Asha Barbaschow reports: A group of seven internet companies are vowing to stand up for the privacy of its users this week when the United States House of Representatives considers the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020. Mozilla, Engine, Reddit, Reform Government Surveillance, Twitter, i2Coalition, and Patreon have asked four US legislators to explicitly prohibit the…
Category: Featured News
Apple, Google Launch COVID-19 Exposure Notification Tool
Ben Kochman reports: Apple and Google released software Wednesday that could allow governments across the globe to help track the spread of COVID-19 with smartphone apps that would alert users who come in close contact with someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The tech giants’ digital tool, which has been embraced by state officials in Alabama,…
Seventh Circuit Issues Landmark Biometric Information Privacy Act Decision
Kari Rollins and David Poell of SheppardMullin write: The Seventh Circuit has recently ruled that plaintiffs have standing to enforce the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act’s informed consent requirements in federal court. As we have written before, , BIPA regulates the collection, use, and retention of a person’s biometric information, e.g., fingerprints, face scans, etc. For years, federal…
Turning Signal App into a Coarse Tracking Device
David Wells writes: Signal Private Messenger’s ease of use, multiplatform support, and end-to-end encryption for both text and calls have attracted millions of users per day. Even Edward Snowden, the well known American Whistleblower, claims “I use Signal every day.” So this month, when I disclosed a way to leak a user’s DNS server simply by…