Electronic Privacy Information Center
Recent News About Electronic Privacy Information Center
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The Virginia law received an F grade in a 2024 report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and US PIRG Education Fund due to its lack of substantial consumer protections.
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A wrongful death lawsuit against Disney has brought attention to the often-overlooked implications of clicking "I agree" on digital agreements. John Davisson, director of litigation at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, emphasized the challenges consumers face with these contracts.
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Your Social Security number is also mandatory for anything that triggers tax reporting, including your employer reporting your wages to the IRS, said Alan Butler, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit focused on defending privacy and identity rights.
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The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a think tank based in Washington, expressed significant concerns about the Worldcoin project last year. In a statement, Jake Wiener, the group's legal counsel, highlighted two primary issues. “Worldcoin’s approach creates serious privacy risks by bribing the poorest and most vulnerable people to turn over unchangeable biometrics like iris scans and facial recognition images in exchange for a small payout,” Wiener stated. He further noted, “Mass collections of biometrics like Worldcoin threaten people’s privacy on a grand scale, both...
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The nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center believes a proposed regulatory rule by an electric utility company could be unconstitutional. The rule would permit the utility to share private consumer information with law enforcement without "probable cause, warrant, or judicial review," according to Alan Butler, the group's executive director.
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The nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center has raised concerns about a regulatory proposal that would allow an electric utility to share private consumer information with law enforcement. Alan Butler, the group's executive director, stated that such a rule would be unconstitutional because it permits the provision of private information without "probable cause, no warrant, no judicial review."
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun implementing a new policy requiring passengers to have their photos taken before flying. Privacy advocates are raising concerns over this move, urging travelers to consider opting out.
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Provisions in the bill could limit how third-party companies advertise to anyone under 17. COPPA 2.0 includes a ban on so-called individual-specific targeted advertising to young users, forbidding companies from using certain personalized data, such as a person’s phone location or web-surfing history, to send tailored ads to most minors, said Suzanne Bernstein, a law fellow specializing in data protection and consumer privacy at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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A recent White House report has endorsed the use of open-source artificial intelligence (AI), drawing on feedback from a diverse range of stakeholders. These conclusions were informed by responses from government employees, industry leaders, and individuals to a Request for Comment on AI model issues.
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Meta has reached a $1.4 billion settlement with the state of Texas over privacy violations, The New York Times reported on July 30, 2024.
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Regulators are now faced with the decision of whether to accept arguments from tech firms that are training large language models on vast amounts of data.
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Kamala Harris, in her tenure as California’s attorney general, took significant steps to address data privacy violations. This was years before the state enacted one of the nation's most stringent consumer data protection laws. Harris established a Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit within her department, which garnered her commendation from privacy advocacy groups critical of Congress' inaction on privacy issues.
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AT&T has informed its customers of a recent data breach, highlighting ongoing challenges in protecting personal information. Data privacy laws currently exist in 19 states, covering at least 150 million Americans, though these laws vary significantly in scale and scope. Federal regulations address specific areas of privacy, such as medical data or information about children, and agencies like the FCC regulate telecommunications. However, there is no comprehensive federal data privacy law.
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Tom McBrien, counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a non-profit research agency focused on protecting privacy rights, discussed the implications of AI-generated content on social media and its protection under free speech laws.
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Statehouses nationwide have introduced laws to regulate AI, which are now so plentiful that the Electronic Privacy Information Center has introduced a scorecard for AI legislation. In Rhode Island, Senator Lou DiPalma and Representative Jacquelyn Baginski both introduced AI-related legislation during the 2024 session, and both sit on the AI task force as ex officio members.
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Public interest groups have raised concerns that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could be taking further steps to address data privacy issues.
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Chris Frascella, counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, highlighted that cell site ID numbers can be used to deduce approximate locations, potentially revealing sensitive information. For instance, if an individual made a call near a protest, this could be inferred from the data. It remains unclear whether individuals who are not AT&T customers but received calls from those within the breached data set would be affected by approximate location metadata.
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On July 11, 2024, a warning was issued regarding the prevalence of scam calls. While it is possible that an unknown number on your phone could be legitimate, there is also a significant chance that it may be a scammer. Phone scammers have successfully defrauded people out of substantial amounts of money.
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Jain stated that, at face value, the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA) requires tech companies to collect no data for the purposes of age estimation—referred to as "age assurance"—beyond what they already do. This is in contrast to traditional age verification methods, which might require users to upload identification to verify their age before entering a site.
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The recent overturning of Chevron has raised significant concerns about the future regulatory landscape for emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). John Davisson, director of litigation and senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, described the decision as “a calculated blow to the power of federal agencies to protect the public from harms posed by emerging technologies, including AI.”