Alexei Alexis reports: Outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill said she hopes the agency will rethink its stance on e-mail privacy proposals before Congress. The FTC issued a statement in September objecting to proposals that would overhaul the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Proposed changes would make it more difficult for law enforcers across the federal…
Category: Govt
DOJ has successfully accessed Farook’s iPhone without Apple’s assistance (updated)
So it seems the government was able to get into San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook’s iPhone without Apple’s assistance, and has now moved to vacate the order compelling Apple’s assistance. So now what happens to all the District Attorneys around the country who have iPhones they can’t crack? Will DOJ share the method with them? Or will they…
Article: Hoofnagle on Assessing the FTC’s Privacy Assessments
Public Citizen helpfully noted a recent article by Chris Hoofnagle: Assessing the Federal Trade Commission’s Privacy Assessments, 14(2) IEEE Security & Privacy 58–64 (Mar/Apr. 2016). Here is the abstract: Consumer protection regulators worldwide share basic problems: the companies that regulators police are so powerful and rich that fines do not matter. Consider the French with their €150,000…
Law enforcement seeks out private DNA databases
From the is-anyone-really-shocked-by-this dept. Paul Elias reports: Investigators are broadening their DNA searches beyond government databases and demanding genetic information from companies that do ancestry research for customers. Two major companies that research family lineage for fees around $200 say that over the last two years, they have received law enforcement demands for genetic information…