“Tech’s liability shield becomes trade-deal flashpoint“ – Axios. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced her late opposition to including language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) of language granting liability protection for social media platforms akin to Section 230. Pelosi echoed House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Ranking Member Greg … Continue reading Further Reading (December 17)
The majority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee circulated the “United States Consumer Data Privacy Act of 2019” (CDPA), a draft data privacy bill days after Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and her cosponsors released the “Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act“ (COPRA) (S.2968) (See here for more analysis). Of course, these competing proposals came before … Continue reading Privacy Bill A Week: United States Consumer Data Privacy Act of 2019
A bit of a deviation here from the usual fare. The Washington Post has begun to publish a series of blockbuster articles on the interviews and materials it has obtained from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), showing that U.S. officials knew very early that operations in Afghanistan were not … Continue reading Much Of The Post’s Afghanistan Scoop Was In Plain Sight
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB or Board), an entity consisting of the European Union’s (EU) data protection authorities, has released its annual assessment of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and again finds both the agreement itself and implementation wanting. There was some overlap between the concerns of the EDPB and the the European Commission (EC) … Continue reading EDPB Details Ongoing Concerns About EU-U.S. Privacy Shield
“Big Tech’s Big Defector“ – The New Yorker. Roger McNamee was one of the pioneer investors in Silicon Valley, including companies like Facebook, and now condemns many of the data privacy practices the largest technology engage in. This article surveys a number of possible remedies, including banning transfers of data to third parties, imposing a … Continue reading Further Reading (December 8)
Yesterday, we posted the political backdrop for the introduction of the “Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act“ (COPRA). Today, let's turn to the substance of the bill. Under COPRA, entities covered by the new requirements is a broad class simply defined as those already subject to the FTC Act and “process[] or transfer[] covered data.” The … Continue reading Privacy Bill A Week: Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act
The last bill we examined on privacy and data security was Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA) the “Online Privacy Act of 2019” (H.R. 4978), a long, comprehensive bill that has little chance of being enacted as it is. Another such bill has been introduced by Senate Democratic stakeholders that takes a comprehensive … Continue reading Senate Commerce Democrats Unveil Privacy Bill
A U.S. District Court held that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) current practices for searches of smartphones and computers at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and the agency must have reasonable suspicion before conducting such a search. However, the Court declined the plaintiffs’ request that the information … Continue reading Federal Court Rules Against Suspicionless Searches At Border and In Airports
The House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law Subcommittee continued its series of hearings titled “Online Platforms and Market Power” with an examination of the agencies charged with enforcing federal antitrust laws: the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline (D-RI) said the U.S. is experiencing a … Continue reading House Judiciary Committee Continues Its Antitrust Examination
“Meet The Immigrants Who Took On Amazon” – Wired. This article traces a burgeoning movement of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Minneapolis-St. Paul comprised largely of Somali immigrants to win some concessions from management. The article also traces Amazon’s view on unionizing (not surprisingly, it’s not favorable) and its employment practices. Whether the … Continue reading Further Reading (23 November)
Michael Kans 