James Yoon of Covington and Burling writes: On November 26, 2019, a group of Democratic senators introduced the Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA). This comprehensive privacy bill—sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Ed Markey (D-MA)—would grant individuals broad control over their data, impose new obligations on data processing, and…
Category: Featured News
NY: For now, Lockport wants its facial-recognition security system to just watch for guns
Thomas J. Prohaska reports: Lacking permission to use its 300 digital cameras for facial recognition, officials at the Lockport City School District came up with another idea: Use the cameras to look for guns instead. That was their plan for this Monday, when the system was to be switched on at the district’s schools. But…
“Like Horoscope Readings!”: The Scammy World of DNA Test Startups
Dan Robitzski names a number of DNA testing firms and outlines how questionable their results are, writing, in part: The problem, according to experts, is that these companies are promising information about DNA with a granularity that even scientists can’t deliver. Deanna Church, a geneticist at the biotech company Inscripta, told Futurism the tests are “all…
A single, mysterious server exposed 1.2 billion user records
Cory Doctorow talks common sense about privacy in describing a huge data leak whose immediate owner is as yet unknown. Cory writes, in part: The brokers don’t think they were breached. PDL founder Sean Thorne hypothesized that some of the data his company nonconsensually gathered on 1.5 billion people was sold to a normal customer…