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October 2020 Archives

October 1, 2020

TikTok Says Privacy 'Will Remain a Priority' in Oracle Deal, But Stops Short of EPIC's Full Demands

TikTok, responding to a recent letter from EPIC, said that user privacy "will remain a priority for TikTok" if and when a deal with Oracle is finalized—but stopped short of agreeing to EPIC's full demands. Last month, after Oracle reached a tentative agreement to serve as TikTok's U.S. partner and "independently process TikTok's U.S. data," EPIC sent letters to both companies warning them of their legal obligation to protect the privacy of TikTok users. The deal would pair one of the largest brokers of personal data with a social network of 800 million users, posing grave privacy and legal risks. Although TikTok responded that it was "committed to helping ensure that any transfer and processing of personal data . . . complies with applicable law" and the company's privacy policies, TikTok did not agree to other EPIC demands, including a commitment not to merge user data with Oracle products. EPIC's letter warned Oracle and TikTok that unless they "adequately protect the privacy of TikTok users," EPIC intends to bring a lawsuit against both companies under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act. EPIC previously used the same law to force AccuWeather to stop deceptively gathering users' location data. EPIC and a coalition of consumer groups recently filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint against TikTok for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 1, 2020 9:06 AM |

Facebook Integrates Instagram and Messenger

Facebook has announced the integration of Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Early last year, Facebook had released plans to integrate WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, breaking the promises Facebook made when it acquired WhatsApp. After yesterday's announcement, Facebook declined to give a timeline for when WhatsApp integration would occur. In 2014, EPIC and the Center for Digital Democracy warned the FTC that Facebook incorporates user data from companies it acquires, and that WhatsApp users objected to the acquisition. The FTC responded to EPIC and CDD and told Facebook and WhatsApp that "if the acquisition is completed and WhatsApp fails to honor these promises, both companies could be in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and potentially the FTC's order against Facebook." The FTC letter noted that "hundreds of millions of users have entrusted their personal information to WhatsApp. The FTC staff continue to monitor the companies' practices to ensure that Facebook and WhatsApp honor the promises they have made to those users." Today, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on proposals to strengthen antitrust laws and restore competition. EPIC has told the Committee that merger review must consider data protection.

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Posted by Caitriona Fitzgerald on October 1, 2020 10:40 AM |

EPIC Urges DHS to Extend Comment Period on Massive Expansion of Biometric Data Collection

In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC urged DHS to provide the standard 60-day comment period for a notice of proposed rulemaking authorizing DHS to expand its biometric data collection practices. DHS would be able to collect finger/palm prints, images for facial recognition, DNA, iris images, and voiceprints from a broad swath of the population, including millions of citizens. The proposed rule would subject immigrants to "continuous vetting" surveillance up-to and even past the time they obtain citizenship. In 2018 EPIC urged CBP to suspend its biometric entry/exit program. EPIC currently leads a campaign to Ban Face Surveillance.

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Posted by EPIC on October 1, 2020 11:10 AM |

EPIC Urges AI Commission to Recommend Robust AI Regulation, Prioritize Protection of Rights

In comments to the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, EPIC called on the Commission to "advise Congress, as the nation's highest policymaking authority, to establish government-wide principles and safeguards for the use and development of AI." EPIC also urged the Commission to rely on the Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence and the OECD AI Principles as a foundation for AI policymaking. The Commission is due to submit a final report to Congress with recommendations for AI policy by March 2021. EPIC successfully sued the AI Commission in order to enforce its transparency obligations, resulting in multiple public Commission meetings and the disclosure of thousands of pages of records. The Commission is set to hold a virtual public meeting on October 8, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 1, 2020 11:37 AM |

October 2, 2020

In Letter to EPIC, Oracle Denies it Exploits Personal Data, Calls Privacy Risks to TikTok Users 'Very Theoretical'

Oracle, responding to a recent demand letter from EPIC, insisted that there is "no discernable basis" to believe that its pending partnership with TikTok threatens the privacy of TikTok users. Calling the privacy risks that EPIC identified "very theoretical," Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley charged that EPIC has "confused [Oracle] with large consumer-facing tech platforms that make their billions on advertising by exploiting the personal data of their users." However, the reliance of Oracle's business model on the exploitation of personal data is well documented, including in an exhaustive 2018 complaint from Privacy International that lays out the privacy harms caused by Oracle Data Cloud. As Oracle has itself acknowledged, "Oracle Data Cloud aggregates, analyzes, and activates consumer data, enabling marketers to connect to customers and prospects . . . target the right consumers, [and] personalize their experience." EPIC's letters to Oracle and TikTok warned that unless they "adequately protect the privacy of TikTok users," EPIC intends to bring a lawsuit against both companies under the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act. EPIC previously used the same law to force AccuWeather to stop deceptively gathering users' location data. In a separate response to EPIC, TikTok said that user privacy "will remain a priority for TikTok" if and when a deal with Oracle is finalized—but stopped short of agreeing to EPIC's full demands.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 2, 2020 2:17 PM |

October 5, 2020

EPIC Advises Consumer Watchdog to Regulate Lender Use of Machine Learning

In comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, EPIC urged the agency to issue regulations that ensure borrowers are protected under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B when lenders use AI/Machine Learning systems to make lending decisions. EPIC specifically recommended that the agency rely on the Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence, the OECD AI Principles, and scientific expertise in establishing regulatory guidance that requires explainability, transparency, and mitigation of bias in these systems. EPIC recommends agencies Government-wide enact similar regulations, and have urged Congress to enact federal baseline requirements about government use of AI and consumer privacy.

Posted by Ben Winters on October 5, 2020 1:04 PM |

October 6, 2020

House Judiciary Committee Reports on Competition in Digital Markets

The House Judiciary Committee has released its report following a years-long investigation of competition in digital markets. "[O]nline platforms’ dominance carries significant costs. It has diminished consumer choice, eroded innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. economy, weakened the vibrancy of the free and diverse press, and undermined Americans’ privacy," the Majority Staff report states. The Committee also found that the Federal Trade Commission had neglected to use the antitrust authorities granted to the agency by Congress. "In its first hundred years, the FTC promulgated only one rule defining an "unfair method of competition," the report notes. EPIC had previously told the Committee that merger review must consider data protection. "The United States stands virtually alone in its unwillingness to address privacy as an increasingly important dimension of competition in the digital marketplace," EPIC said. The Committee report makes numerous recommendations, including "structural separations and prohibitions of certain dominant platforms from operating in adjacent lines of business."

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Posted by Caitriona Fitzgerald on October 6, 2020 4:51 PM |

October 13, 2020

Georgia Court Denies Motion to Require Hand-Marked Paper Ballots

A federal court in Georgia has ruled against plaintiffs who had brought suit in an effort to force Georgia election officials to use hand-marked paper ballots instead of its new electronic voting machines in the November election. But Judge Amy Totenberg said the State must tackle the cybersecurity issues presented by electronic voting machines. In an amicus brief in the case, EPIC had asked the court to protect the secret ballot. EPIC wrote in the amicus that "the right to cast a secret ballot in a public election is a core value in the United States." It was the second amicus brief EPIC has submitted in the case, Curling v. Raffensperger. In the earlier amicus brief, EPIC urged the court to stop Georgia's use of Direct Recording Electronic voting machine, which EPIC explained were unreliable and easily hacked. The court ruled that Georgia must replace those voting machines before the 2020 election.

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Posted by Caitriona Fitzgerald on October 13, 2020 3:29 PM |

October 14, 2020

EPIC Opposes DHS's Plans to Broadly Expand Biometric Collection

In comments to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, EPIC urged the agency to rescind a proposed rule to broadly permit DHS to collect biometric from immigrants, their families, and associates. DHS's rule would enable the collection of palm prints, iris images, voiceprints, DNA, and images for facial recognition. EPIC argued that DHS's broad authorization of biometric collection was incompatible with the department's Fair Information Practice Principles. EPIC also specifically called on the agency to suspend the use of facial recognition technology. EPIC previously urged DHS to extend the comment period on this NPRM from 30 days to a standard 60-days for major rulemakings. EPIC consistently opposes biometric collection at DHS. In April EPIC urged DHS to narrow both the use and Privacy Act exemptions for its Insider Threat Database linking biometrics to personal information. Earlier this year, EPIC, joined by over 40 organizations called for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to recommend the suspension of face surveillance systems across the federal government.

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Posted by EPIC on October 14, 2020 1:50 PM |

EPIC Analysis: Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett's Record on Privacy

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has a mixed record on Fourth Amendment and Article III standing issues but an alarming view of the federal statute that protects consumers from robocalls, according to an EPIC analysis of Judge Barrett's past writings. Barrett—a judge on the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals—has twice ruled that evidence should be excluded from a criminal case because police had violated the Fourth Amendment: once because officers stopped a car on an unreliable tip and once because officers did not obtain valid consent to search an apartment. But Judge Barrett also stated that the exclusionary rule is "strictly limited," refusing to suppress evidence collected through a warrantless border search of traveler's cell phone and obtained on the basis of an overbroad warrant. In Gadelhak v. AT&T Services—a case in which EPIC filed an amicus brief—Judge Barrett interpreted the federal robocall statute narrowly, allowing companies to use many types of autodialing equipment without penalty. If Judge Barrett is confirmed to the Court before the end of November, she will hear Facebook v. Duguid, a similar case that concerns the federal robocall ban. Judge Barrett's record on Article III standing—a doctrine that affects the right of consumers to bring suit for privacy violations—is somewhat better. Although Judge Barrett has twice ruled that consumers lacked standing, she has also underscored that standing is separate from the merits of a plaintiff's claims and ruled in Gadelhak that invasive robocalls provide a valid basis for suit. EPIC regularly reviews the privacy records of Supreme Court nominees, including Justice Kavanaugh, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kagan, Justice Sotomayor, Justice Alito, and Chief Justice Roberts.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 14, 2020 2:25 PM |

October 15, 2020

EPIC Publishes Analysis of California's Proposition 24

EPIC has published an analysis of Proposition 24 in California, the California Privacy Rights Act. In 2018, the State of California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ("CCPA"), the first comprehensive consumer privacy law enacted in the United States. This year, Californians will once again play a role in determining the direction of privacy law in the United States. A new ballot initiative, California Proposition 24: The California Private Rights Act of 2020, which will be on the November election ballot, would significantly change the CCPA. EPIC is not taking a position for or against Proposition 24, but provides this resource to help voters understand the initiative. EPIC has also published a resourceto help California residents exercise their rights under the CCPA.

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Posted by Caitriona Fitzgerald on October 15, 2020 9:46 AM |

October 16, 2020

EPIC v. DOJ: Court Demands Trump's Position on Release of Unredacted Mueller Report

A federal court ordered the Department of Justice today to determine President Trump's position on releasing the complete, unredacted Mueller Report. The President recently tweeted that he has "fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents" pertaining to the Russia investigation with "[n]o redactions!" During a hearing this morning in EPIC's and BuzzFeed's joint cases for disclosure of the complete Mueller Report, Judge Reggie B. Walton rejected the DOJ's claim that the White House did not actually intend to declassify any information via the President's tweets. "It's not the White House that declassifies information, it's the President," Walton said. Judge Walton ordered the DOJ to provide a sworn statement by Tuesday from someone "who has conferred directly with the President" as to whether the entire Mueller Report should be released. Walton has already ordered the DOJ to provide EPIC with extensive new material from the Report by November 2, in addition to the material previously disclosed as a result of EPIC's case. EPIC's Freedom of Information Act suit—the first in the nation for the disclosure of the Mueller Report—is EPIC v. DOJ, No. 19-810.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 16, 2020 2:33 PM |

October 19, 2020

EPIC Urges Massachusetts Supreme Court to Reject the Third Party Doctrine for Electronic Data Collected for a Service

EPIC has filed an amicus brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court urging the court to reject the decades-old third-party doctrine, which allows the government to access electronic data collected by third parties without a warrant. In Commonwealth v. Zachery, the court will decide whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data collected by transit authorities through their public transportation card. EPIC notes that individuals today are "largely unaware of the volume and sensitivity of data collected about them" by digital services that have become necessary in today's world. Although people may recognize that third parties collect their data to an extent, "they expect their data to be used only for the limited purposes associated with that service." EPIC argues that the third-party doctrine is a relic of the past that is at odds with modern technologies and urges the court to replace the doctrine with an approach based on modern privacy law principles. EPIC has previously argued against the continued use of the third-party doctrine in constitutional privacy analysis.

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Posted by Melodi Dincer on October 19, 2020 9:18 AM |

October 20, 2020

Department of Justice Files Antitrust Suit Against Google

The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust case against Google in federal court, alleging violations of anti-monopoly laws in the search and advertising markets. EPIC has long warned regulators about the harmful privacy consequences of market consolidation by Google and other technology firms. More than a decade ago, EPIC urged the FTC to block Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. EPIC said that the acquisition would enable Google to collect the personal information of billions of users and track their browsing activities across the web. EPIC correctly warned that this acquisition would accelerate Google’s dominance of the online advertising industry and diminish competition. The FTC ultimately allowed the merger to go forward. EPIC has since repeatedly warned the FTC that other mergers posed similar risks to consumer privacy and competition. In 2011, EPIC warned the FTC that Google’s dominance in the internet search marketplace was allowing it to preference its own content in search results. Today Google occupies 92% of the search market worldwide.

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Posted by Caitriona Fitzgerald on October 20, 2020 10:14 AM |

October 23, 2020

EPIC Urges Supreme Court to Preserve Essential Robocall Protections

EPIC has filed an amicus brief in Facebook v. Duguid urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the broad federal ban on robocalls to cell phones. After being sued for sending automated texts to a non-user, Facebook has argued that the federal ban on automated dialing systems—or “autodialers”—only covers a small subset of the systems currently in use. EPIC’s brief states that Facebook’s interpretation “is completely unmoored from the structure and purpose of the law.” EPIC argues that “Congress was concerned above all else with protecting the privacy of cell phone users from the scourge of robocalls” and “narrowing the autodialer definition would not protect privacy.” Instead, the brief continues, “it would put the most widely used mass dialing systems outside the scope of the” ban, and “nearly every American will be the target of an unending telemarketing campaign.” EPIC previously filed an amicus brief in Gadelhak v. AT&T Services, where the Seventh Circuit decided the same question. EPIC routinely files amicus briefs on the federal anti-robocall law, including the recently decided Supreme Court case, Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants.

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Posted by Megan Iorio on October 23, 2020 1:41 PM |

October 26, 2020

EPIC Seeks Documents About ICE's Use of Clearview, Other Facial Recognition Services

EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. EPIC challenged Immigration and Customs Enforcement's failure to respond to two Freedom of Information Act requests. The first request sought information on ICE's use of Clearview AI's facial recognition technology. The second request focused on the agency's broader use of facial recognition services and requested commercial contracts, training materials, audits, and agreements with other law enforcement agencies concerning the use of facial recognition services. EPIC previously obtained documents in a FOIA lawsuit against CBP pertaining to CBP's use of facial recognition at airports. EPIC currently has a FOIA lawsuit against the State Department to obtain the agreements the agency has with other entities to access its massive facial recognition database.

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Posted by EPIC on October 26, 2020 5:15 PM |

October 27, 2020

EPIC, Coalition Urge University of Miami to Ban Face Surveillance

EPIC joined over 20 consumer, privacy, civil liberties, and student organizations to call on the University of Miami to ban the use of facial recognition technology. The coalition letter comes after reports the University used facial recognition to identify student protesters. The coalition argued that "facial recognition technology is invasive and ineffective." EPIC has launched a campaign to Ban Face Surveillance and through the Public Voice coalition gathered the support of over 100 organizations and many leading experts across 30 plus countries. Earlier this year, an EPIC-led coalition called on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to recommend the suspension of face surveillance systems across the federal government.

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Posted by EPIC on October 27, 2020 10:45 AM |

EPIC Urges DHS Advisory Committee to Investigate Fusion Centers

EPIC Law Fellow, Jake Wiener, spoke at the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee's public meeting today and urged the Committee to investigate rampant privacy and civil liberties violations by fusion centers. Fusion centers are centralized systems that pool and analyze intelligence from federal, state, local, and private sector entities. Addressing the Committee's new tasking, Mr. Wiener directed the Committee's attention to recent reports of protest monitoring and ineffective privacy oversight. He urged the Committee to recommend a ban on the use of facial recognition technology at fusion centers and to consider whether funding of fusion centers is justified in light of the privacy and civil liberties harms the centers create. EPIC previously urged the Advisory Committee to recommend that Customs and Border Protection halt the use of facial recognition.

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Posted by EPIC on October 27, 2020 12:20 PM |

Consumer Groups Urge Limits to FCC Robocall Exemptions

EPIC has joined the National Consumer Law Center and other consumer groups in recommending limits to FCC exemptions to the broad federal ban on robocalls. Under the TRACED Act, which Congress passed last year, the FCC is required to specify certain limits to new and existing exemptions to the robocall ban, including the number of calls that can be made under each exemption. The consumer groups recommend that the FCC place strict limits on the most intrusive calls, such as those made to collect a debt. Last week, EPIC filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to preserve the broad ban on robocalls. EPIC has done extensive work on the federal anti-robocall law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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Posted by Megan Iorio on October 27, 2020 1:01 PM |

October 29, 2020

Court Blocks Rule That Would Okay Algorithmic Housing Decisions, Limit Discrimination Claims

A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked a federal regulation that would have made it significantly harder to sue landlords and lenders for housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. The rule created a defense to any disparate impact claim in which a "predictive analysis" tool was used to make a housing decision, so long as that tool "accurately assessed risk" or was not "overly restrictive on a protected class." The court ruled that this regulation would "run the risk of effectively neutering disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act." In 2019, EPIC and others warned the federal housing agency that sanctioning the use of algorithms for housing decisions would exacerbate discrimination unless the agency imposed transparency, accountability, and data protection requirements. The Alliance for Housing Justice called the rule "a vague, ambiguous exemption for predictive models that appears to confuse the concepts of disparate impact and intentional discrimination." EPIC has called for greater accountability in the use of automated decision-making systems, including the adoption of the Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence and requirements for algorithmic transparency.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 29, 2020 12:40 PM |

October 21, 2020

White House: President Didn't Actually Mean to Declassify Mueller Documents

In a filing from EPIC's and BuzzFeed's joint cases for disclosure of the complete Mueller Report, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows asserted that President Trump didn't actually mean to declassify any records when he tweeted that he had "fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents" pertaining to the Russia investigation. According to Meadows, Trump informed him that his "statements on Twitter were not self-executing declassification orders[.]" The filing came in response to an order from Judge Reggie B. Walton, who had previously rejected the DOJ's argument—made without consulting the President directly—that Trump did not intend any new releases of records. On Wednesday, Walton accepted Meadows' supplemental statements and declined to order the disclosure of any classified material. But Walton has already ordered the DOJ to provide EPIC with extensive new material from the Report by November 2, in addition to the material previously disclosed as a result of EPIC's case. EPIC's Freedom of Information Act suit—the first in the nation for the disclosure of the Mueller Report—is EPIC v. DOJ, No. 19-810.

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Posted by John Davisson on October 21, 2020 3:50 PM |

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About October 2020

This page contains all entries posted to epic.org in October 2020. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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