a UK citizen’s fundamental right to privacy and data protection, so the UK ICO should prohibit the practice.
This call for views comes on the heels of a November 2023 decision by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) stating that Meta was in violation of the EU GDPR for processing personal data for targeted advertising without an appropriate lawful basis to process such data. Following the decision, Meta rolled out its “consent or pay” business model, where it offered a “free” version of its social media platforms where Meta would continue to process personal data for targeted advertising as well as a paid version of the platform that would not process personal data for the purpose of targeted advertising. The Norway, Dutch, and Hamburg Data Protection Authorities requested an opinion from the EDPB regarding the legitimacy of this business model. Twenty-eight organizations, including EPIC, sent a complaint to the EDPB in February 2024 requesting that the EDPB prohibit “consent or pay” business models based on the irrevocable harm to the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. On April 17, the EDPB released its decision, holding that “in most cases, it will not be possible for [platforms using a “consent or pay” business model] to comply with the requirements for valid consent[.]”
EPIC has long advocated for robust safeguards to protect consumers from exploitative data collection, use, distribution, and retention practices both in the United States and abroad. EPIC has filed amicus briefs, regulatory comments, and supported legislation with comprehensive data minimization provisions to protect consumers from commercial surveillance regimes.
The Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule this week strengthening privacy protections for reproductive health information. The rule extends the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule by prohibiting regulated entities from using or disclosing personal health information for the “mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care.” This is an important reproductive privacy safeguard for millions of Americans, particularly in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision invalidating the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. As EPIC wrote in its comments to HHS, the collection and misuse of reproductive health information post-Dobbs can expose people to undue criminalization under newly-enacted state laws and deter others from seeking reproductive health services even where they are legal.
Although HHS has concluded the current rulemaking, EPIC continues to support two further amendments to the HIPAA Privacy Rule set out in its comments. First, the Rule should protect reproductive health care provided in every state, including states that have banned or severely limited access to abortion and other reproductive health services. As adopted, the new rule only covers PHI concerning reproductive health care that was lawful in the jurisdiction in which it was obtained. Second, HHS should adopt a warrant requirement for law enforcement access to PHI. While the changes finalized this week require a signed attestation from law enforcement that they are not seeking PHI related to reproductive health care for any prohibited purpose, HHS should strengthen these protections and bring the Privacy Rule in line with the Fourth Amendment by establishing a warrant requirement supported by probable cause.
EPIC regularly files comments on proposed rules to protect the privacy of personal information and advocates for reproductive privacy and other health privacy protections. EPIC released a statement in 2022 opposing the Supreme Court’s rollback of the constitutional right to abortion and published an analysis of reproductive privacy after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
President Biden has signed H.R. 815, which includes the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024. Under the law, data brokers are prohibited from selling, transferring, or providing access to Americans’ sensitive data to certain foreign adversaries or entities controlled by foreign adversaries.
Under the law, sensitive data includes identifiers such as social security numbers, geolocation data, data about minors, biometric information, and private communications. “Information identifying an individual’s online activities over time and across websites or online services” is also considered sensitive data.
A report by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties last year found that sensitive information about U.S. political figures, members of our military, and other high profile targets can be obtained by China and other foreign advertising through the ‘real time bidding’ system used by data brokers to target online ads.
“There is an urgent need to rein in data brokers, who are profiting off the sale of our most sensitive data and putting Americans at risk,” said EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler. “This law is an important step in the right direction in providing specific protections for sensitive data. But EPIC believes it is long past time for Congress to enact comprehensive privacy protections that include a strong data minimization standard, protect civil rights online, and provide for robust enforcement to stop harmful commercial surveillance practices.”
EPIC has long supported heightened protections for sensitive personal data, including in congressional testimony supporting the proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act, in EPIC’s proposed State Data Privacy and Protection Act, and in comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s commercial surveillance rulemaking. EPIC has also backed strict prohibitions on the sale of personal information by data brokers, including in comments on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Fair Credit Reporting Act rulemaking.
Moreover, experts question why the onus for privacy protection should land on individuals. “Web browsers and web pages should operate with those protections baked in,” said Sara Geoghegan, Counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a nonprofit that advocates for stronger privacy regulations.
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Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told Marketing Brew the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act would be the strongest comprehensive privacy law among the states with such legislation; if it becomes law, Maryland would be the 16th state to protect consumer privacy. The bill contains strong data minimization rules, Fitzgerald said, and existing privacy laws in several other states have fewer restrictions.
“Companies can only collect what’s reasonably necessary for the product or service I’m asking for,” Fitzgerald said. “If I download a weather app, they can use my location to give me the weather; that’s necessary for the product or service I’m asking for. But they can’t sell my data, my location data, to a dozen data brokers. That’s not necessary for the service.”
Maryland’s bill is a “gamechanger,” she said, in part because other states may follow suit with legislation that has more stringent consumer protections.
“Big Tech tries to get state legislators to feel like no one will be able to access the internet if they pass this strong law,” Fitzgerald said. “It certainly helps to have a strong law pass in a state like Maryland and show states the sky didn’t fall.”
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EPIC and a coalition of privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights groups wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Judiciary Chair Richard Durbin, and Senate Intel Chair Mark Warner, expressing our strong opposition to the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R.7888, which would dramatically expand the government’s warrantless surveillance powers. The 75+ organizations called on leadership to oppose the consideration of RISAA or any version of Section 702 reauthorization that includes an alarming provision expanding the types and number of businesses who can be compelled to assist in surveillance.
EPIC has published a blog series focused on explaining Section 702 and the need to reform it. EPIC and a bipartisan coalition of civil society groups have called for broad reform to Section 702 and related surveillance authorities.
Nasturtiums are a workhorse farm flower that many gardeners plant simply for their beauty and carefree nature. The truth is that nasturtiums serve many important roles in a garden; we shouldn’t just grow them for their good looks alone.
If you haven’t nibbled a nasturtium blossom, it’s time. Their fresh, peppery flavor is a spectacular way to spice up a salad or sandwich, or top a cracker spread with cream cheese. There are many recipes using nasturtiums cooked as well, including my favorite: stuffed with goat cheese, battered and fried. Nasturtiums can also be candied for use on cakes, tarts and other desserts. Oh, and the leaves are edible, too.
Pricing and selling nasturtiums in the edible flower market can also contribute to a profitable farm income.
You’re probably asking yourself why I would include this in a list of positive nasturtium attributes, but the truth is, if you don’t have a few plants that aphids love in your garden, you won’t have a good population of ladybugs, lacewings and other beneficial insects around either. Nasturtiums can tolerate a ton of aphids feeding on them with little ill effects, so having them around as an aphid nursery means they can also help grow a healthy population of beneficial insects who can keep pest outbreaks on other plants in check.
Trailing nasturtium varieties spread very quickly and cover a lot of ground, making an unwelcoming environment for weeds as they do. The soil in a garden with a cover of nasturtium foliage is shaded, which helps suppress weed seed germination. A living mulch of nasturtiums might also prevent excess moisture loss from the soil due to evaporation, and it helps shade the soil to keep it a bit cooler during hot summer weather.
Nasturtium blossoms are a great nectar source for a wide variety of insects, including long-tongued bumblebees and butterflies. You’ll also find hummingbirds enjoying the nectar the blooms produce. That long spur you find at the back of the flower is where the nectar is found, so only certain creatures can access it, but those that do, are a joy to watch in the garden. Nasturtiums are quite floriferous, too, with most plants in constant bloom from mid-summer through fall’s first frost.
The bug-eating prowess of toads often goes unappreciated by farmers, but the truth is that every morning and every evening, toads patrol the garden, lapping up ants, slugs, beetles and scores of other insects. Even if you seldom spot a toad in your landscape during the day, know that there are still likely to be many around. During warm, sunny weather, toads take shelter, nestling under mulch, in cavities or under a cooling canopy of foliage. And guess what plant’s foliage makes a great canopy for toads? That’s right, nasturtiums. Their…
