Electronic Privacy Information Center - EPIC

1. Updated EPIC Resources Highlight Data Broker Harms to Different Communities 

   EPIC published updates to a series of one-pagers highlighting how data brokers harm national security, domestic violence survivors, immigrants, and public officials.

2. EPIC-led Coalition Denounces DHS’s Use of Information System to Enable Voter Roll Purges, Demands Immediate Reversal of Changes 

   A coalition of 16 organizations led by EPIC submitted comments this week to the Department of Homeland Security denouncing DHS’s unlawful capture and use of sensitive social security information to enable voter roll purges and demanding that DHS reverse course immediately.  

3. EPIC Recommends Strengthening Privacy- and Speech-Protective Age Assurance Principles in Comments to New York Attorney General

   EPIC offered recommendations to further strengthen privacy- and speech-protective age principles in the rules that would make the law’s protections more effective.

4. Cronkite News: Kelly bill would allow lawsuits over social media algorithms that promote violence, extremism 

   “AI systems are making decisions that are impacting people’s lives with little to no transparency about how those decisions are made, or accountability,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.  “We are playing catch-up,” she said. “We didn’t have the rules of the road in place that would have in any … Continued

5. National Conference of State Legislatures: Consumers Want More Control Over Targeted Ads, Sale of Their Data 

   Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director and policy director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says there are several categories of sensitive consumer data. She says websites often track a user’s demographic information, geolocation, whether the user is a child, health or financial history, and even genetic information.  Fitzgerald says business entities called controllers oversee the collection and … Continued

6. POLITICO: A bump on the road to OpenAI’s super app 

   “We saw this back when Facebook wanted to launch its own currency,” said Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy and policy director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Indeed, Facebook became weighed down with questions from Congress about pilot testing and financial stability when it tried to launch its Diem currency. “There are a lot more hurdles if you’re trying to create … Continued

7. Milwaukee Independent: ICE’S plan to monitor social media around the clock will turn everyday speech into political surveillance 

   ICE’s request for information is likely to evolve into a full procurement contract within months, and recent litigation from the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center against the Department of Homeland Security suggests that the oversight is likely to lag far behind the technology.  Read more here.

8. Enlance Latino NC: DHS wants access to driver’s license data: What does this mean for Latino and immigrant communities? 

   Organizations such as the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center warn that this movement could become the largest citizenship database in the country’s history, built without robust public oversight.  Read more here.

9. TechFinitive: EC’s plan to reform AI and GDPR rules have experts seriously concerned 

   “Legitimate interest has been the squishiest legal justification in EU law for a while,” Calli Schroeder, Global Privacy Counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told us.  “There is some enforcement precedent stopping the more egregious misuses and we can highlight that as precedent, but AI companies will likely argue that their use is different than … Continued

10. EPIC, Coalition Call on ICE To End Its Use of Facial Recognition in the Field

    In a letter directed to the Chief Privacy Officer for DHS, an EPIC-lead coalition argued that ICE’s use of facial recognition in the field through the Mobile Fortify App is reckless and should cease immediately.