Now that Apple and Google have released their Exposure Notifications API and numerous nations around the world are adopting or adapting it in order to trace exposure of COVID-19, numerous concerns and questions about privacy and data security have been raised about this new form of mass surveillance. Even before the development of this API, … Continue reading Privacy Legislation in the Time of Pandemics
Key Republican stakeholders on privacy legislation float a bill on COVID-19 relating to privacy that seems unlikely to garner the necessary Democratic buy-in to advance. Late last week, key Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation announced they would introduce the “COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act” that provide new privacy and data security … Continue reading Senate Commerce Republicans Vow To Introduce Privacy Bill To Govern COVID-19 Apps and Tech
Through the issuance of a press release, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra answered the calls for delaying enforcement of the “California Consumer Privacy Act” (CCPA) (AB 375), by “reminding consumers of their data privacy rights amidst the COVID-19 public health emergency.” Last month, some industry stakeholders pressured Becerra to delay enforcement of the CCPA because … Continue reading Becerra Deflects Calls To Delay Implementation of CCPA
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Defense (DOD) has failed to fully implement three separate initiatives to instill better cyber hygiene across the Pentagon and its component agencies. This report necessarily throws into question how well the DOD can ride herd on its component agencies and service branches to force the … Continue reading GAO Finds DOD Failed To Follow Through On Its Cyber Hygiene Initiatives
Every week, not surprisingly, there are more developments in the technology space than I can reasonably get to. And so, this week, at least, I’ve decided to include some of the odds and ends. To no great surprise, federal and state elected officials have been questioning Zoom on its security and privacy practices and demanding … Continue reading Odds and Ends (14 April)
First things first, if you would like to receive my Technology Policy Update, email me. You can find some of these Updates from 2019 here. The California Attorney General's Office (OAG) has released a third iteration of draft regulations to implement the "California Consumer Privacy Act" (CCPA) (AB 375) and is accepting comments by email … Continue reading Third Set of Draft CCPA Regulations Released For Comment
First things first, if you would like to receive my Technology Policy Update, email me. You can find some of these Updates from 2019 here. Last week, the Washington State Senate and House failed to reach agreement on a final version of the "Washington privacy act" (SB 6281) (See here for detailed analysis of the … Continue reading Washington State Privacy Act Dies For Second Straight Year
House Democrats and Republicans have reached a deal on a bill to reauthorize what the Intelligence Community (IC) and Trump Administration have characterized as essential surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before they expire on March 15. The "USA FREEDOM Act Reauthorization of 2020" (H.R. 6172) was unveiled yesterday and reported out … Continue reading FISA Expiration Approaching; House To Vote Today On New Bill
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued an order to a number of large technology companies with an eye towards determining if the current threshold for federal examination of mergers and acquisitions is too high for a number of technology-related acquisitions. However, larger acquisitions above the threshold of about $90 million are not part of … Continue reading FTC Demands Ten Years of Information From Big Tech On Mergers and Acquisitions
Another Senate Democrat has introduced a privacy and data security bill. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's "Data Protection Act of 2020" (S. 3300) would create a federal data protection authority along the lines of the agencies each European Union member nation has. This new agency would be the primary federal regulator of privacy laws, including a number … Continue reading Democrat Proposes Creating Data Protection Authority To Address Privacy
Michael Kans 