RELEASE: EPIC Urges Support for Updated American Data Privacy and Protection Act

WASHINGTON, DC – Leaders on the House Energy & Commerce Committee today released an amended version of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). EPIC commends the Committee for its work and has sent a letter to Committee members urging support of the amended bill. 

The ADPPA sets clear limits on how companies can collect and use data by setting data minimization rules. “Data minimization is absolutely critical because it makes privacy the default,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, EPIC Deputy Director. “Data minimization takes the onus off users and requires that companies limit data collection to better align with what consumers expect.”

The American Data Privacy and Protection Act also recognizes that some sensitive categories and uses of data deserve stricter controls. The Amended Bill sets strong restrictions on the collection and use of sensitive data, including precise geolocation, biometric, and health information, as well as data identifying an individual’s online activities over time and across third party websites and online services. Companies may only collect and use these types of data if doing so is strictly necessary and may not transfer such data to third parties without the individual’s affirmative express consent. The ADPPA prohibits the use of sensitive data for targeted advertising purposes. EPIC believes that these protections directly limit the most harmful business practices that this law is intended to address.

ADPPA also extends civil rights protections online, requires algorithmic impact assessments, and gives users the right to access, correct, and delete data collected about them. The bill would also give all Americans the right to opt-out of targeted advertising, including through global opt-out settings.

The ADPPA’s three-tier enforcement structure sets it apart from other privacy laws. One of the biggest criticisms of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is that it is not adequately enforced because enforcement is left to individual states where there are not adequate resources to ensure compliance. The ADPPA aims to avoid this issue by instead empowering enforcement authorities at the federal, state, and individual level.

The ADPPA does preempt some state privacy laws with a number of savings exceptions, but it is meant to set a national standard. “EPIC believes a national standard that sets a high level of protection for all Americans in critically important,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, EPIC Deputy Director. “While we would prefer this bill set a federal floor, the privacy harms happening today are simply too dangerous to miss this opportunity to provide privacy protections for all Americans.”

“This is not a perfect privacy bill, but we do believe it would establish critical protections for Americans and make much needed advancements for privacy rights at a time when those rights are very much at risk,” said Alan Butler, EPIC Executive Director. “This is not the end of the process, it is the start of the process. The law will be strengthened over time via rulemaking and litigation. But it is past time to pass a federal privacy law.” 

EPIC has been calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive…

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Record-Keeping Is Essential For Farm Operations

This time of year, there is so much excitement on the farm. The air fills with the warmth of summer, the fragrance of new mown hay and the buzzing cacophony of bees. Colors of ripening raspberries, plums and cherries abound throughout the garden. It is important to remember during these busy weeks to take a few moments to keep your summer records. Yes, farm record-keeping … I know. Not as exciting as harvesting those first carrots and enjoying your fresh salad, or watching the rake turn the rows of hay. 

But without solid record-keeping, homesteaders and farmers are hard pressed to improve their farm operations from year to year and really make a difference in their winter decision-making. 

Why Is Record-Keeping Important?

Record-keeping can help find solutions for farm crop issues you encounter, such as when the cucumber beetles show up on your squash. You records will remind you of the timing of cherry harvests to make sure you have adequate labor ready in the future. You can even record simple musings and ideas for new farm builds (like a chicken house or new sheep management system). 

When we take records as they occur, we leave ourselves the opportunity to follow up on this data when we have more time to schedule our crop plans, research our solutions and innovate our ideas! 

 There are many ways to keep records and a whole lots of fancy software. My experience has shown me that the simplest systems are the best. Here are my six favorite ways of keeping simple and effective records and how I use these to make highly effective plans for the next year. 

Read more: Check out these homestead planners to get your growing organized!

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Photos & Videos 

Taking photos and videos of your farm operations is a useful way of record-keeping.

A photo or video can show you a precise problem, such as the caterpillar munching the leaves on the tree. It also locates the photo on your property or, if you are a landscape designer, on any property on which you work. And it will stamp the visual record with the date! 

Keep in mind these important tips for using photos and videos:

  •  Keep it short and sweet, and show or say what is that you want to keep a record of. For instance, “Here is my Sweet Sixteen apple. It was planted two years ago and right now it is completely invested with a caterpillar”. You can add more information if you know the type of caterpillar or what you think you want to do to manage in the future. But a minimum you know which tree and what you are seeing and when and where it is occurring.
  • Use photos or video as a way to jog your memory. Even if sometimes what you are recording is a well-known phenomena on your farm, a reminder can be invaluable….

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July 19th is coincidentally Samuel Colt and Gaston Glock Birthdays

July 19th is coincidentally the birthday of handgun designers Samuel Colt (born 1814) and Gaston Glock (born 1929).

On July 19, 1799: The Rosetta Stone was found by a French soldier serving under Napoleon.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 101 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  5. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  6. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
  7. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime low-cost training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
  3. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. A LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx, both made in USA.
  4. A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.

More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 101 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on…

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Keeping Pig Breeding Stock: Consider The Boar & Sow 

Keeping a pig is so natural to homesteading that it’s hard to imagine farming without one. All-year our hard work is producing so many spare nutrients that just beg to be turned into bacon, sausage and pork chops. From watermelon vines to waste hay, from cabbage leaves to canning scraps, from tomato skins to table leavings—just about every aspect of homesteading seems to generate some kind of organic matter that will make a perfect meal for a pig! 

 But there’s a hitch: For the homesteader whose farm-raised nutrient stream varies with the cycles of the year, making sure there is a pig on the premises at the right times can be a challenge. You can’t just pick up a piglet off the shelf at the local Piggly Wiggly. 

Whatever your local source of baby pigs may be, it may not be ready when you are. Unless, of course, you keep your own breeding sow and boar, to provide you with piglets on a regular basis.   

Keeping breeding stock is one way to make sure the farm always has pigs when it has pig food available. But the homesteader or small farmer definitely needs to do some accounting before adding a mama and daddy pig to the payroll.   

Pork Chops or Piglets? 

We think almost any smallholding produces enough spare nutrients of various kinds to support at least one pig per year. Consider the following, which come on pretty regularly throughout the spring, summer and fall on most farms:

  • weeds
  • orchard trimmings
  • grass
  • windfall fruits
  • canning waste
  • table scraps
  • forage gleanings

If you keep a dairy animal—whether goat, cow or sheep—you usually end up with some surplus milk, buttermilk or whey to boost the protein in the pig bucket. These farm-produced nutrients can go most or all of the way to providing all the food a pig needs to go from weaning to slaughter weight in six to 10 months.   

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But add a sow to the mix, let alone a boar, and they’ll burn through those calories almost as fast as you can haul them to the barn. You can end up with a caloric deficit before ever you add a single pig for the freezer. 

Maintaining breeding stock means you have mouths to feed—adult mouths, with big appetites—12 months of the year. You won’t eat these animals for a long time, but they do need constant feed in order to keep going. 

So much for turning this summer’s garden surplus into next winter’s bacon! Unless you have a whole lot of surplus, all your waste goes to fueling your piglet-makers, not your baconers. 

Read more: Interested in spring piglets? Here’s how to find and purchase some of your own.

Extra Mouths 

Of course, you can always buy feed for the extra appetites. But recent experience taught all of us that our sources of purchased calories—whether pet food, baby formula or…

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Gardening in Arid Environments – The Organic Prepper

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We talk about gardening a lot on this site. Maybe you live in a temperate climate with ample rainfall and workable soil. Gardening will probably come fairly easily. But what if you don’t? What if you live in a desert or semi-desert area with wide temperature ranges and inconsistent moisture? What if you live in the drought-stricken western third of the US? Do you still have options? 

Yes. You do. Gardening in a semi-arid steppe climate is difficult, but not impossible. It definitely takes extra work and planning, but it does pay off. I have been gardening in a semi-arid steppe for almost ten years now, and not only is my garden more productive, but I can grow a wider variety of plants than I could when I began.

Start with the foundation – soil.

The first thing you need to think about is your soil, and this applies whether you’re trying to garden on a small suburban plot or you have some glorious 4000-sq foot beast in the country. It helps to know what type of soil you have.

For gardening purposes, soil can be broken into three main types. Sand is soil with the biggest particle size, clay has the smallest particle size, and loam has medium particle size. Loam is usually a good mixture of large and small particles; it’s the easiest to work with, and in arid environments, it’s valuable because it retains moisture well. Sandy soil drains very quickly; clay soil retains water but is also prone to puddling and compacting. Loamy soil holds moisture, but because of the presence of large particles, it does not compact as easily as clay.

When I got my property, I got my soil tested by my state’s agricultural extension office. If you’re planning a large garden investment, or if you’re just totally new to gardening, I would recommend it. When I started gardening, my soil was a sandy loam with a high pH and low organic matter, though I had no other serious mineral deficiencies.

I started keeping livestock largely to build better soil for my garden, but that’s not the only way to do it. If you live in the suburbs and want to garden, composting your kitchen waste will probably give you a lot of what you need. And, of course, you can always buy soil amendments, though if you’re trying to save money, you could ask your friends for yard waste, as long as they don’t spray too much. It may sound funny, but…

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EPIC, Coalition Call on Congress to Address Overbroad Authorities in Counter-Drone Bill

EPIC, and a coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups urged the leadership of the Senate Committees on Homeland Security & Government Affairs and Judiciary to push back against the broad authorities and address lack of protections in the government’s counter-drone proposal. The proposal would expand the authority of DHS and DOJ to counter drones that the agencies deem a threat. Under the expanded authority, DOJ and DHS could track, monitor, and disrupt drones, including by intercepting the drone’s communications or accessing the data stored on the drone–all without a judicial order.

The current authority of DOJ and DHS to counter drones, granted by the Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018, is set to sunset later this year. The Act was opposed by many privacy and civil liberties groups. In a 2018 letter to Congress, EPIC argued Congress should table any consideration of granting government agencies authority to counter drones until drone privacy safeguards had been established.

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Does Epsom Salt Expire? Useful Epsom Salt Facts

Epsom salt is one of those home remedies that has been around for a long time. Home remedies are popular among preppers because they know access to medical care could be sporadic during an emergency.

So having a few bags of this stuff stored away might not be a bad idea. When it comes to Epsom Salt, there are three common questions that most people ask:

  1. What is it?
  2. What is it used for?
  3. What is its expiration date?

I will be covering these three questions in this article, as well as my experiences using Epsom Salt.

Please note that the following article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice.

What To Know About Epsom Salt

When I was kid, about the only thing I knew about salt was that I used it to season my French fries, popcorn, or any other food that didn’t appeal to my taste buds. I didn’t know there were other salts out there.

Then one day, I saw my mom walking to the bathroom with a big bag of Epsom Salt. On that day, I learned that there are other salts out there, and that there is a difference between table salt and Epsom salt.

What is Epsom Salt?

In the image below, the top is Epsom salt and the bottom is table salt; both are okay for human use.

Table salt is made of sodium chloride, or NaCl, and it tends to have small granules. Salt has a very distinct taste but interestingly it can taste sweet to some people. Table salt is primarily used as a seasoning and a food preservative.

The chemical composition of Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulfate, or MgSO4. Its granules are larger, and most people describe it as having a bitter taste.

cup of epsom salt cup of epsom salt

What is Epsom Salt Used For?

Epsom salt has long been used as a home remedy for a variety of ailments, some of which include:

  • muscle soreness
  • relieve swelling
  • treat constipation (natural laxative)
  • relieve sunburn
  • relieve inflammation
  • promoting better sleep
  • exfoliant

Magnesium is a naturally occurring mineral. It is essential in our bodies, and since Epsom salt is composed of magnesium sulfate, it makes sense that using it would be beneficial.

Baths

The most common use of Epsom salt is as an additive to a bath to help sooth sore muscles. Many people report that soaking in a bath with Epsom salt helps to relieve general aches and pains, and it is very relaxing.

However, according to Healthline.com, these reports are mainly anecdotal. There isn’t much evidence to support the salt being absorbed through the skin.

My Experience

On many occasions in my life, I have taken an Epsom salt bath. The only…

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First Year of My “Self-Sufficient” Farm

At last count, there are approximately 72 animals on my farm. Of these, 22 meat birds will be butchered very soon bringing the count down to 50. I learned that each type of animal needs their own type of shelter from the elements. I didn’t quite understand that when I got animals and have been scrambling ever since. I have lots of crazy stories of me trying to cope due to my lack of knowledge and experience.

Farm Infrastructure

Regarding outbuildings: When I bought the place there was a small barn and an oversized “shed” the size of a one-car garage, and I had thought that would be plenty. Not near enough! I started using the garage for everything: raising chics until they were ready to go outside, storing animal feed for the various animals, storing milking equipment, a freezer for beef, all the supplies and tools you never thought you needed for various circumstances, until the garage became impassible and the car sat outside no matter the weather. I finally constructed some commercial shelving and that was quickly filled. I was constantly cleaning out the garage and taking trips to the dumps.

The other day I saw a rat and that was it for me. I need to get another shed to store animal feed in galvanized trash cans, along with the farm tools. The garage shed was converted into a goat shelter, several chicken coops were purchased to accommodate the growing flock since I didn’t have the wherewithal to build a large coop by myself, and the small barn doubled as hay storage and a cow shelter. Now, if you mow or bush hog your own property, you need a garage or shed for that equipment, not to mention the gardening tools. I hire the mowing and bush hogging workout. If you have spare rolls of fencing and t-posts, bags of pine chips or bales of straw, the list goes on, those things need shelter too. Don’t think you can just tarp things outside. I tried. It really is a waste of energy and resources if you live in an area that has “weather”. It rains a lot here, the wind blows hard, and there’s lots of humidity, so keeping things dry is critical.

At one time I had left a roll of fencing out in one of the fields. You’d never guess, but a bunch of chickens that had flown the coop decided to crawl into that roll of fencing, got stuck, and a couple died before I even noticed they were out there. It was horrible to have to unroll that fencing and pull dead chickens out of it and rescue the one that lived. I was angry at myself for leaving a booby trap in the field. Everything needs its place.

In regards to the accessibility of water: It’s nice to have hand pumps available near various animal areas, but if you don’t or can’t, you’re going to be hauling water. Some folks get along…

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EPIC Urges OSTP to Prioritize Differential Privacy

In comments to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, EPIC urged federal agencies to prioritize the adoption of differential privacy and to increase funding across the board for privacy-enhancing technologies. EPIC’s comments respond to an OSTP request for information to inform a forthcoming “national strategy on privacy preserving data sharing and analytics.” EPIC recommended the work of EPIC Advisory Board members Prof. Latanya Sweeney and Prof. Cynthia Dwork.

EPIC regularly advocates for the use of differential privacy to protect personally identifiable information in statistical settings, especially in the U.S. Census. Differential privacy is achieved through the controlled injection of statistical noise into a published study or analysis of a dataset, providing a mathematical guarantee of privacy while preserving the research value of the information. Most recently, EPIC submitted an amicus brief urging a federal district court to reject a challenge by the state of Alabama to the use of differential privacy in the 2020 census. The court later dismissed the case.

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9 Uncommon But Crucial Ways to Prepare for Disaster

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Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

9 Uncommon But Crucial Ways to Prepare for Disaster

The world of prepping has become considerably more complex in the last few years. Covid earns at least some credit for this, as we’ve all learned a lot about dealing with major disasters that affect society.

But there’s more to it than that; prepping has also broadened. One clear example of this is how gardening and homesteading has become so mainstream in prepping, when it used to be rather rare. 

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As time goes on, we learn more and more about what it takes to be truly prepared and truly self-sufficient. We’re also drawing skills into our midst that were commonplace for our great-grandparents, but aren’t as commonly known in modern times. This is all good, as it ultimately makes us more prepared. 

One of the things that I do is to constantly ask myself what we’re missing. That can take on a number of different forms such as doing after-action reviews of disasters that happen and playing through different scenarios to look for holes in my plans.

Nevertheless, I recognize that I am fully capable of missing something important, simply because I have preconceived notions about how things should be. That’s why I also look at what others say about prepping and talk to other preppers. I’m always looking for holes in my own plans and preps. 

The thing is, some things that might be critical for our survival through a disaster, which we would overlook. That’s why I work so hard to find those areas. Here’s a few that you might have missed:

1. Get in Better Shape

Modern life doesn’t exactly lend itself to being in great physical shape. The only shape that sitting in front of a computer or a television gives us is round.

That’s not exactly what we need, when we’re going to be gardening or cutting wood all day. Survival is hard work, and if you don’t get ready to handle the physical part of it now, you’re going to have a much harder time when you have to do that physical work to survive. 

There’s actually three separate but interrelated parts to this. The first is to lose weight, if you need to. The second is to gain physical strength, and the third is to gain stamina. All three can be worked on at the same time, as they overlap; but they have to be worked on. Sadly, it doesn’t come automatically. 

2. Get Healthy

In addition to getting in shape, you need to be concerned about your overall health. This is more of an issue for older preppers than it is for the young ones.

If you’ve got problems with blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or any other such thing, you should be working with your doctor to get them under control. That doctor may…

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