Tag: privacy

House Subcommittee Hearing on Data Privacy and Promoting Innovation and Liberty

The Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce holds a hearing at 8:30 a.m. ET on March 1 to receive testimony about “Promoting U.S. Innovation and Individual Liberty through a National Standard for Data Privacy.” Center for Democracy and Technology President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens; founder…


Deeper Meaning in South Park’s Ex-Royal Takedown

Commentary South Park’s epic takedown of Harry and Meghan is a welcome relief after three years of the couple’s insufferable exploits during which these privileged two conspire with an adoring media to trash as many old-world values as possible while promoting every superficial cause. If there were a king and queen of the next new…


3 Years’ Delay to Rein In TikTok

Commentary The drumbeat regarding national security risks posed by TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese big-tech firm ByteDance, has reached a fever pitch. After recently blocking it from federal government devices, Congress might now seek an outright national ban of the app. Given the failure of a prior attempted ban due to…


The Biomedical Security State, British Edition

Commentary First, by way of contextual backdrop, let me offer a quick recap of some relevant developments, which I describe in more detail in “The New Abnormal”: November 2021: As reported by the New York Times, the Israeli government issued emergency pandemic legislation permitting Shin Bet (their equivalent of the CIA), to access mobile phones and extract track…


Meta’s WhatsApp Fined 5.5 Million Euro by Lead EU Privacy Regulator

DUBLIN—Meta’s WhatsApp subsidiary was fined 5.5 million euros ($5.95 million) on Thursday by Ireland’s Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC), its lead EU privacy regulator, for an additional breach of the bloc’s privacy laws. The DPC also told WhatsApp to reassess how it uses personal data for service improvements following a similar order it issued this month…


‘Fortnite’ Maker Epic Games Fined $520 Million Over Claims It Violated Children’s Privacy, Collected Personal Data

Epic Games, developer of the popular online video game Fortnite, has agreed to pay $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle allegations surrounding alleged violations of children’s privacy and the use of design tricks to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the fines, the largest…


Google Must Delete Search Result Data at Users’ Request If ‘Manifestly Inaccurate’: EU Court

Privacy advocates have scored a win against Big Tech in a “right to be forgotten” case as the European Union’s top court has ruled that Google must honor requests to delete search result data at the request of people in Europe—as long as they can prove the information is “manifestly inaccurate.” The Court of Justice…


Tax Filing Websites Might Have Given Facebook Your Financial Information: Report

Several prominent online tax filing websites have reportedly been sending Americans’ private financial information to Facebook, even in cases where users did not have an account on the platform, according to a jointly published report by The Verge and nonprofit the Markup. The companies, which included H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, utilized a code snippet…


What, You Don’t Want a Surveillance Tool in Your Home?

Commentary Amazon has just announced a dramatic cutback in its division that develops Alexa, that space-age box in your home with whom you can have long conversations but assures us that she is not spying on us. And the data she collects is super secure and would never be shared with government. Right. It turns…


Pennsylvania Governor-Elect Shapiro Seeking Staff for New Administration

Pennsylvania Governor-Elect Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Austin Davis are now hiring for their new administration. The Democrat duo unveiled a website on Wednesday for Pennsylvanians to apply for one of the state jobs that they must fill. “We are going to assemble a talented, hardworking, capable administration: one that looks like Pennsylvania and is…