Press release from Senator Patrick Leahy: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Monday introduced legislation that would add important reforms and improve certain provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and FISA Amendments Act. The FISA Accountability and Privacy Protection Act of 2013 will bolster existing privacy safeguards and require greater oversight, transparency, and…
Month: June 2013
SCOTUS denies cert in Skinner
The Supreme Court today denied a writ of certiorari in Skinner v. United States. In that case (mentioned here and here), the Sixth Circuit issued an unfortunate opinion that essentially means there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in cell phone location data. As Orin Kerr commented last year, the facts of the case were…
OECD complaint filed by human rights groups against British surveillance company moves forward
From Privacy International: A complaint filed with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against Gamma International, a UK-based company accused of selling surveillance spyware for governments, will proceed and has been accepted for consideration, the UK National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD announced. The decision by the NCP is instrumental in the ongoing campaign…
Sen. Paul Introduces National ID Card Amendment
In case you missed Senator Rand Paul’s press release last week (as I had): Sen. Rand Paul today announced the introduction of theProtect Our Privacy Act as amendment to the Senate’s Immigration Reform Bill. This amendment would prohibit the issuance of a national identification card system. In the wake of the IRS scandal and NSA wiretapping revelations,…