EPIC & CDT Amicus Brief Highlights Dangers of Unchecked Government Collection of E-Scooter Location Data

EPIC & CDT Amicus Brief Highlights Dangers of Unchecked Government Collection of E-Scooter Location Data

EPIC and the Center for Democracy & Technology have filed an amicus brief supporting Los Angeles residents’ court fight against a city initiative to collect detailed location information on all individual e-scooter trips taken in Los Angeles. The lawsuit is currently on appeal after the trial court dismissed the case because it found no privacy interest in the data. EPIC and CDT’s amicus brief describes how Los Angeles spearheaded a new data collection pipeline called the Mobility Data Specification (or MDS) to standardize the location data that ride share providers collect so that the data can easily be disclosed to governments for analysis—and, potentially, surveillance. EPIC and CDT wrote that MDS has the “power to turn a so-called ‘smart city’ into a surveillance state that is inimical to the Fourth Amendment.” The amicus brief describes how MDS was developed to track any shared mobility vehicle, and that Los Angeles already had plans to expand the program to rideshare data from Uber and Lyft. EPIC and CDT also argued that the city’s policy goals could be achieved without collecting individual trip data, and described how aggregation, differential privacy, and sampling are widely used to analyze mobility data and protect privacy more than bulk disclosure of individualized trip data. EPIC routinely files amicus briefs in cases applying the Fourth Amendment to novel technologies.

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EPIC Urges DHS to Slow Implementation of Mobile Driver’s License Systems, Prioritize Privacy Protections

EPIC Urges DHS to Slow Implementation of Mobile Driver’s License Systems, Prioritize Privacy Protections

In comments responding to a Homeland Security Department (DHS) Request for Information, EPIC urged the agency to slow its investigation into mobile driver’s license technology and implement only systems with the most rigorous cryptographic and privacy-preserving design standards. EPIC recently urged the National Institute of Standards and Technology to adopt anonymous credentialing for identity verification cards for federal employees.

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Rep. Castor Introduces KIDS PRIVCY Act to Protect Children, Teens

children COPPA policy

Rep. Castor Introduces KIDS PRIVCY Act to Protect Children, Teens

Today, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14) introduced an updated “Protecting the Information of our Vulnerable Children and Youth Act” or the “Kids PRIVCY Act” to strengthen the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). “Representative Castor’s bill makes critical updates to our children’s privacy laws to address the dangers of today’s technologies,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, Deputy Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “Everyone deserves strong privacy protections online, but children and teens especially need to be protected from corporate surveillance and manipulative targeted advertising. The Kids PRIVCY Act prohibits behavioral ad targeting to children and teens and includes strong enforcement mechanisms to ensure that companies comply with the law. EPIC is proud to support this bill and encourages Congress to move this legislation forward in order to protect children and teens online.”

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Poll: Nearly 8 in 10 Americans Support Creation of U.S. Data Protection Agency

Data Protection Agency consumer

Poll: Nearly 8 in 10 Americans Support Creation of U.S. Data Protection Agency

A new poll from Data for Progress found that 7 in 10 Americans think the government should be doing more to keep their personal data safe and nearly 8 in 10 Americans across the political spectrum support Senator Gillibrand’s Data Protection Act, which creates a U.S. Data Protection Agency. “Our government must continue to evolve alongside our society, and adapt to meet new challenges the American people face,” Senator Gillibrand said in a blog post. “I believe the best way to do that is by creating a new federal agency designed with your data privacy in mind: the Data Protection Agency.” EPIC has long advocated for the creation of a U.S. Data Protection Agency.

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New Experts Join the EPIC Advisory Board

Advisory Board

New Experts Join the EPIC Advisory Board

EPIC is pleased to announce the newest members of the EPIC Advisory Board. EPIC’s new members are leading experts in privacy, technology, and civil liberties law and policy. These experts will help inform EPIC’s important work on emerging privacy and human rights issues. Since its inception, the EPIC Advisory Board has been comprised of innovative and solution-oriented scholars, experts, and advocates. EPIC’s newest Members are: Colleen Brown, Simone Browne, Mishi Choudhary, Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Adrian Gropper, Marcia Hofmann, Jumana Musa, Scott Skinner-Thompson, Ashkan Soltani, Amie Stepanovich, and Katherine Strandburg.

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Sen. Ron Wyden Pushes Intelligence Community to Protect Data From Online Advertising Data Collection

Sen. Ron Wyden Pushes Intelligence Community to Protect Data From Online Advertising Data Collection

Senator and veteran privacy advocate Ron Wyden recently sent a letter to the Acting Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer urging him to protect intelligence community computers and personnel from threats posed by the sale and misuse of online advertising data. The letter emphasized that advertising companies operate in an unregulated market where they can “collect vast amounts of sensitive information about users, their movements, web browsing, and other online activities” and then offer that information “for sale to anyone with a credit card.” Senator Wyden previously led an investigation that uncovered the ways advertising companies were selling so-called “bidstream” data to firms in China, Russia, and other high-risk foreign countries. The sale of bidstream data poses both privacy and national security risks because that data includes precise location information of Americans as well as their device identifiers and browsing histories. In the letter, Sen. Wyden sought information on how, if at all, the intelligence community protects data from online advertisers, including through the use of ad blocking technologies. EPIC has repeatedly raised concerns over the collection of vast amounts of data online and has joined a growing coalition of groups in their call to Ban Surveillance Advertising.

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House Passes the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act

Congress consumer protection FTC

House Passes the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act

The House of Representatives passed the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act (H.R. 2668) Tuesday on a 221-205 vote. The bill explicitly authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to seek monetary relief for injured consumers in federal court and to require bad actors to return money obtained through illegal actions. The amendment to the FTC Act restores a key piece of the FTC’s Section 13(b) power, which the FTC previously used to obtain restitution and disgorgement for wronged consumers until the Supreme Court recently limited this authority in AMG Capital Management v. FTC. On Monday, the House Rules committee voted to advance the bill to a floor vote, with House Democrats stating that “the urgency is not hypothetical” during the hearing. President Biden also supports the Act. EPIC has long advocated for the FTC to implement meaningful financial penalties against companies who harm consumers through unlawful data and privacy practices and for the creation of a Data Protection Agency to protect consumers against data abuse. Recently, EPIC published a report that highlights the FTC’s unused authorities and urges the FTC to make full use of the tools in its statutory toolbox.

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My 7 Worst Gardening Mistakes and What I Learned From Them –

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by Joanna Miller

This time of year is when my garden has been active for months, and my worst gardening mistakes become evident. Every year I tell myself, “I’m going to do THIS next year, and things will turn out better!” And they usually do, though I reliably manage to make some utterly different mistake the next time around. I thought it might be helpful for beginning gardeners (and possibly entertaining for experienced gardeners) to compile some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made over the years.

Mistake #1: Not Doing the Research

My first gardens were in the Chicago suburbs. I never made any big mistakes there because it’s really easy to grow things. My first big gardening mistakes came in Houston, where it’s pretty easy to grow things too. If you don’t start off making assumptions. I made a lot of assumptions.

It didn’t occur to me to read the seed packets or Gulf Coast-specific gardening books during my first year of gardening in Houston. I just did exactly what I’d done in Chicago.

My First Year of Gardening Yielded Exactly Four Tomatoes.

I started reading up on tomatoes and did a little better the following year, though my cucumbers tasted awful. Like the tomatoes I’d planted too late, and the hot weather made them almost inedible. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of reading up on plants and knowing your growing zone. Especially if you’ve moved cross-country or are gardening for the first time. Timing and varieties are so different from place to place.

Gardening is challenging for anyone, anywhere. Sometimes you have to make changes and adjust. Dennis revamped his entire garden and got great results. Read more about that here.

Mistake #2: Assuming the Critters Won’t Get In

Another mistake I made in Houston was assuming that property boundaries were inviolate. We had a nice privacy fence and no pets, so I didn’t plan for any kind of animal protection other than bird netting. I was pretty disappointed when neighborhood cats started using my garden as a litter box. Aside from the disgust factor, cat poop is also dangerous for pregnant women to handle due to some diseases they spread. And this was right in the middle of my childbearing years. 

We got some plastic sheeting from Home Depot and wrapped it around posts at the corners of the garden. It was only about two feet high, so it was still easy for me to step over. But, the cats must have disliked the smell because that stopped them.

Daisy knows all about the…

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EPIC, Coalition Call on Retailers to Ban Facial Recognition in Stores

facial recognition surveillance

EPIC, Coalition Call on Retailers to Ban Facial Recognition in Stores

EPIC and a coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups are calling for stores to stop using facial recognition technology. The new campaign tracks which major retailers use or are considering using facial recognition and aims to pressure these entities to stop. Corporate use of facial recognition is especially concerning because, according to Sen. Ron Wyden, government agencies are already buying surveillance information from corporations to evade warrant requirements. EPIC has joined a number of coalitions urging a ban on facial recognition including: an international letter opposing the technology, a statement of concerns on police use of FR, and EPIC’s Ban Face Surveillance campaign. EPIC recently endorsed legislation that would ban federal law enforcement use of facial recognition and pressure state law enforcement to do the same.

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EPIC, ACLU, & EFF Urge Court to Prohibit Wholesale Forensic Cell Phone Searches When Probable Cause is Limited

EPIC, ACLU, & EFF Urge Court to Prohibit Wholesale Forensic Cell Phone Searches When Probable Cause is Limited

EPIC has filed an amicus brief with the ACLU and EFF in United States v. Morton urging the full Fifth Circuit to prohibit invasive forensic searches of cell phones when law enforcement only has probable cause to search some of the data on the phone. In Morton, police obtained a warrant to search the defendant’s cell phone for evidence of an alleged drug crime, but instead conducted a forensic search of the phone’s full contents and uncovered evidence of an entirely unrelated crime. A Fifth Circuit panel ultimately found that the search violated the Fourth Amendment because it reached a type of data on the phone that was not likely to contain evidence of the specific crime being investigated. EPIC, ACLU, and EFF applauded the panel’s recognition that “the scope of cell phone searches must closely adhere to the probable cause showing, lest authority to search a device for evidence of one crime mutate into authority to search the entirety of the device for evidence of any crime—a prohibited general search.” The groups argued that, in an age when “Americans’ dependency on smartphones has, intentionally and inadvertently, resulted in our phones containing vast troves of our personal information, strict limits on searches and seizures are necessary to preserve privacy” and that technological and administrative convenience “is no justification for discarding the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause and particularity requirements.” EPIC regularly files amicus briefs challenging unconstitutionally broad cell phone searches, including forensic searches of entire cell phones.

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