Joseph Cox reports: The body tasked with oversight of the IRS announced in a letter that it will investigate the agency’s use of location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Motherboard. The move comes after Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren demanded a formal…
Category: Govt
Homeland Security Considered Snooping on Portland Protesters’ Cellphones
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports: Department of Homeland Security officers considered extracting data from cellphones seized from protesters in Portland, Ore., which would have been a remarkable violation of privacy and the right to peaceable assembly, House Democrats said Friday. Lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee called a hearing on Friday to examine the allegations of Brian Murphy, the…
Important Changes to HK Data Protection Law Under Way
Sharon Chen and Glenn Haley of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner have a series of articles concerning Hong Kong’s possible protection-strengthening amendments o the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (“PDPO”). They write: At present, the PDPO does not require data users to notify data breaches, either to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (“PCPD”) or to the…
Privacy of biometric data in DHS hands in doubt, inspector general says
Dean DeChiaro reports: An inspector general’s report is casting doubt on the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to protect its massive repository of personal data from hackers amid a push by the Trump administration to vastly expand its collection of biometrics through the use of facial recognition and other tools. The report, released by the…